was regulated by the Wool Merchants’ Guild. The political and economic decline experienced in Italy during the 16th and 17th centuries caused
a decline the in textile businesses, which resumed in the late 18th century with the production of knitted caps made for Arab markets. A significant contribution to industrial expansion was also due to the lower costs of carded wool processing, caused by the gradually increasing production of recovered wool obtained from shredding old clothes and industrial scraps said “combing”.
Between the postwar period and the early 1950s, the outlets towards low-level standard pro-deduction markets for India, Africa, etc. rapidly disappeared.
The Prato district became more powerful during the 1970s. The emerging of fashion as a mass phenomenon, together with higher salaries and the revolution in customs, marked a historical division in the clothing market and the demand became more fragmented, differentiated, unsteady and seasonal.
These variables disrupted the production and distribution chain forcing the structures to be- come more flexible, responsive and agile.
During that period the Prato district underwent
a fundamental transformation, from a product-oriented, wool-processing district to a market-oriented, fashion/textile district. The re-orientation of its competitive identity in terms of “satisfied needs” cleared the way for
a considerable increase in the variety of products and production technologies. During the seventies new possibilities were explored and developed, often with a pioneering spirit, in textiles (patterned combed yarns for knitwear, knitted fabrics, furs, coated fabrics, flock fabrics, etc.) and in non-wool fibres, both natural and synthetic.