2018考研英语双语阅读：顶级奢饰品的秘密生产基地

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　　The secret supplier to the world’s top designers

　　顶级奢饰品的秘密生产基地

　　The town of Ubrique in southern Spain is beautiful but remote. It doesn’t have an airport or a train station and even buses are irregular.

　　西班牙南部的乌布里克镇美丽而遥远。它没有机场或火车站，甚至没有常规的公共汽车。

　　Its position, nestled at the bottom of a valley surrounded by big hills, means the easiest way to get there is by car. But even then drivers have to navigate winding and often steep roads.

　　它的位置位于一个山谷的底部，四周环绕着巨大的小山，这意味着最方便的方法就是开车。但即便如此，司机也只能在蜿蜒曲折的道路上行驶。

　　The town is around 75 miles south of Seville, nowhere near the world’s fashion capitals of Milan, Paris, New York or London.

　　小镇位于塞维利亚以南约75英里处，离世界时尚之都米兰、巴黎、纽约或伦敦很远。

　　Yet this collection of white washed houses, known as a pueblo blanco (white town) in Spanish, is where many of the top fashion brands source their leather goods.

　　然而，在西班牙，这些被称为普布兰科布兰科(白色小镇)的白墙房子，是许多顶级时尚品牌的皮革制品来源。

　　Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Hermes, Chanel, Chloe, Loewe and Carolina Herrera are all reported to use the artisans here to make things such as handbags, wallets and belts.

　　路易威登、古驰(Gucci)、爱马仕(Hermes)、香奈儿(Chanel)、克洛伊(Chloe)、洛伊(Loewe)和卡罗莱纳(Carolina Herrera)的很多手袋、钱包和皮带等物品都是这里的工匠制作的。

　　Yet almost none of these designers are willing to talk about it.

　　然而，大多数设计师中几乎没有人愿意谈论这个问题。

　　Most of the secrecy comes from the fear of someone using the high end designs to produce cheap copycat products, a costly problem for luxury retailers.

　　保密主要是来自于怕有人仿造高端设计来生产廉价的山寨产品，这对奢侈品零售商来说是是一个巨大的威胁。

　　Juan Antonio Sanchez, manager at leather goods manufacturer Ranchel, says the big brands often have strict demands.

　　皮革制品生产商Ranchel的经理胡安.安东尼奥.桑切斯表示，这些大品牌往往有严格的要求。

　　"We have to sign a contract of confidentiality, then the factory, the manager and every worker have to sign it.

　　“我们必须签订保密协议，工厂、经理和每个工人都必须签署。”

　　"They have an individual contact and they cannot take pictures, they cannot take the designs or anything to do with the products," he explains.

　　“他们都会私下沟通，工匠们不能拍照，不能做与设计或任何与产品有关的东西，”他解释道。

　　Today more than half the town’s residents work in the leather trade, producing the majority of leather goods sold in the country as well as supplying many big overseas fashion houses.

　　今天，该镇一半以上的居民在与皮革有关的工作，他们生产了全国大部分的皮革制品，并远销海外。

　　The techniques needed to produce such goods at the top end of the quality scale has been passed down from generation to generation.

　　在生产这种高质量的产品所需要的技术已经代代相传。

　　Mr Sanchez says most in the town learn these skills when they’re young by watching their parents as they work.

　　桑切斯先生说，镇上大多数人年轻时通过看父母如何工作来学习这些技能。

　　"That technique it can only go from father to son, because it’s very specialised. Kind of they have it in their blood," says Mr Sanchez.

　　“这种技术只能从父亲传给儿子，因为这技术非常专业。这就在他们的血液里流传着，”桑切斯先生说。

　　Jose Urrutia, founder of high end shoe and accessories firm La Portegna, says an acquaintance told him about the town.

　　高端鞋和配饰公司La Portegna的创始人Jose Urrutia说，一位熟人告诉他这个小镇的存在。

　　"I asked them for some samples and I was blown away by the quality of the stuff they made," he says.

　　他说:“我向他们要了一些样品，他们制造的东西的质量完全说服了我。”

　　He says the idea for the firm came from his grandmother - a keen traveller who’d befriended the writer Ernest Hemingway on her exotic round-the-world trips.

　　他说，他成立公司的想法来自于他的祖母，她是一位热衷于旅行的旅行者，在她的环球旅行中结识了作家欧内斯特.海明威。

　　Browsing her photos made Mr Urrutia nostalgic for a bygone era when items were special and treasured.

　　她的照片使Urrutia先生怀念过去，那时的物品特别而珍贵。

　　He wanted to try and create the same feeling with his company’s products.

　　他想试着用公司的产品来创造同样的感觉。

　　"In Ubrique what they’re very good at is helping you because they have tons of experience. They’ve been doing this for centuries."

　　“在Ubrique，他们能帮助你很多，因为他们有很多经验。他们已经这样做了好几个世纪了。”

　　He says this kind of slow but precise artisanship is dying out and increasingly hard to find elsewhere.

　　他表示，这种耗时但精细的工艺正在逐渐消失，在其他地方越来越难找到。

　　He acknowledges that he could find cheaper, larger manufacturers elsewhere, but says that’s not the point.

　　他承认，他可以在其他地方找到更便宜、更大的制造商，但他表示，这不是重点。

　　"There’s always been a notion of the economies of scale but that doesn’t work that well here. A good bag needs x amount of hours. "

　　“一直以来都强调大规模生产的概念，但这在这里行不通。一个好包需要几个小时。你不能欺骗自己。 虽然这里的一些工厂已经开始使用装配线来加速制造过程，但许多工厂拒绝妥协。”

　　Jorge Oliva Perez, general manager at local leather brand El Potro says a single worker still makes the entire bag, bar the cutting and the design.

　　当地皮革品牌El Potro的总经理豪尔赫.奥利瓦.佩雷斯表示，这里仍有一名工人负责整个包的制作，不会分工，也不会负责设计。

　　"It’s very important to hold onto these skills," says Jorge.

　　“坚持这些技能是非常重要的，”豪尔赫说。

　　Like many of those working here, Jorge would like this expertise officially recognised with - a "Made in Ubrique" label.

　　和许多在这里工作的人一样，豪尔赫也希望能附上官方认可的专业的“made in Ubrique”的标签。

　　"I think it’s very important for our future," he says.

　　“我认为这对我们的未来非常重要，”他说。

　　Many of the big brands had decided to cut costs by switching supplier - in most cases shifting orders to China or elsewhere in Asia.

　　许多大品牌已经决定通过更换供应商来降低成本，大多将订单转移到中国或亚洲其他地方。

　　While orders from cheaper brands continued, there was less work overall which meant some people lost their jobs and went into other industries.

　　尽管来自较廉价的品牌的订单持续增长，但总的工作减少了，这意味着一些人失去了工作，进入了其他行业。

　　Nonetheless, Ubrique’s councillor for culture Jose Manuel Fernadez Rivera says most workers "kept working because they knew that their quality was better and they were going to come back".

　　尽管如此，Ubrique的Jose Manuel Fernadez Rivera说，大多数工人“继续在这里工作，因为他们知道他们的质量更好，客户将会回来”。

　　It turned out to be true. A year later, most of the big brands had returned.

　　事实证明这是真的。一年后，大多数大品牌都重新回到这里。

　　"The Chinese learn very fast but we know that the quality, the detail that we give in every piece, which is what the brands ask for, they’re not going to get that," he says.

　　他说:“中国人学得很快，但我们知道，每件商品的质量、细节，都是品牌所要求的，他们是做不到的。”

　　The other issue that drove the brands to return to a European manufacturer, was that a bag made in Asia was a tough sell to some of their biggest customers - those living in Hong Kong, China and Singapore.

　　另一个促使这些品牌回到欧洲制造商的原因是，亚洲制造的这些高端包包一般很难在香港、中国和新加坡有市场。

　　When they’re paying hundreds, or in some cases thousands of euros, to buy a bag from a top Italian and French designer then they expect it to be made there not in their home country.

　　他们一般不会支付数百美元甚至数千欧元，从顶级的意大利和法国设计师那里购买一个包。

　　"In this business you have to work with your hands. Every product is different because you do it one by one," says Mr Sanchez.

　　“在这个行业里，你必须用你的双手去一点一点做。工匠一个接一个地做，每一个都独一无二。”

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