Italian fashion crimes

Angelina Jolie's dress, Uma Thurman's jumpsuit, and the mobsters of Naples



Gomorrah is the product of several years of investigative journalism in Naples and the Caserta area of southern Italy by a young journalist (born in 1979). Its greatest merit is to show in meticulous detail how the organized crime syndicate in the region, Camorra, has been able to forge relationships of mutual cooperation with a sizeable section of the local and national economies, and how legal and illegal production intersect and support each other. The book aspires to be, and fully succeeds in being, a work of literature: it is written in the first person, in a raw, unadorned yet highly elaborate style. The reader is invited to read Gomorrah as the personal memoir of a young man who cannot turn his analytic gaze away from the evil he grew up with. In Italy, the book has become a literary phenomenon and won a major literary prize. The author is a now a marked man. Roberto Saviano shows with extraordinary precision the dark side of Italy’s celebrated fashion industry. He tells us that he took part in an underground auction organized by fixers operating on behalf of the fashion houses based in northern Italy and, allegedly, across the Atlantic. The fashion houses turn to fixers to contract out the production of their designs to dressmaking sweatshops in the Neapolitan area. Where does the Camorra come in? Saviano describes a system in which the fashion houses commission several workshops, but pay on delivery to one workshop only; local entrepreneurs therefore need to obtain credit in advance to pay workers. Since this economic activity goes totally unrecorded, firms cannot turn to banks. Instead they fall back on the local Camorra families, which advance credit at highly advantageous rates, between 2 and 4 per cent. Saviano, after witnessing the auction, was invited to a lunch offered by one of the workshops. At the lunch, a representative from the Camorra negotiated the cash advance with the owner. The firms that are not successful and do not deliver on time (eight out of nine according to Saviano) sell the merchandise to the Camorra, which unloads the goods on to the black market. Depending on the quality of these products, the fakes are sold in proper boutiques, at special outlets controlled by the Camorra or, for the worst samples, by African immigrants on the pavements or beaches of Italy. Although technically fakes, these goods are virtually identical to the originals, save for the label. In effect, the same hands that work for haute couture also work for the Camorra and, writes Saviano, these products should be thought of as “true fakes”. Either directly or indirectly, thousands of people benefit from this system by producing and selling suits, jackets, shoes, shirts and leather goods. The reach of this business is vast: a boss has been indicted in Aberdeen and is awaiting extradition. In a perverse way, the arrangement preserves some degree of market competition among sweatshops, and the Camorra does provide a genuine service to the local economy, thereby further cementing its role in society. In the drug market, relations of mutual convenience exist between vast sectors of the lower middle class and the Camorra. The Nuvoletta clan has encouraged ordinary people to put their savings in the drug trade. Thousands of people now invest small sums of money that double in a few months. The clan has proved to be a reliable partner and has paid the profits earned to the investors. Individuals above suspicion are routinely asked to hide drugs in their houses, making it very difficult for the police to seize large quantities of drugs. A sizeable sector of the middle class is now fully compromised by the most deadly illegal business of all. Saviano shows that Camorra clans are not just reliable business partners, but that ultimately they constitute an army vying for control of its territory and its economic activities. Each clan takes care of its soldiers by ensuring that they receive military training, a monthly income when arrested, and legal counsel. Disputes arise when two women both claim to be the legitimate partner of an arrested camorrista. Two crucial differences exist between the Camorra and its Sicilian counterpart. First, Camorra alliances are much looser and flimsier than those of the Sicilian Mafia, leading to a higher level of inter-clan conflict. No overarching Camorra identity seems to hold clans in check. Indeed, the very word “Camorra” is used only by the press, while members identify with the family of origin. In other words, there is not even the pretence of a shared code of behaviour and norms. Second, each clan is an extended kinship group, as in the case of the Calabrian ’Ndrangheta, and bosses maximize their progeny, with as many as fifteen children. Women are fully integrated into the clan’s command structure and are ruthless killers. As women are increasingly drawn into violent conflict, it is not surprising that they strive to build their reputations as fearsome fighters, drawing on popular culture and movies. Immacolata Capone, of the Moccia clan, embraced yellow as the colour of choice for her car, the frame of her spectacles, and her jumpsuit. It matched the type of yellow that was made famous by Uma Thurman in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill (2003), a film in which women act as high-profile killers. Immacolata Capone was murdered on March 17, 2004. Men also model their images on popular movies: Walter Schiavone, a boss from Casal di Principe, had his house built as a perfect replica of Tony Montana’s mansion in the film Scarface (1983), while Cosimo di Lauro preferred to adopt the look of the protagonist of The Crow (1994), a dark tale of revenge from beyond the grave, which starred Brandon Lee. Carabinieri went as far as to complain that over-reliance on fictional behaviour leads to clumsy jobs: killers in Naples have taken to angling the gun by 45 degrees before shooting, as seen in iconic movies such as Pulp Fiction. This is an inefficient way to fire, the police officer explains, as shots usually hit the lower abdomen, the groin, or the legs, only wounding the victims rather than killing them swiftly and cleanly. Assassins are then forced to fire an additional shot to the back of the neck. The end result is an inordinate amount of blood. Can Gomorrah escape its fate? The title of the book comes from a text by Peppino Diana, a priest in Casal di Principe: “time has come to stop being a Gomorrah”. The chapter devoted to Sig. Diana is a moving tribute to a fearless anti-Mafia campaigner. Diana had exposed the empty religious fervour of bosses and their families, who consider their actions as a cross they have to bear for acts that ultimately promote the welfare of their kin. He had threatened to stop administering sacraments to camorristi, refusing to marry them. He also sided with the newly elected left-wing mayor of Casal di Principe, who was trying to prevent firms connected to the Camorra from tendering for public contracts. Diana was murdered in 1994 by a Camorra clan. The defence of the convicted killers was conducted by the then chairman of the Justice Committee of the Italian House of Representatives. In order to escape its fate, Gomorrah must be able to tackle the mutual interests that tie together respectable entrepreneurs, workers, politicians and the Camorra. No matter how much individual valour anti-Mafia campaigners display, the nexus of self-interest that links sizeable sections of the economy and organized crime must be weakened and eventually broken. Access to credit for small and medium firms, a more rational tax system, reform of the banking system, are all as important in the battle against the Camorra as locking up its members. A not-so-thin red line unites the Neapolitan wasteland and the global economy: Pasquale, an expert tailor interviewed in Gomorrah, claims to have sewn the dress worn by Angelina Jolie at the 2004 Oscar ceremony. The fight against the Camorra might take us in unexpected directions.