When we buy a sweater for a few euros, we rarely ask ourselves how it is possible for it to cost so little. The answer, almost always, is that someone somewhere along the supply chain is paid far less than they deserve.
Today we are taking a closer look at the price of a garment: where your money goes in fast fashion, and where it goes instead in the short Italian supply chain we chose for Lanaioli.
The problem: who earns (little) and who earns (a lot)
An analysis by Oxfam Australia, carried out with Deloitte, calculated that, on average, only 4% of the retail price of a garment produced in Australia reaches the person who makes it: for a $10 T-shirt, that is about 40 cents. In Bangladesh, one of the world's leading producing countries, this share falls to 2%, with female and male workers earning as little as 33 cents an hour.
For a T-shirt sold for $25, the same study estimates that factory labor costs around $1, compared with approximately 75 cents for transportation and customs duties alone: the rest of the price is divided among materials, intermediaries, the brand, and the retail margin, which is almost always the largest component.
The wage gap explains much of this difference: in France, the minimum wage is around €1,800 gross per month, compared with the equivalent of approximately €100 per month in Bangladesh and €150 in Vietnam.
It is therefore unsurprising that, according to data collected by publications specializing in the fashion industry, labor can account for as much as 72% of the production cost of a garment made entirely in France, compared with around 20% if the same garment is produced in Bangladesh: not because the work is different, but because the people doing it are paid radically differently.
Choosing a short supply chain: fewer steps, more transparency
With Lanaioli, we chose the opposite approach: a short Italian supply chain in which every step — from raising merino sheep to washing and carding the wool, from spinning to the artisan workshop that makes the garment — takes place within Italy, with workers paid according to Italian standards.
Inevitably, this means a higher final price than an equivalent fast-fashion garment.
But it also means that the value you pay for a Lanaioli garment does not disappear into a chain of intermediaries and international transportation: for the most part, it remains in Italy, benefiting those who produce the wool, process it, and turn it into a finished garment.
This is not merely an abstract economic issue: it is the difference between supporting a system that relies on wages which, according to various international analyses, remain well below what is defined as a "living wage" in the main producing countries, and instead supporting a system that pays workers according to Italian protections and collective agreements.
Buy less, but understand better
We are not asking you to take our word for it that a short supply chain costs more for legitimate reasons: we are asking you to look at the numbers.
When a garment costs very little, someone, somewhere along the supply chain, has paid the price for that low cost — almost always the person with the least bargaining power to refuse.
Choosing a Lanaioli garment is not just about choosing a type of wool or yarn: it is choosing to know where the money you spend actually goes.
