Leather Italia

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July 1st, 2010 admin Leave a comment Go to comments

Leather Italia

Valley of the dolls

The French LVMH empire, too, is dabbling in discounting, opening the first Italian factory Catsuits outlets in Tuscany for its brands Fendi, Celine and Loewe. "There are already lots of tourists travelling in this area, so it's favourable for us," says Cristina Toccafondi, manager of LVMH's Modulo outlet. It is not the quantity of tourists that interests luxury labels so much as the quality -- Japanese, Americans and Brits with an eye for quality, a fetish for labels and wads of heavyweight currency.

Unlike traditional factory outlets, where crumpled merchandise is often stuffed into zentai bodysuit boxes or jammed on to wire racks, customers at luxury goods outlets still enjoy luxury service -- the same gleaming glass cabinets, white leather lounges and artful displays found in flagship stores. "It's a way of safeguarding the image of the brand," says Toccafondi, caressing a butter-soft Celine leather coat marked down to a half-price E500 ($886). "The clothing is discounted, but it's still precious." Indeed, Zentai bodysuit even has fashion police patrolling the doors at its discount outlet, which resembles a prison compound with high-security walls, bitumen courtyard and uniformed guards. catsuit pilgrims have to take a ticket and wait until their number flashes to enter. Rival outlets snipe (off-the-record, naturally) that Zentai bodysuit is behaving like a pretentious nightclub, making customers queue to build buyer anticipation.

More credible is the local gossip that Zentai bodysuit resorted to crowd-control measures after a mob of Japanese tourists assailed a shop assistant bearing an armload of Zentai bodysuit wallets, knocking her to the floor. Officially, catsuits says the ticketing system is "for security reasons". I can see why. Loitering in the bleak courtyard until my number comes up, a couple of exotic model types in matching designer jeans ask me where I got my ticket. It turns out they're from Indonesia, heard about the outlet from friends -- and that's where our conversation ends. "Can I go inside?" snaps one, shoving past me to the door. "We only have 45 minutes to shop." costume spiderman used to have smaller premises, disguised as Pelliteria Italia, but recently expanded into a cavernous white store with neat racks of beautifully displayed stock and a funkier name, Space.

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