Grown in Italy: The push for local raw materials

The coveted ‘Made in Italy’ label faces increasing scrutiny and existential challenges, from supply chain scrutiny and evolving EU regulations to climate change and threats to heritage craft. This article is part of a new series where we unpack what these pressures mean for the future, and sustainability, of luxury fashion. Read more here. In early October, I spent two weeks touring more than 25 fashion and textile suppliers across Italy. Every single one beamed with pride as they claimed the ‘Made in Italy’ label. The elephant in the room? They are heavily reliant on raw materials from other countries. But there is a growing movement in favour of changing this. Fashion is an industry built on long and complex global supply chains. Take cotton: according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), Italy was the eighth largest importer globally in 2022, purchasing from Türkiye, Pakistan, China, Egypt and India. Similarly, Italy imports most of its cashmere from China and Mongolia, wool from the US, Australia and New Zealand, and silk from China, Romania and France. Other raw materials, such as linen, tend to come from Europe. And leather flips the script entirely: per the OEC, Italy was the top exporter of tanned equine and bovine hides in 2022 (alongside pasta and processed tomatoes). Italian suppliers add significant value in the processing and finishing stages, but some argue that more resources should be focused on cultivating commonly used raw materials in Italy. With political turmoil at every turn, and traceability regulation closing in, complex global supply chains are becoming a burden. Every season, yields are affected by climate change — be that by drought in Texas or by floods in Pakistan — and shipping routes have been disrupted almost continuously since the Covid pandemic. And then there’s the ongoing crackdown on cotton made with forced labour in China’s Xinjiang region. The appeal of locally grown raw materials has never been stronger. “Two years ago, brands said European cotton was too expensive and they could not sustain their margins. Now, they want it because they need to clean up their supply chains,” says Duccio Brachi, marketing and communication manager at Prato-based supplier Beste Group, which is trialling cotton cultivation in Puglia. But there are also detractors, who believe this is a pipe dream that distracts from the bigger challenges facing Italian suppliers. The question is: how much can Italy actually cultivate domestically? And how much should it? ‘Grown in Italy’ cotton In 2020, when the pandemic disrupted shipping routes and brands all over the world began to realise the drawbacks of complex global supply chains, Daniele Arioldi started a small pilot project to regrow cotton in Italian soil, in Puglia, where production had ceased over 60 years prior. Having led the ICA Yarns and raw materials division at Bergamo’s Albini Group for over a decade — the latter five years converting partner farms from conventional to organic cotton — Arioldi knew a thing or two about cultivation. But the pilot in Puglia was out-there, and still has plenty of detractors years later. Some say growing cotton in Italy is trying to force the resurrection of a skill that died out for a reason: Italy’s climate isn’t as well suited to cotton cultivation as others, its land mass is limited and the local know-how is long gone. Plus, there is no particular environmental benefit to growing cotton in Italy, when it is already widely cultivated in Spain and Greece. Nor economic benefits, given Italy’s high labour and energy costs. Even fourth-generation Candiani Denim owner Alberto Candiani, who claims to be the biggest consumer of European cotton and is a staunch supporter of local production, says cotton grown in Italy is a pipe dream. “Italy cannot grow enough to supply everyone,” he explains. “Candiani alone uses about a thousand tonnes of cotton per month.” (Candiani Denim currently purchases 25 per cent of its cotton from Spain and Greece, with plans to increase this to 51 per cent by 2026.) Still, Arioldi is bullish in his belief that cotton can and should be cultivated in Italy. In September 2023, he joined Prato’s Beste Group, having convinced founder Giovanni Santi and Beste owner HModa Group’s president Claudio Rovere to invest in a ginning plant in Puglia — which will open imminently — as well as a new spinning facility in Bergamo, due to open in spring 2025. The remaining processes, from weaving and finishing to garment-making, are already part of Beste Group’s vertical offering. “Today, the best supply chain we have is cotton from Texas, spun into yarn in India, and everything else in Italy. It might travel around 22,000 kilometres from farm to finished garment,” says Arioldi. “Soon, we will be able to produce cotton garments that travel just 1,500 kilometres. This is very important for the carbon footprint. And Europe has very strict rules, not just around pesticides and agriculture, but also workers in the factories, so there is less risk for the customers.” Italian cotton is unlikely to ever compete with the US on scale, however. “To put it into context, the annual production of conventional Supima cotton [considered the highest quality US cotton] is around 400,000 bales. The organic is less than 8,000 bales — it’s a niche. Today, organic Italian cotton is a niche within a niche. We are producing just 400 bales,” says Arioldi. What Italian cotton could do, however, is inspire different ways of engaging with raw materials. Cotton is a “gift of a species”, but has unfortunately become a “low-value commodity” widely associated with harsh environmental impacts, says Rebecca Burgess, founder and director of non-profit Fibershed. If Italy’s intention is to role model small-scale cotton farming with more intentional growing practices such as organic, regenerative and alley cropping in a polyculture farming system (whereby annual crops are planted between rows of perennials like trees), that can only be a good thing, she says. Scaling up flax for linen Freelance agronomist Clara Dughetti — one of just a handful of agronomists operating in Italy (advising farmers on how to manage soil and improve crop production) — is facing similar challenges with flax, which is used to produce linen. The crop is increasingly important to Italian suppliers, as they grapple with the changing climate, which is rendering heavier fabrics such as wool less useful. Dughetti has been working with Bergamo-based linen manufacturer Linificio e Canapificio Nazionale to trial local flax cultivation, focusing on Tuscany, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Puglia and Basilicata. Having tested samples at different latitudes, temperatures, humidities and soil health, the company settled on Tuscany and Lombardy as the two most effective places to cultivate flax, using land that otherwise cultivates wheat, maize and sorghum (Dughetti recommends that the land is rotated regularly, and that flax is only grown in the same spot every four to seven years). The only step that cannot be completed in Italy is the scutching (the mechanical separation of linen fibres from flax straw), which is outsourced to Normandy, where there are more machines available. There is no particular reason to grow linen in Italy over France or Belgium, beyond the romantic ideal of an all-Italian product. The goal isn’t to compete with existing flax cultivation, says Dughetti, but rather to complement it — focusing on sharing sustainable practices between growers and enhancing traceability for brands. “This is a niche production and it goes to a luxury customer,” she acknowledges. Because of this — and the fact that Italy isn’t known for flax in the way it is known for tomatoes or olives — there are currently no subsidies at national or European level, which limits flax’s ability to be grown at scale. There is also the challenge of climate change. Made in Italy is already vulnerable to extreme weather events, from flooding to hurricanes to wildfires. And flax is incredibly sensitive to the climate. When I visit Linificio e Canapificio Nazionale in early October — amid a torrential downpour — commercial director Maurizio Colzani tells me about the retting process. The flax is pulled from the ground in July and laid down in regular rows for around three weeks, during which time bacteria and fungi grow on the stems, supporting the separation of the stem from the fibre inside. The process depends on a delicate balance of humidity, bacteria in the soil and sunlight — any subtle changes can alter the quality of the final fibre. “We are exploring ways to make the linen more resistant or tolerant to climate change,” says Dughetti. “We are safe for the next few years, but I am very worried about the future.” Serious consequences Bringing raw material sources closer to downstream production processes might make it easier for brands to comply with traceability regulations, but it doesn’t necessarily solve the problem of climate change, because no country is exempt — even if the intensity and the immediacy vary. Moving raw material production from one place to another is less important than building climate resilience into growing and cultivating processes, says Beth Jensen, senior director of climate and nature impact at Textile Exchange. “It’s less about the specific location and more about how materials are being grown in consideration of the specific geographical region and production system in which they are operating. Are these systems being set up in a way that can help build topsoil through practices like cover cropping, with minimal synthetic inputs used, or are they being set up as a monocrop system with the heavy application of pesticides and fertilisers?” There is also the social impact to consider. US-based wool rancher Jeanne Carver grew up on a sheep and cattle ranch in the Oregon high desert, which just celebrated its 153rd year of continuous operation. But, like many ranchers and farmers around the world, it is facing an existential threat. “For as long as we have existed, we have worked locally, regionally or at least domestically, to transform our raw materials into finished products. Recently, with globalisation, the skills and facilities that processed our raw materials have been lost. We found ourselves in a situation where we couldn’t sell our wool. Nobody here could,” she tells me. By 2024, Carver was sitting on 159,000 kilograms of unsold wool. She decided to start fulfilling orders from Italian suppliers, including Marzotto Group, who became one of her most important customers. Italy would be better placed to focus on the skills and supply chains it already has, says Erin Martin, director of sustainability and fourth-generation family member of US wool merchant Anodyne Wool, which counts Italy among its top export markets, primarily for luxury men’s suiting and knitwear. “Before globalisation, every country needed local wool-processing infrastructure because the fibre was being farmed, processed and sold locally,” she explains. “Now, certain regions tend to specialise in different parts of the supply chain. Places like South Africa, Australia and the Western US do a great job of wool production because we have lots of open space to run sheep in large volumes. Italy doesn’t necessarily have that acreage available, and there are lots of other things that land needs to be used for. But Italy does have a long, institutional knowledge of how to sort and process wool. You can’t just hire someone new to do that.” The reality is that fashion now operates on a global stage, and any changes to the supply chain have to be considered holistically. “We have to be really conscious of the fact that this would have implications for countries that are dependent on raw material production,” says Dr Hakan Karaosman, associate professor at Cardiff University, co-founder of Fashion’s Responsible Supply Chain Hub (FReSCH) and an expert in just transition. More important than moving raw material production is addressing the issues that make that shift attractive, he adds. “We need to have an urgent conversation about how to bring financial support to these countries to adapt to climate change, and protect the skills and livelihoods they have.” Sign up to receive the Vogue Business newsletter for the latest luxury news and insights, plus exclusive membership discounts. Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.

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