The Garment Industry
Industrialisation
Between the might of the British Empire and the Industrial Revolution, textile manufacturing rocketed from cottage industry to big business in the eighteenth century. The invention of machinery to mechanise the spinning process saw raw cotton and silk shipped from the far reaches of the empire back to the mills of Lancashire for processing.
This meant that the stages of production with the biggest margins happened in Britain. However it was the mill owners who made their fortunes, while artisans and craftspeople were reduced to factory workers in terrible conditions. As with many burgeoning Victorian industries, only those at the top of the chain saw any of the value that had been created.
Unionisation
Poor conditions in the mills and garment manufacturing continued throughout the nineteenth century, but at the start of the twentieth century, as labour unions and movements such as the suffragettes grew, things were set to change. In 1911, a horrific event in New York caught the public imagination to such an extent that it is now considered the catalyst for subsequent labour reforms. Workers in New York’s garment district worked punishing hours in stifling and dangerous conditions for little pay. On March 25th a fire ripped through the Triangle Waist Company Factory, and, unable to escape through a locked door, 146 women died. The factory owners were tried for manslaughter after it emerged that they routinely locked these doors.
Globalisation
But as working conditions improved, so did production costs. The post war baby boom created demand for a new type of fashion industry selling cheap off-the-peg clothing. Garment makers began to look for ways to cut their costs. Some American companies began to move production into Mexico. By the time the 1980s brought improved communications and an unfettering of the financial markets, the time was ripe for a new, globalised industry. Clothing companies were now able to reap huge benefits from the low costs of production in less developed countries, and neo-liberals could argue that factory jobs were the first step out of poverty for the workers. The companies began to lose interest in owning their sources of production, and instead refocused on branding themselves to an ever more sophisticated consumer.
World Trade
Between 1974 and 2005 a trading agreement called the Multi Fibre Arrangement attempted to protect declining western manufacturing by limiting imports from those countries with lower labour costs. This accelerated the spread of garment manufacture throughout the globe as companies chased available quotas. Unsurprisingly, big multinational companies were the most successful at this. Countries with quotas, desperate for foreign investment, began to ring fence areas for export processing zones. Companies were attracted to these by the reduced tax and red tape, but for factory workers no red tape meant no employee rights and no unions.
Fast Fashion
Consumption trends show that we want increasingly more, yet cheaper, clothes. Brands shop around for suppliers who offer the lowest cost price and the shortest turn around time. Now competing in a global marketplace, manufacturers are forced into fulfilling difficult order terms. Work gets subcontracted out from anywhere to other factories, or as seen in a Panorama documentary, to children in refugee camps. In some factories overtime is mandatory and doors are locked to ensure workers stay and complete orders. In February 2010 a Bangladeshi factory that made clothes for H&M among others was devastated by a fire, and 20 women workers died.
History is repeating itself on a global scale, and we all share in the responsibility.