A Milan court has placed Loro Piana, the Italian luxury house owned by LVMH, under judicial administration for one year after investigators found exploited workers in workshops that made its garments under subcontract. The decision by the court's prevention measures section was reported on Monday 14 July 2025.
The investigation was led by prosecutor Paolo Storari with the Milan labor protection unit of the Carabinieri. According to the Italian news agency ANSA, as reported by FashionUnited, the court found that Loro Piana had not prevented labor exploitation in its production cycle, had not verified the working conditions or technical capacity of its contractors, and had not carried out effective inspections or audits. Bloomberg reported that the judges said the company had negligently benefited from illegal cost-cutting.
How the work moved down the chain
According to the court's account, Loro Piana outsourced garment production, including jackets, to an outside company, Evergreen. Evergreen could not fill the order and passed it to Sor-Man, a company based in Nova Milanese, which also lacked the capacity and turned to Chinese-run workshops to cut costs. Those workshops were shut by the authorities, and one owner was arrested in May 2025.
Investigators described undeclared work in unhealthy and dangerous premises, workers housed in dormitories and on call at any hour, and shifts far beyond contractual limits. Bloomberg reported the case of a Chinese tailor who said he had worked from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day for about a decade, paid about $1,700 a month off the books, until his boss stopped paying him and then beat him, which led to a criminal complaint.
Loro Piana's response
In a statement on 15 July, Loro Piana said the problems involved undisclosed subcontractors of a single supplier, which had breached its obligations by not declaring them. The company said it learned of the situation on 20 May and ended all relations with that supplier within 24 hours. It said it condemned any illegal practices, would keep strengthening its controls and audits, and would cooperate fully with the authorities. It also said cost figures reported in the press did not reflect what it had paid the supplier and left out items such as raw materials and fabrics.
Frédéric Arnault, son of LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault, had become chief executive of Loro Piana on 10 June 2025, a month before the ruling.
Part of a wider crackdown
Loro Piana is the latest luxury name caught up in Milan's investigations into fashion supply chains. Giorgio Armani Operations, a Dior manufacturing unit and the leather goods brand Alviero Martini were all placed under similar oversight and later released after introducing measures such as supplier audits, while Valentino Bags Lab remained under court monitoring. Bloomberg, citing Milan's Chamber of Commerce, reported that about 20 percent of Lombardy's more than 10,000 textile workshops and factories are Chinese-owned.
For people who buy high-end tailoring, the case is a reminder that a label's own workshops may be only part of the story. Asking a maker where a jacket was cut and sewn, and whether that work was subcontracted, is a fair question at any price. The administration is set to run for one year, during which a court-appointed administrator will monitor the company's supplier controls.
