Camilloni Family: Manufacturing Fashion
by Jessica Fresques
Inside a clothing factory outside Cagli, Italy, employees sew delicate fabrics and hot press dresses in preparation for distribution at the end of the week. Finished dresses, draped in plastic, hang from MaxMara hangers. Rows of dresses wait to be picked up and shipped to destinations around the globe.
Luciano Camilloni owns the factory. Nineteen years ago, he started the business so he could include family in his work life. He employed his son, daughter and brother. Luciano oversees production; his son handles the technical side. His daughter handles women’s clothing, and his brother manages distribution. In the factory, the Camilloni family displays two antique sewing machines that once belonged to their uncle who was a tailor.
The family’s factory produces high-end clothing for MaxMara, Fendi,
Giorgio Armani and other well-known designers. For example, MaxMara, a high-end Italian clothing brand, sends patterns, designs and accessories to be used in the Cagli factory to create the designer’s clothes. The quality and work that goes into the clothing is delicate, detailed and refined.
After receiving rolls of fabric from MaxMara, the factory’s workers unroll the fabric on a worktable to inspect for flaws. If they detect a blemish, they mark it with a yellow sticker. The process to identify flaws is more difficult then people think, said Camillo, Luciano’s brother.
Detailed accessories for the clothes are looked at one by one
. Any defect means the item is set aside and sent back to the manufacturing company.
When Luciano opened his factory, the economy was booming and so was his business. Around 300,000 pieces of clothing were produced yearly. However, the economic dip in recent years has dropped production to 60,000 pieces of clothing annually.
In the past two years, Luciano and Camillo have created their own clothing line. Their brand, known as The Bros., includes designs for men and women. They sell their clothes in Cagli and other cities in the region.
The brothers hope that, once the economy recovers, they can expand their own clothing line outside the region.
