Valentino Labour Exploitation Case: A PR Breakdown of Crisis Communication
- Marina 2Jour
- 6 days ago
- 7 min read
The case:
An Italian court ruled on May 15, 2025 that Valentino Bags Lab Srl must be placed under judicial administration for one year after finding it “culpably failed” to oversee its suppliers, allowing Chinese-owned workshops in Italy to exploit workers—some without contracts, forced to live on-site for 24/7 production and operated unsafe machinery—while chasing higher profits. An external administrator will be appointed to enforce effective supply-chain controls, with the regime lifted early if Valentino brings its practices into full legal compliance, as previously happened with Dior, Armani and Alviero Martini under the same court’s orders.
I tried to find the court ruling and scoured the court registers, but either I’m searching in the wrong place, they don’t publish them in Italy, or my lack of Italian became an obstacle. So, pragmatically, let’s look at this latest story of exploitation in the luxury sector (sigh) based on the information—of which the most extensive I found in the Reuters article (here).
I also browsed the official website but found no news there. Instead, there’s a tone-deaf new bag launch campaign—a bag celebrating carefreeness, yet in light of the recent story you can’t help but wonder if it was made by migrants forced to sleep on-site for 24/7 production to speed up the process. But let’s take it step by step. Valentino would do well to update its content calendar in light of the incident as a starting point.
Contents:
Directly involved parties:
Valentino S.p.A.: parent company of the Bags Lab division
Valentino Bags Lab Srl: the branded unit placed under one-year judicial administration; subject to oversight but not facing criminal charges
Bags Milano Srl: primary contractor for Valentino Bags Lab; produced and then subcontracted the actual manufacture
Seven Chinese-owned workshops: subcontractors engaged by Bags Milano Srl, where labour-law breaches were documented
Owners of Bags Milano and the workshops: under criminal investigation for exploiting workers and illegal employment practices
I went looking for information on Bags Milano Srl and stumbled on an interesting detail. On Valentino’s official website there’s a “Corporate Information” section (which, I suspect, hasn’t been updated in quite some time). It has two tabs: one lists the corporate entities, and there you’ll find Valentino Bags Lab S.r.l.; the second links to an Excel file called “Valentino Suppliers”. Of course, it says nothing about Bags Milano Srl, although Valentino Bags Lab S.r.l. is mentioned.
Additional parties:
Mayhoola: the Qatari investment fund that holds a majority stake in Valentino
Kering: the French luxury group that purchased a 30% stake in Valentino in 2023, with an option to acquire the remainder by 2028
Facts (an objectively circumstance confirmed by evidence and documents):
Labour violations uncovered: Inspections of seven Chinese-owned workshops between March and December 2024 uncovered 67 workers—nine without contracts and three irregular migrants—some forced to sleep on-site for 24/7 production, with safety guards removed from machinery to speed up work.
Production volumes and margins: Since 2018, primary contractor Bags Milano Srl produced roughly 4,000 bags per month for Valentino at a cost of €35–€75 each; those same bags retailed for €1,900–€2,200, highlighting the unit’s narrow production margins versus luxury pricing.
Unauthorized subcontracting: The court found that Bags Milano’s owner further subcontracted portions of the work to other Chinese-owned workshops without formal authorization from Valentino, a practice the unit “turned a blind eye to” given the high volume of orders.
Reactions of the parties involved (as reported in the article):
