In yesterday's post we looked at bootlegged designs. Let's continue the thread, but look at a different type of fashion fakes. A joint operation between the Turin and Caserta Guardia di Finanza (Italian Tax Police) seized indeed this week over 40,000 garments in Turin. The designs were accompanied by labels that stated "this garment is made with cashmere fibres, a rare and luxury material with properties that are not found in any other fibre in the world."
Analysed by the Prato-based chemical laboratory BuzziLab, the jumpers resulted instead made with acrylic fibers, a discovery confirmed by the Boston-based Cashmere and Camelhair Manifacturers Institute.
The garments came from a manufacturer based in Bangladesh and were sold in 120 shops of Italian menswear chain Cotton and Silk, retailing at 50 euros each. The chain didn't know the real nature of the garments but had bought the "cashmere" jumpers as a stock in Bangladesh via a broker. The company is currently collaborating with the investigations.
The manufacturer has been sued for fraud in trade and for illicit profit as selling the garments would have resulted in a 2 million euros income. The seized garments will be donated to charities.
This is not the first time the Guardia di Finanza finds faux cashmere: in 2018, the tax police seized in the Turin area 4,000 garments sold as cashmere, plus 90,000 labels and packaging; in 2014, they discovered a faux cashmere factory in the Prato area that produced garments allegedly made with 50% wool and 50% cashmere, but in reality containing viscose, polyamide and angora.
It is not difficult to find on the market made in China jumpers containing extremely small quantities of poor quality cashmere fibres, but they are very cheap. It is also unlikely to find in a shop high quality cashmere jumpers for 50 Euros, as this is a luxury fibre. While consumers have certainly become savvier and more confident, keeping on educating them is not a bad idea.
There is actually a trend at the moment for courses or videos on social media that show how to spot original items and recognise fake designs and maybe the specialised groups of the Italian Guardia di Finanza should start thinking about developing a series of short videos to introduce consumers to their investigations into fashion fakes and faux fibres.
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