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.
西班牙南部的烏布里克鎮美麗而遙遠。它沒有機場或火車站，甚至沒有常規的公共汽車。
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.
它的位置位于一個山谷的底部，四周環繞著巨大的小山，這意味著最方便的方法就是開車。但即便如此，司機也只能在蜿蜒曲折的道路上行駛。
The town is around 75 miles south of Seville, nowhere near the world’s fashion capitals of Milan, Paris, New York or London.
小鎮位于塞維利亞以南約75英里處，離世界時尚之都米蘭、巴黎、紐約或倫敦不遠。
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，許多頂級時裝品牌的皮具都是從這里購買的。
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、古馳(Gucci)、愛馬仕(Hermes)、香奈兒(Chanel)、克洛伊(Chloe)、洛伊(Loewe)和卡羅萊納(Carolina Herrera)的很多手袋、錢包和皮帶等物品都是這里的工匠制作的。
Yet almost none of these designers are willing to talk about it.
然而，大多數設計師中幾乎沒有人愿意談論這個問題。
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.
保密主要是來自于怕有人仿造高端設計來生產廉價的山寨產品，這對奢侈品零售商來說是是一個巨大的威脅。
Juan Antonio Sanchez, manager at leather goods manufacturer Ranchel, says the big brands often have strict demands.
皮革制品生產商Ranchel的經理胡安.安東尼奧.桑切斯表示，這些大品牌往往有嚴格的要求。
"We have to sign a contract of confidentiality, then the factory, the manager and every worker have to sign it.
“我們必須簽訂保密協議，工廠、經理和每個工人都必須簽署。”
"They have an individual contact and they cannot take pictures, they cannot take the designs or anything to do with the products," he explains.
“他們都會私下溝通，工匠們不能拍照，不能做與設計或任何與產品有關的東西，”他解釋道。
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，該鎮一半以上的居民在與皮革有關的工作，他們生產了全國大部分的皮革制品，并遠銷海外。
The techniques needed to produce such goods at the top end of the quality scale has been passed down from generation to generation.
在生產這種高質量的產品所需要的技術已經代代相傳。
Mr Sanchez says most in the town learn these skills when they’re young by watching their parents as they work.
桑切斯先生說，鎮上大多數人年輕時通過看父母如何工作來學習這些技能。
"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.
“這種技術只能從父親傳給兒子，因為這技術非常專業。這就在他們的血液里流傳著，”桑切斯先生說。
Jose Urrutia, founder of high end shoe and accessories firm La Portegna, says an acquaintance told him about the town.
高端鞋和配飾公司La Portegna的創始人Jose Urrutia說，一位熟人告訴他這個小鎮的存在。
"I asked them for some samples and I was blown away by the quality of the stuff they made," he says.
他說:“我向他們要了一些樣品，他們制造的東西的質量完全說服了我。”
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.
他說，他成立公司的想法來自于他的祖母，她是一位熱衷于旅行的旅行者，在她的環球旅行中結識了作家歐內斯特.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先生懷念過去，那時的物品特別而珍貴。
He wanted to try and create the same feeling with his company’s products.
他想試著用公司的產品來創造同樣的感覺。
"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，他們能幫助你很多，因為他們有很多經驗。他們已經這樣做了好幾個世紀了。”
He says this kind of slow but precise artisanship is dying out and increasingly hard to find elsewhere.
他表示，這種耗時但精細的工藝正在逐漸消失，在其他地方越來越難找到。
He acknowledges that he could find cheaper, larger manufacturers elsewhere, but says that’s not the point.
他承認，他可以在其他地方找到更便宜、更大的制造商，但他表示，這不是重點。
"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. "
“一直以來都強調大規模生產的概念，但這在這里行不通。一個好包需要幾個小時。你不能欺騙自己。 雖然這里的一些工廠已經開始使用裝配線來加速制造過程，但許多工廠拒絕妥協。”
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.
當地皮革品牌El Potro的總經理豪爾赫.奧利瓦.佩雷斯表示，這里仍有一名工人負責整個包的制作，不會分工，也不會負責設計。
"It’s very important to hold onto these skills," says Jorge.
“堅持這些技能是非常重要的，”豪爾赫說。
Like many of those working here, Jorge would like this expertise officially recognised with - a "Made in Ubrique" label.
和許多在這里工作的人一樣，豪爾赫也希望能附上官方認可的專業的“made in Ubrique”的標簽。
"I think it’s very important for our future," he says.
“我認為這對我們的未來非常重要，”他說。
Many of the big brands had decided to cut costs by switching supplier - in most cases shifting orders to China or elsewhere in Asia.
許多大品牌已經決定通過更換供應商來降低成本，大多將訂單轉移到中國或亞洲其他地方。
While orders from cheaper brands continued, there was less work overall which meant some people lost their jobs and went into other industries.
盡管來自較廉價的品牌的訂單持續增長，但總的工作減少了，這意味著一些人失去了工作，進入了其他行業。
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".
盡管如此，Ubrique的Jose Manuel Fernadez Rivera說，大多數工人“繼續在這里工作，因為他們知道他們的質量更好，客戶將會回來”。
It turned out to be true. A year later, most of the big brands had returned.
事實證明這是真的。一年后，大多數大品牌都重新回到這里。
"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.
他說:“中國人學得很快，但我們知道，每件商品的質量、細節，都是品牌所要求的，他們是做不到的。”
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.
另一個促使這些品牌回到歐洲制造商的原因是，亞洲制造的這些高端包包一般很難在香港、中國和新加坡有市場。
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.
他們一般不會支付數百美元甚至數千歐元，從頂級的意大利和法國設計師那里購買一個包。
"In this business you have to work with your hands. Every product is different because you do it one by one," says Mr Sanchez.
“在這個行業里，你必須用你的雙手去一點一點做。工匠一個接一個地做，每一個都獨一無二。”
