“Made in Italy” e “Made in China”: estudo de caso de dois grandes produtores mundiais de moda no cenário capitalista global

Abstract

This paper aims to evaluate the evolution of fashion and the textile industry, focusing on China and Italy, observing through bibliographies and quantitative data how the two countries mentioned have developed in this industry and how they currently stand on the world stage. Fashion as a form of political expression will also be addressed in this paper, focusing on how social networks, in addition to serving as a means of promoting products, also act as an instrument of support for fashion in political causes. In addition, the symbiotic relationship, albeit veiled, between Chinese and Italians in the context of fashion will be addressed. These two textile hubs present more convergences than divergences, which highlights the possibility of a coexistence between luxury and so-called “trash”, when driven by the dynamics of the global capitalist market. This is a qualitative and exploratory research, which starts from the concepts of fashion, politics and relationships to make a case study of two cases, the roles of China and Italy in the global fashion market. It is concluded that, despite the differences in approach and production capacity, the Italian artisanal tradition, combined with the productive efficiency and mass demand of the Chinese industry, can result in a collaboration capable of adding even more value to the global fashion scene than they would acting alone.