Since the late 1980s the European apparel sector has witnessed a dramatic transformation. Driven by increasing costs in Western Europe, major Western apparel retailers and buyers have expanded their contracting of production into lower cost regions of `postcommunist' Eastern Europe and the...

After a period in the 1990s of rapid integration into the production and trade networks of the European Union (EU) (and to a lesser extent of the United States), clothing manufacturers in East and Central Europe have had to adjust quickly to the changing costs of production with EU accession,...