An industrial sector in which economic value and cultural value meet and merge like no other: it is not only the numbers, but also the feeling of the citizens that decree the primacy of Italian fashion as a growth factor for the country’s economy, but also for its culture and even for individual well-being.
This is what emerges from a research presented on November 17 in Rome by Confindustria Moda, the federation that brings together the seven Italian industrial associations in the Textile, Fashion and Accessory sector, and Censis: in 2021, Tma confirmed its position as the second Italian industry by number of employees , almost 545 thousand employees in 61 thousand companies, with a turnover close to 93 billion and exports of almost 68 billion.
A strategic sector
Important numbers, in fact, but which do not reveal all of its intangible value, which instead transpires from the statistics. As illustrated by Massimiliano Valerii, general manager of Censis, Italians are undoubtedly convinced that the sector has a strategic role for the economic recovery: 95.7% in fact believe fashion is an important item for the country’s GDP, 87, 5% that is essential in creating new employment and income. And 55.4% of Italians are convinced that fashion is an important element in people’s daily lives, a majority belief across social groups.
For 64% fashion products contribute to making people feel good about themselves, improving self-esteem, helping them to express their personality in relationships with others. And for 68.8% of Italians, fashion produces culture such as art, dance, music, also promoting the development of a sense of beauty.
Sustainability
Furthermore, 51.9% recognizes the sector’s commitment to pursuing environmental sustainability, 48.1% appreciates its commitment to protect the rights of workers and suppliers, 47.1% that in terms of respect and animal welfare. And last but not least, the role of social cohesion thanks to the capillarity of businesses on the territory and the diffusion of production districts, which feed the peculiar «biodiversity of Italian fashion entrepreneurship», as Ercole Botto Poala, president of Confindustria Moda, defined it , for a sector a degree «of creating widespread wealth also from a social and cultural point of view».