There are many reasons behind our shift from domestic manufacturing to outsourcing. Obviously, the ultimate contributing factor has been cost. It is significantly cheaper to produce clothing in countries where the cost of labor is a tiny fraction of what it costs to pay American workers. Sadly, as consumers we have become so used to the increasingly cheap cost of clothing that it's become the one commodity to actually decrease in price over the last several decades. In 1960, the average American would buy 25 garments a year, spending 10% of their income on apparel. In present times, the average American buys nearly 70 garments a year but only spends about 3.5% of their income to do so.
We have become addicted to fast and cheap fashion, with little regard to environmental or economic impacts. Hundreds of thousands of US jobs have been lost, and waste created by clothing manufacture and consumption has risen to an all-time high.
As a lover of all things fashion, I've had lots of experience with all kinds of retailers and all kinds of clothing. What has always struck me the most is how dramatically quality changes depending on where a garment was made. So many of the vintage dresses I have in my closet are fully-lined, have proper hems, and special details provided by highly-skilled handiwork- and they are almost all made in the United States. Contemporary dresses from moderately priced designer diffusion lines such as See by Chloe and Marc by Marc Jacobs have about half of the quality put into my vintage pieces, and are mostly produced in China. Then, there are the garments bought at mass-retailers such as the Gap or Forever 21. These items come at the prices we've become accustomed to, but at such a low quality that they only last for several wearings before you have to toss it out for a new one.
I would really love to see more of us spending a little extra money up front in order to purchase clothing that lasts and was made with love. I'd also love to see all the clothing consumption we do go entirely into our own economy. As we all know and have felt, the last several years have been hard on our country. Especially for the middle and lower classes (and guess who works in domestic clothing factories??)
Every garment sold in the United States must come equipped with a label stating where it was made. A "Made in America" label means that the garment was made "all or virtually all in the United States" and regulated by the Federal Trade Commission. I've noticed that while there are many designers who make clothing in America, many of them only make SOME of their garments domestically. Additionally, it is hard to find exactly which designers and which garments are Made in the USA without holding the label in your own hand. I would like to change this by offering a place online where shoppers can easily find stylish clothing that is 100% Made in the USA.
With that, thank you for joining me on this adventure. It's going to take a lot of research on my part but I am determined to successfully provide a true catalog of USA-made clothing, or as I'd like to call it, Domestic Apparel.
(Source: http://blogs.kqed.org/lowdown/2013/05/24/madeinamerica/)
