Sustainability than Digitalization: Prato and the Global Fashion Supply Chain

Daniela Toccafondi ()
Additional contact information
Daniela Toccafondi: University of Florence

Chapter Chapter 21 in Sustainable Digital Marketing for Fashion and Luxury Brands, 2025, pp 507-528 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract A growing number of brands are proving luxury and sustainability can coexist. Consumers are demanding more eco-friendly practices, and increasingly the clean and essential style of Quiet Luxury is enforced in the fashion system. This chapter focuses on the textile district of Prato, Italy, and discusses its unique organizational model that has fostered flexibility and creativity in fashion collections over the years. One of the key elements of this model is the division of labour among many specialized small and medium-sized enterprises. For over a hundred years, Prato has leveraged the circular economy and embraced the motto “reuse, reduce, recycle”. It thus has a well-established tradition of sustainability, both environmental and ethical. Few consumers are aware of this tradition because communication of its sustainable practices has been neglected for a long time. Now, new consumption models require more detailed information, both on materials and production processes. Increased use of information technology and digitization of processes is urgently needed, but this will require a substantial investment. Considering that Prato’s businesses are small and medium-sized, will they be able to conquer this new challenge?

Keywords: Sustainability; Supply chain; Circular economy; Fashion brands; Textile industry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-82467-8_21

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783031824678

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-82467-8_21

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().