Chinese apparel value chains in Europe: low-end fast fashion, regionalization, and transnational entrepreneurship in Prato, Italy

Abstract

Focusing on of the Chinese immigrants in the apparel industry in Prato, Italy, the paper shows that the emergence of pronto moda (the apparel industry in Prato) is a unique response to the rise of fast fashion in Europe. Bridging the literature of regionalization and value chain studies with the literature of transnational entrepreneurship in economic geography, the author shows that the competitiveness of pronto moda lies in both production teams in Prato and transnational Chinese networks across Europe. In particular, three lesser known dimensions of pronto moda are revealed. First, the internal power asymmetry within the Chinese production teams in Prato helps to stabilize the potentially fluid production teams but at the same time further contributes to persistent labor irregularities. Second, transnational Chinese entrepreneurship is affecting the low-end fast-fashion market in Europe especially in the horizontally integrated production networks supported by Chinese manufacturers and traders which have complex impacts on other ethnic entrepreneurs across Europe. Finally, the latest changes in pronto moda point to the potential risks the industry is facing and some of the longest established Chinese firms in Prato have left manufacturing and outsourced to China, signaling a major transformation in the model of pronto moda.