It’s pretty understandable to weigh out on the fact that the cost of production in India is likely far lower than in Italy, where production often takes place for RTW — thus raising the question of increased margins. It is a fact which is totally uncorrelated to the skills of Indian textile workers. How is this considered a stereotype?
The first comment on this subject stated that embroidery being done in India was a "negative" with no further context, then the next reiterated it claiming that the initial comment didn't refer to quality but concerns about "overmarketing" and workers being "underpaid with bad working conditions".
All three claims/implications - quality, misleading marketing, poor working conditions - were misinformed and clearly based on stereotypes (that "made in India" labels on luxury clothing are hidden because of poor perception in favour of countries where the "heritage" has better publicity, that Dries does this, and that the workers who do the DvN embroidery are poorly paid) and lack of information about this specific label, which I corrected. I hope that makes it clear.
Yes, the margins would be higher on production based in India, but it's also a fact that for certain types of embroidery (e.g. on leather), India is in fact the only place that it can be done at all, so there are reasons to go there beyond just cost-cutting. If a brand is honest about where its production is done (which DvN have been), keeps up quality (which they have, in my experience - it's the responsibility of the label not to demand that factories cut corners) and treats/pays its workers fairly, it deserves to have those taken into consideration.
I hope we can return to discussing the collection now. He's back on form in a way that I haven't seen since pre-pandemic, that Stussy collab hopefully was the last purge of whatever the bad juju was to get it away from the mainline - and in that case, I'm very glad he did it!
