Italy is known around the world for its high-quality fashion industry. Italian fashion manufacturers represent more than 40 percent of Europe’s fashion industry as a whole — and produce nearly 100 per cent of luxury fashion industry goods around the world. To put it in even starker terms: As the Italian economy slowed down in the second half of 2018, fashion grew by 3.5 percent, with an average export of around 7 percent. How is this possible?

“Fashion for the Italian people is a part of life. It is something that we have in our blood,” explained Claudio Marenzi, President of the luxury fashion retailer, Herno. “For Italy, fashion is something that belongs to our history, and the future of the fashion industry is to strengthen this message all over the world — because the world needs quality, and needs ‘Made in Italy’.”