LVMH's Loro Piana Faces Legal Challenges over Worker Exploitation.

 

While we enjoy consumption, as demonstrated by hours of blurb, an aspect of the luxury goods industry often ignored is the workers that assemble them.  It is extremely easy as a luxury goods consumer to imagine that all the goods we enjoy are crafted in quaint workshops in small French or Italian villages, with sunshine streaming through the antique critall windows, and workers who have regular breaks, and enjoy a glass of fine wine while considering the beautiful artisanal products they produce.  Or diligent young tailoring apprentices full of hope for the bright future when they start their own brands, sweating away in shop basements in cool centrally located areas, going to meet their young friends at trendy bars when they finally finish that customers garment.  The reality is however far more depressing, and quite dark.

This reality has had a light shone into it over the past year, with the workshops of LVMH owned Dior, the Valentino Group, and Armani Group, all being placed under administration by Italian courts for poor treatment of workers.  Another of LVMH's brands, Loro Piana, has now also received this sanction as of May 20 2025.

According to publicly available information form the Court transcripts, Chinese immigrant workers in the factory outside of Milan, 5 of whom were not documented as having entered the country, were kept in unsanitary conditions, forced to work 90-hour work weeks, beaten, and faced wages being withheld.  These wages incidentally, were €4 per hour, meaning a $5,000 cashmere jacket would cost around €118 in labour.

There's very little to add to this.  It's a harrowing tale, which exposes that LVMH, a brand we have repeatedly criticised for it's sanitising and deadening effect on the luxury goods market, is in fact allowing practices which can only be described as despicable to be carried out in their factories.  The counterargument is of course they are not directly involved, as the abuses are perpetrated by contractors they instruct.  But that's a pretty pathetic argument, as when the labour for your garment costs you probably €150 maximum, what did you think is happening to those workers?  It is amusing however that while these brands have such sterile aesthetics, under the surface they are mired in filth.