Can 'made in Asia' labels break the fashion taboo barrier?

Tokyo - Years ago, when the first Armani boutiques opened in China, a furious customer walked into one of these shops, brandishing two Armani T-shirts.

He wanted to know why one of them, the one he had bought in the shop, was labelled "made in China", while the other, the cheaper T-shirt, said "made in Italy".

The second T-shirt was, of course, a fake. So was the "made in Italy" claim; Armani T-shirts are no longer produced there. Today, many fashionistas are still confused over what is real, what is fake, and whether a product's country of origin says anything about its quality.

Even a "made in Italy" label no longer guarantees that a bag or a pair of shoes was hand crafted by artisans in a Tuscan workshop. Instead, the bag could have been stitched together by illegal workers in clandestine Italian factories, and the shoes assembled from plastic soles and leather shipped in from China.

And yet, Asian manufacturing remains a taboo in the luxury sector where image is everything.

Faced with shoppers' concerns about product quality, environmental standards and working conditions in Asia, many European luxury goods makers swear that their factories will always stay close to home. But some are going on the offensive, arguing that new manufacturing sites can actually boost quality and creativity.

"At the end of the day, we are talking about perception," said John Hooks, the deputy managing director at Giorgio Armani.

"There is no reason why you can't make good things anywhere in the world, as long as you have the artisans and attention to quality."

Hooks is passionate about the opportunities that a global manufacturing base offers.

Lower labour costs in Asia allowed designers to spend more on expensive fabrics and elaborate techniques than in Europe, he said.

"If we are obsessed with 'made in Italy, made in France', the negative side is that everything gets pared down to essentials. There comes a point where this slavish respect for 'made in Italy' cannot hold unless the product becomes extremely expensive."

With their rich cultural heritage and a history of producing silks and embroidered textiles, China, India and other Asian countries should, in theory, be well placed as makers of luxurious clothes and accessories.

Japan already outshines Europe as a specialist for certain accessories and fabrics, especially expensive denim. Luxottica, which makes Prada and Chanel sunglasses, has a factory in Japan that produces exclusive gold-rimmed glasses for the highly selective Japanese market.

Many consumers, however, would prefer not to discover a "made in China" tag on a dress worth $1 000 (R8 000).

Asian shoppers are particularly origin conscious as French and Italian luxury goods are important status symbols in the newly affluent region. And the opinions of Asian shoppers are beginning to matter more as growth in more mature markets slows.

"In Asia, in a certain segment, you can't offer a product made in China or Asia," said Patrizio di Marco, the chief executive of Bottega Veneta. "They are very aware of where the product was made: whether it was made in Italy, made in France."

Industry experts say this concern with origin varies greatly between countries. US shoppers, for example, are more tolerant about where their clothes are made.

"The fundamental question is whether it's worth risking your brand equity to win a few points in the manufacturing of the goods," said Di Marco. "And I think the answer is no."

The pricier the product, the choosier the customer. Bottega Veneta's trademark woven leather bags, hand made in northern Italy, sell for about ¥200 000 (R15 000) in Tokyo.

Armani's superluxury range, sold under the Giorgio Armani label, is exclusively manufactured in Italy. When it comes to more accessible designer brands, consumers may be less prejudiced than some producers think.

In a shop just behind the elegant Bottega Veneta boutique in Tokyo, several Japanese women try on brightly patterned silk dresses by Diane von Furstenberg, which cost about ¥60 000 each. None of the women seem to mind that each dress has a little "made in China" tag.

The medieval Italian town of Prato in Tuscany sits at the very heart of Europe's fashion industry.

Amid the Tuscan hills, well-paid craftsmen, low-paid immigrant workers and peddlers of fake designer handbags jostle for space.

Last year Prato's tax police confiscated more than 8 million forged products, including fake designer goods and kilometres of Gucci-monogrammed fabric, made in Asia or in clandestine factories in Italy.

And it's not just the fakes that are making headlines.

Last December a documentary by Italian broadcaster RAI Tre probed subcontractors for some major fashion houses. It showed images of Tuscan factories where Chinese workers had been sleeping, eating, and sewing clothes and bags for low wages.