Designer seeks China chic

LIMA - Forget cheap - the thing that attracts many companies to China these days - it's Chinese chic that Italian fashion house Missoni aims to court.

"Our major markets are the United States and Japan. China will be next," said marketing director Vittorio Missoni in Lima, where he was presenting a retrospective show to mark the distinctive design knitwear company's 50th anniversary.

"I prefer to look at China as an opportunity to create a new market instead of as just a place to go to make cheaper things. China is a market we have to breed."

Missoni, son of the founders of the line famous for its exuberantly coloured couture knits in bold stripes and zigzags, buys cashmere yarn from China and has carpets hand cut there for its home products line.

"China isn't a threat to us because we don't compete with these kinds of products," Missoni said.

Low labour costs have made Chinese clothing exports ultra cheap, which prompted Peru to retaliate temporarily last year by jacking up duties to protect its own industry.

Family-owned Missoni, which employs 250 people near Milan, will not follow in the footsteps of other Italian companies that have relocated some operations to China or Eastern Europe to keep production costs down. Missoni, though private, is considered a bellwether for Italian textile companies.

Founded in 1953 by newlyweds Ottavio (Tai) and Rosita, Missoni sometimes has shirts made in Turkey or Romania and jeans in Tunisia or Algeria, and couture embroidery work done in India. The core business, however, stays at home.

"Made in Italy is important to us. For me, it means quality," Missoni said.

With the US dollar's recent dive against the euro, the company finds it is "selling more, but getting less at the end".

But Christmas sales, especially of accessories, were generally "fine" and "really great" in Italy.

Profits in 2004 should grow up to 15 per cent, with sales 20 per cent higher in Russia, Brazil and in the Middle East in Kuwait, Dubai and Lebanon's up-and-coming markets.

But the weak US dollar was something Missoni expected to have to contend with for another year.

The company began making knitted jogging suits. Tai was a 400m hurdles finalist in the 1948 Olympic Games in London, where he met Rosita, the daughter of an Italian mill-owner, who was studying English there.

The line shot to fame in the late 1960s after a fashion show in Florence where the clothes turned out to be "a little transparent" under the lights.

The retrospective included a lurex dress in metallic green and pink and blue and patchwork coats.

- REUTERS