how the camorra contract couture

Gomorrah: Itay’s Other Mafia
Roberto Saviano

This book is the brave exposé of the lesser-known but more prevalent mafia of Naples, the Camorra. And while it is a heartwrenching read of terrifying and TRUE stories of organized crime and brutality, there is also the most alarming issue of their globalization – the fact that their world is not isolated, but seeps into ours. So much so that even beyond the dirt (cocaine shipments and toxic waste cover-ups), the seemingly immaculate products are tainted. What I am referring to are their roles in the shipment of merchandise and, specifically, the luxury fashion industry.

Firstly, the main bulk of product shipments from factories in China come through the port of Naples: 1.6 million tons annually (of registered merchandise). But at least another million tons pass without leaving a trace. Meaning 60% of goods arriving in Naples escape official customs inspections, 20% of bills of entry go unchecked and so 200 million euros of taxes are evaded each semester. Because today, taxes, VAT, and tractor-trailer maximums are the deadwood of profit, and the true obstacles hindering the circulation of merchandise and money (15). So all this merchandise – genuine, fake, semi-fake, partly authentic – arrive silently. Because “money doesn’t stink, but merchandise smells sweet. It doesn’t give off the odor of the sea it crossed or the hands that produced it, and there are no grease stains from the machinery that assembled it. Merchandise smells of itself.” (16)

But beyond what is shipped to Naples, there is also the portion of merchandise that is made in Naples. This is the monopoly that they have over top-quality garments with the official “Made in Italy” tags. Delivering speed and quality, the factories rarely have more than ten employees. Working about ten hours a day, earning 500 to 900 euros a month, the skilled workers are actually entirely off the map. If this work were done legally, the prices would soar and the work could no longer be supported in Italy, but rather be contracted out to Asia – which Italian designers could never risk. The system is very different than regular manufacturers. There are auctions, where the number of garments, listed with the types of fabric and the quality of the articles are combined with offers of prices and times from the various bidders. For example, “800/40/2”, written on the blackboard of the makeshift meeting room in an elementary school classroom, means 800 garments, 40 euros a piece in 2 months. These auctions big Italian brands hold do not involve winners or losers of contracts. It is just those who enter or do not enter. Someone states the time and price as an offer. Others can try to match it. All who want to enter get the fabric, but only one will get paid: the one who delivers first, with top-quality merchandise. The others can keep the fabric but will not receive a single cent. When contractors start to take advantage of the system by hoarding the free fabric but fails to deliver, they get excluded from future bidding wars. And this also guarantees speed, because the pace of fashion never slows down (28). And though the factories do legitimate work, when loan money is needed, bank directors cannot loan to phantom operations, so they turn to the Camorra. And for the other contractors who entered the designer bid but did not meet the requirements, they turn to the Camorra with their merchandise to sell on the fake-goods market (29). Fake or real is a very fine line.

As the final nail in the coffin of this corrupt condition, often the best tailors do not the get direct recognition they deserve. In Japan, the tailor of the bride to the heir to the throne had a state reception in his honour. A Berlin newspaper had dedicated six pages to the tailor of Germany’s first woman chancellor, speaking of craftsmanship, imagination, and elegance (34). But in these underground factories of Arzano, Caivano, and Sant’ Antimo, “luxury” is the most relative term.