Têxteis produzidos em países de mão-de-obra cara

Excelente artigo "How Can Jeans Cost $300?" com vários tópicos que costumamos aqui referir no blogue:
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"This is a rarefied segment of the denim business. Americans bought $13.8 billion of men's and women's jeans in the year ended April 30, according to market-research firm NPD Group. But only about 1% of jeans sold in the U.S. over that year cost more than $50. (Moi ici: Um nicho. Estamos a falar de um nicho não de produção massificada, com grandes encomendas e centenas de trabalhadores)
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The prices of "premium" jeans—industry jargon for luxury-priced denim—appear to be edging slightly upward after a downturn following the financial crisis.
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It costs about $50 to make a pair of Super T jeans, True Religion's best-selling style with oversized white stitching, estimates founder, chairman and chief executive, Jeff Lubell. The wholesale price is $152, he says, and the average retail price is $335. (Moi ici: Bate certo com os números que conheço por cá, da fábrica à loja multiplica por 3, quem ganha é o dono da marca, da loja à montra multiplica por mais 2-3. Daí, depois, o período de saldos) Of course, plenty of these jeans sell at substantially less than full price.
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As with all fashion, a big part of the price of luxury denim is in the multiple profit margins taken at each level of production. Most any piece of clothing contains parts and services from potentially dozens of providers: from fabric and button makers, to designers and seamstresses, and wholesalers and sales agents. After all this, designers and retailers say the typical retail markup on all fashion items, including jeans, ranges from 2.2 to 2.6 times cost.
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In the luxury business, those mark-ups cover huge marketing budgets (someone has to pay for giant billboards and ads in fashion magazines) as well as the costs of running stores, headquarters, shipping, and other overhead.
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Jeans brands also try to stand out from season to season by using patented materials, such as rivets and stitching, and by using special washes and distressing methods.
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Most premium jeans' cotton denim fabric comes from the primary maker of high-end denim fabric used in the U.S. and Europe: Greensboro, N.C.-based Cone Denim, a unit of the International Textile Group. There, in a plant known as White Oak, shuttle looms dating from the 1950s weave the denim fabric that winds up in many premium denim brands, including J Brand. The looms are older, narrower, and slower than highly efficient modern looms, but they weave fabric with slight irregularities known as slubs, which impart a texture and character that modern looms lack. (Moi ici: Como os discos de vinil... BTW quantas fábricas fecharam por causa de manterem estruturas produtivas dos anos 50? E de quem é a responsabilidade? Dos trabalhadores? Dos clientes? Dos governos? Como escreve Huerta de Soto, citando Kirzner, "o exercício da empresarialidade implica uma especial perspicácia (alertness), ou seja, um contínuo estado de alerta, que torna possível ao ser humano descobrir e aperceber-se do que ocorre ao seu redor")
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Jeans makers say that manufacturing in the U.S., in addition to appealing to consumers, allows them to move quickly. (Moi ici: O factor proximidade associado à rapidez e flexibilidade. Não duvido que em muitos sectores a flexibilidade a nível laboral seja importante, mas para quem lida com moda a sério, o grande factor de flexibilidade é a proximidade. Agora isso implica uma outra organização do trabalho, isso implica criativos que estão numa fábrica e não num atelier onde o tempo é secundário) When Jeff Rudes, founder and chief executive of J Brand, saw designer Jil Sander's electric colors in New York's Jeffrey boutique earlier this year, he asked his designers to come up with a hot pink and an emerald green color for jeans. Five days later, the first, small run of jeans were shipping into Barneys New York. Mr. Rudes says it typically takes his company six to eight weeks to make a pair of jeans in the U.S., compared with three to six months in China."
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Mais sobre este tema dos têxteis produzidos em países de mão-de-obra cara podem ser encontrados pesquisando David Birnbaum ou de Suzane Berger.