International delocalisation in the Italian fashion industry[La delocalizzazione del made in Italy]

Over the last two decades, a new model of labour division between firms and countries has emerged in the global economy. This international division of labour is mainly characterised by firms separating the phases of their activities (along the entire chain of production: from conception to design, manufacturing, distribution, sale, and post-sale services) into different modules ("tasks"), and localising these modules in different countries (thus separating production phases which were previously concentrated in one site) in order to take advantage of different local conditions. Among other things, these include first and foremost the different costs of production, particularly labour force costs, and their consequences – given productivity– on the unit cost of products and services.