Sweatshop til you drop: Curing clothing amensia with some fashion history

The beauty of being born and raised in Utah is the cute, quirky, and mundane life skills only a Utahan could claim. From how to make five different savory dishes from jello, to knowing how to lure, catch, skin, cook, and mate fish, these adorable little skills are more than funny dinner chatter, hey sometimes they come in handy. My first claim to one of those many life skills was through my introduction to the world of sewing.  I am not sure how many high schools do this, but back when I was running the halls of Ben Lomond High (Scotties stand up!:) I was required to pass a sewing class to obtain my high school diploma. Definite class requisite throw back right? Who makes kids labor over sewing machines in "home economics" anymore? Don't those fools know we will never do anything more than pray a hole in a pair of pants repairs itself?

Anyways, from the first day of entering the class I knew it was going to be a challenge. Even turning the sewing machine on was an intricate task best left to survivors of the Great Depression and the folks who work for Maytag. Although I experienced many a blunder in that class, I came away with a pair of plaid shorts (which I still rock as sleepwear to this day!) and an appreciation of the privilege of not having to sew my own wardrobe.

Can you imagine what it would be like to labor over every article of clothing you wore? If we were all forced to depend on self sewn wares, there would be a lot more spandex and muumuus (google if you don't know) being worn to business meetings.

Though it's safe to assume most folks think it's great to not to have to sew their clothes, few know the efforts involved in getting that new pair of slacks, or the reasons why they don't have to sew their own clothes like their grandpappies and grandmommies probably did.

Well, you're in luck dear reader. Take a trip with me down memory lane to understand where this retail phenomenon we call fast fashion all began....

Circa 1800

The 19th century marked the time when families were solid production units to be reckoned with. Not only did the average family raise their own animals, make their own butter, and bake their own bread, they crafted raw materials into cloth, and stitched that cloth into a workable wardrobe. Yes, the colors were few and the style "durable" at best, but families knew exactly where their clothes came from and had a custom fit. For the more affluent, tailors were available in city centers to craft custom made pieces for large fees, but most people were left to fend for their own attire.

1830s: The "slop shops"

Ready to wear clothing first came on the scene in the most unpredictable form: sailor's uniforms. Life on the sea definitely isn't conducive to getting your sew on, so it's understandable that ready made sailors clothes would be a hot commodity. The shops that threw these pieces together were donned "slop shops" and crafted manufactured materials that were limited in function and style. Fast forward a decade or two, and men's clothing began to see major shifts in production. With a civil war brewing, the military was in need of uniforms made fast. After many soldiers were measured, industry folk began to see common patterns in sizes they believed could be standardized. Thanks to some tweaks to a new found invention done by Issac Sanger, the sewing machine allowed manufacturers to establish a legit textile industry for ready made male clothing in the U.S., using the sizes measured from military troops.

1920s: Those "Flapper" dresses...not quite ready made

Since women weren't really participating in war like that, they were left out of the textile manufacturers' radar for ready made clothes. A few woman's items were available through ready made production (such as cloaks and coats) but a majority of women still crafted their own clothes or sought tailors. Improved industrial techniques, a growing urban professional class, and a rise in regional advertising fueled ready made woman's wear. The textile industry now had a large population to appease, but lacked the research of common body measurements necessary to craft ready made pieces that fit the majority of women. Clothes were being made fast and for cheap, but the arbitrary measurement standards each manufacturer used meant clothes were one step away from being potato sacks.

The terrible turn around on ready made clothes for women motivated the U.S. government to get involved with standardizing woman's sizes. 15,000 women were measured in a survey conducted by the US department of agriculture, which gave standards for manufacturers to use when slapping together those debazzled flapper dresses iconic of the time.

Fast fashion was finally starting to take flight.....

The "piecework" fashion industry

Many benefits were being reaped from the industrial production of clothing. No longer having to hunch over a thread and needle to make their clothes meant people had increased leisure time and a variety of cheap choices for their wardrobe.

This also created a new industry of employment. The textile industry was one of the easiest to break into. All you needed was a cheap sewing machine and a space to layout those patterns and materials. The cheapness and accessibility of sewing machines contributed to a "piecework" industry, where workers were paid not based on hours worked, but on amount of garments produced. The industry was so fragmented and decentralized, workers were  given one small piece of a larger garment to work on throughout their day. As many as 150 different operations were put together to create a whole garment, with workers being paid a penance for the amount of labor expended on those items.

Sweatshop phenomenon

As the textile industry grew, labor demands expanded to hundreds of thousands of U.S. workers producing clothes in factories. Most of these workers were recent immigrants, and crafted the fashionably cheap wares in deplorable work environments. Extremely overworked and underpaid, labor unions began to shape the industry and improve standards of these workers, but the gains were very small in comparison to the exploits occurring within the field...

So w hat's going on today?

The U.S. isn't the production powerhouse it used to be, as most industry production is now exported to other countries where labor costs are low and profits can be quickly gained. This sturcture is leading to a new age of controversial sweatshop labor that is surprisingly supported by some but abhorred by many.....

I think that's enough of a history lesson for now, so many facts to take in with so little time..

tune in next week for a continuation of fashion history 101 and to get an insiders perspective of the labor of love i.e. garment making

toodles!! until we meet again

stay fly

-CBlack