For example, Ermenegildo Zegna, based near Biella, shows little fear for its future.

ECONOMIST: Italian textiles and China

Firms there have installed numerous Italian looms, as well as developing equipment of their own, but the finest cashmere clothes still come from Biella.

ECONOMIST: The complications of clustering

Biella's experts research and develop new woollen yarns and fabrics continually, spinning fibres ever thinner and gaining ever more precise control over their cloth.

ECONOMIST: The changing fabric of Italian fashion | The

But with its reliance on wool, Biella is less fortunate.

ECONOMIST: Italian textiles and China

Two hundred years of spinning, dyeing, weaving, cutting and stitching have peppered Biella, Como, the Veneto and other pockets of the Italian landscape with mills and workshops operated by families and linked in tight networks.

ECONOMIST: The changing fabric of Italian fashion | The