Our company visit for the day was to the Lineappelle leather consortium. We got the chance to learn more about how the company operates and about the leather industry in general. During the lecture we passed around countless samples of leather made from bovine, calves, cow stomachs, sheep, goats, pigs, alligators, kangaroos, lizards, fish, snakes, ostriches, and chicken feat. Each had very noticeable differences and serve a different purpose in the fashion industry. We learned how the different parts of an animal hide are used for different products depending on its texture, size and pattern. 99.5% of all the leather that Lineappelle produces comes from animals destined to the food industry. A large amount of water is used in creating leather but we were informed that the vast majority of the water Lineappelle uses gets returned clean.This means it is not wasteful, however it is dependent on another industry. If less meat starts being eaten then this will have just a big of an effect on the leather industry as the meat industry’s. Leather production in Italy makes up a large part of their economy and the total production of leather in the world. Italy is has few natural resources available to it so being able to take the waste of a large industry and transform it into something of high value is essential.

Later in the day we visited a fashion library containing over 75,000 different fashion magazines and books are kept in the library for designers and fashion lovers to browse and enjoy. Above the library is a beautiful kitchen and dinning room for events put on by the library for their clients. Much of the furniture and appliances is product placement although it is still functional. There are also elaborate mannequins in the kitchen and surrounding rooms that can be purchased by clients for their own stores.

We finished the day with a lecture from the head of digital marketing at the Velasca shoe company. There business model is interesting since the sell directly to customers and not through distributors or retailers. This means they can provide the same products as their competitors, at a much lower price. They also market through social media world wide. They approach to social media marketing varies slightly from country to country but varies quite a lot n countries like China were they have to be conscious of limitations put on internet access from the government.