Fashion: the revival of the Tuscan fashion district could begin with subcontractors and SMEs

“The Scandicci leather goods district? It needs to be redesigned.” This is the conclusion of a study carried out by Erika Andreetta, a partner at PwC Italia and EMEA Fashion & Luxury leader, which was presented yesterday at the ‘Future for Fashion’ conference organised in Florence by Confindustria Toscana Centro e Costa and the Florence Centre for Italian Fashion (CFMI) to discuss strategies for revitalising the ‘Made in Italy’ brand.

The analysis, based on an examination of industry data and interviews with brands, leather goods manufacturers and trade unions, has traced the upheaval that has taken place over the last three years in the world’s leading district for the production of luxury handbags, with major brand clients who, due to the market slowdown, have reduced their reliance on external suppliers and have (also) decided to bring part of their production in-house; and with subcontractors – often small and poorly organised – who have seen orders from the brands drop dramatically.The model based on high volumes driven by brands such as Gucci, Chanel, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent, Ferragamo, Balenciaga, Montblanc, Cartier, Tod’s and Fendi has collapsed, hitting manufacturers in the supply chain hardest of all.

The result has been the closure, from 2019 to the present day, of 830 Florentine leather goods firms (there are now 3,600) and the loss of around 4,000 jobs (there are now 37,800), despite extensive use of the furlough scheme. The only positive figure is the slight increase in the size of firms, which have embarked on vertical or horizontal integration to meet market challenges. However, this trend mainly affects large firms (a 6% rise in staff numbers in the first quarter of 2026), whilst SMEs continue to struggle. Companies with fewer than 10 employees in the Florentine leather goods sector (still) account for 79 per cent of the total (2,827 local units) and employ 24 per cent of the workforce (6,286).

This is precisely where the ‘recipe’ for the district’s revitalisation – devised by Andreetta together with Niccolò Moschini, vice-president of Confindustria Toscana Centro e Costa – begins: to encourage collaboration and better communicate the district’s potential. “It is essential to continue working on collaborations because this fosters skills, investment and innovation,” explains Andreetta, adding that smaller firms need to broaden their client base by learning to work for multiple brands; and they must seek out emerging brands, engage with designers and look around for new business opportunities. In other words: do not keep waiting for orders from the big brands. “We need to get back to doing business and providing training, because skills are essential and must be developed locally,” he adds. It is a warning to the district, which has been working on training without a systematic plan.

The most sought-after roles today are those in ‘middle management’: engineering technicians, market relations technicians, production process management technicians, and specialists in management, business and banking. “What is missing,” concludes Andreetta, “is a comprehensive medium- to long-term vision that sets out where we want to take this industrial cluster within five years.”