It was one of those Friday nights: Organic popcorn, elastic-waist pants, and a scouring of the Internet for free streaming documentaries. “Sure,” I thought to myself, “I’ll turn this into a semi-productive evening, and find a fashion documentary that might be of interest to my friends at EcoSalon.” It was settled. I would watch the James Belzer film,  “Make it in America: Empowering Global Fashion.”

It was roughly 32 minutes into the film when I had to face the bitter truth about my response to this film. “I am so BORED,” I exclaimed to no one. Perhaps my expectations were too high; after all, when I saw the words “Empowering Global Fashion” in the title, I anticipated a harsh, transparent look at the global supply chain and lessons from industry experts on how to keep fashion local. Instead, “Make it in America” seemed to tell the same story over and over again: “My parents came here and worked as tailors in the ’50s. This is what the Garment District looked like. And then, everything got outsourced to China.”

So what?

It’s not that I carry a blatant disregard for the ugly truth about fashion’s global supply chain. After all, Laura Kissel’s “Cotton Road” comes with a deep, investigative look at what outsourcing means for the industry players in China, going beyond the well-known issues related to labor and factories. And it’s not that I don’t care about how we got to this point, either; understanding the fashion industry’s history is imperative to figuring out how to make it sustainable, and how to let it support a local economy again. “Make it in America,” unfortunately, leaves that unsatisfyingly open-ended.

The film does provide an encouraging glimpse at U.S. clothing companies that are keeping it local; they use vertical integration to keep most manufacturing operations under one roof, their products are hand-cut, and they source local suppliers for things like tags and labels (Elan Savir has been using the same small business for this task “since day one,” he says). But they leave no model to follow; no examples of what makes it work, how it makes business more efficient, or how other businesses can do the same thing and still remain profitable.

The film opens with a quote from Martha Stewart: “We’re faced with a big problem. How can we make enough goods for our growing population that will be affordable and well-made? How can we do that here, back in the United States?” The question goes, sadly, unanswered. There are numeric figures dictated by fashion professionals that illustrate the drop in domestic production or jobs, followed by an egregious gap that I would like to see filled with the implications of those numbers, and solutions to them.

The film ends with some thoughts on what needs to happen next, which don’t go tremendously beyond the obvious. “I think that it’s a place where we need to invest some money in rebuilding the infrastructure,” says Theory CEO Andrew Rosen, toward the conclusion.

“If we don’t have the support of the industry, they’ll be no homegrown manufacturing,” echoes J. Alexander, of “America’s Top Model” fame. “Sorry.”

Furthermore, the film seems to conveniently gloss over the questions it raises about more than just the supply chain. During one scene in a Los Angeles denim factory, for example, workers are seen wearing protective mouth and nose masks during the process of sanding and washing jeans. “Why?” I asked. “What are our jeans being made or treated with that’s not safe to breathe in?” For a documentary with such a lofty title, it seems that its content is filled more with doom-and-gloom historical details, more than empowerment.

That’s not to say, however, that those facts and figures are of no interest. Here’s the information laid out by “Make it in America”; now, it’s up to us to put it to use.

1. “There were so many factories in the beginning, that we would just walk through buildings and knock on doors to see if factories were willing to take our work. We used a lot of word-of-mouth. Friends of other designers would refer us to factories, cutting rooms, pleaters, stitchers. Everyone was really helpful. People really wanted to see us succeed, so I still work with a lot of the same factories I worked with 20 years ago.” Nanette Lepore, designer

2. “You cannot underestimate the importance of the [Garment] District to startups. I mean, without the district, [it] probably would be hard to film ‘Project Runway’ here. … If you can make ten garments in your apartment, how are you going to make 100? The district enables them to take their designs to somebody that will make their patterns, to somebody that will grade their sizes, cut their small quantities, and there are factories that will actually sell them.” Yeohlee, designer

3. “The funny thing about a fashion business, is that there’s no way you can do it alone.  … You hear those origin stories all the time, of just, like, one designer making something out of nothing, and it just magically happens. Yeah, that’s all complete bull-hockey.” Bob Bland, CEO and Founder, Manufacture NY

4. “You can walk these streets, on 37th, 38th, 39th, and you see a bunch of stores on the ground level. The ground-level stores that sell you fabric and trims…it’s not necessarily exactly what you’re looking for, as a designer. They have the big places, like Mood, but first of all, they’re very expensive. Second of all, you can’t go and reorder from them, because [they] generally sell close-out items. They go around to different mills…where there’s leftover fabric. But if you actually want to design and create something, and then reuse that material, you can’t do that by going into the stores on the ground level. So all of the really interesting businesses are on the 2nd, 3rd, or 15th floor of these buildings.” Nelis Parts, former COO/CFO, Manufacture NY

5. “Starting in the ’40s, there was a garment industry here that started to flourish. You had a lot of Jewish manufacturers from New York come down here after WWII, and in the ’50s, sportswear started to flourish. The factories started taking off. They even had a fashion week of sorts. … And then, when the Cuban revolution came, [Cuban immigrants] became the factory workers, and by the ’60s, Miami was the third-largest garment production center, after LA and NY. The garment industry was a way to get a leg-up in the United States.” Doreen Hemlock, Business Writer, Sun Sentinel

6. “Florida was definitely the largest producer of swimwear. What happened, though, was as the economy took a turn at times, production then moved to China. It moved offshore, and really shut down a lot of the production that was done not only in Florida, but also, in the United States.” Judy Stein, Executive Director, Florida Swimwear Association

7. “The other issue with Miami was, the Cuban women that used to come in those days: They retired, and their daughters didn’t want to sit at [a] sewing machine. Those are, today, the doctors and the lawyers.” George Feldenkreis, Chairman and CEO, Perry Ellis International

8. “I believe that the people who make the garment also need to be happy. I believe that if you bought a shirt and it’s being made by people who are suffering and miserable in some far-away country, that somehow, you will feel that when you’re wearing the shirt.” Elan Savir, President, ELAN

Related on EcoSalon

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The Insourcing Trend: What is the Impact of Clothing Made in the USA?

Image of shopping bag via Shutterstock

The post 10 Memorable Quotes From the Less-Than-Memorable Film: ‘Make it in America: Empowering Global Fashion’ appeared first on EcoSalon.

Several large companies are bringing clothing production back to the USA, lowering unemployment rates and increasing our competitive ability. But at what cost?

Over the last year, several U.S. based companies have announced that they are bringing production back to American soil. These companies include Apple, Caterpillar, Ford Motor, General Electric and Whirlpool. Among apparel manufacturers, the likes of Karen Kane, hoodie producer American Giant, Keen Footwear, Brooks Brothers, Abercrombie, Opening Ceremony, Levi’s and even Walmart are ‘inshoring’ production to meet the ‘Made in USA’ apparel standard.

In the 1940s this country made 40 percent of the planet’s goods, but since then our manufacturing activity has shrunk to a minute 18 percent. The reason, although not one to be proud of, is the simple fact that labor and other resources became exponentially cheaper in other nations and were more “available” for use. Our material culture has become increasingly dependent on the manipulation of these resources no matter what the cost, mostly due to perceived obsolescence. While a most lucrative business for some of our nation’s richest has become the full exploitation of other countries’ resources and people, too many citizens of this nation wallow in the depressed towns that have been bereaved of the once heavily invested domestic industries. So why have these large companies decided to bring back manufacturing now?

Four main reasons:

1. Labor, transportation, and industrial-land costs are rising in China, one of our largest import countries. Wages are rising at a rate of 15 to 20 percent per year, while wages are stagnant in the U.S.

2. Local manufacturing allows for lower transportation costs and shorter turn-around times, allowing companies to respond to changing consumer demands much quicker. It also allows companies to produce smaller runs of items, cutting back on over-production, as well as increasing efficiency and thus lowering costs.

3. The USA is experiencing an energy boom – unfortunately it is in the name of natural gas. Thanks to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, North America produces more natural gas than any other continent, and is projected to become the world’s largest petroleum and natural gas exporter by 2020.

4. The move is a very political one, and especially tied to the recent elections and insourcing campaigns to decrease unemployment rates and serve a population that is placing more value on U.S. manufactured items.

When Ralph Lauren manufactured the 2012 U.S. Olympic uniforms in China, the label receiving endless amounts of criticism. Since that faux pas, it seems that more attention has been put on apparel manufactured in the U.S. Although domestic apparel manufacturing is still 40 percent more expensive than in China, the factors mentioned above are contributing to a shift, with orders rising by 30 percent from 2010 for several homeland factories. Demand may also have some effect on the shift, as a study from the American Research Group shows that in 2012, 75 percent of Americans were willing to pay more for U.S. made goods, up from the 50 percent in 2010. Consumers, especially in the late twenties/early thirties age bracket, are turning to U.S. made clothing, causing the trend to have taken off for those with an interest in fashion and a disposable income.

Outsourcing of apparel manufacturing was at its peak in 2010, when China made 40 percent of the clothing bought in the U.S. Since then, labor costs in China have been growing rapidly, but so has (rather ironically) Chinese consumer interest in U.S. made clothing. Manufacturing technologies that have not been previously available in the U.S. are also being implemented in our factories, such as the superwashing of wool. French textile processor Chargeurs opened a superwashing facility in South Carolina in the late 2000’s, surprisingly at the behest of the U.S. military. It seems that synthetics weren’t the choice material for soldiers, as their plastic qualities would cause the materials to melt onto their skin from the heat of explosives. In fact, the Kissell Amendment of 2009 requires all military apparel to be made in the USA.

But what about the labor force here? Are there really enough educated and skilled workers to put a highly functioning apparel production industry in place? Currently, no. Young people with the opportunity have sought careers in more lucrative industries, and our education systems do not cater to skilled craft instruction. This can hopefully shift, and will bring with it an appreciation for the crafts among younger generations.

Although production is moving back to the USA, increasing employment opportunities, injecting the economy with more value and creating infrastructure for a country that is seemingly beginning to come apart at the seams, what does all of this mean in terms of the environment?  As mentioned before, a large factor in homeland production is the local availability of  domestic fuel, but one that will give energy guzzling industries such as chemical producers and steelmakers the perfect ‘patriotic’ excuse to produce and pollute more. Fracking involves pumping pressurized fluids through rock formations that are a mile or more under the ground, to extract oil and gas. These rock formations are often surrounded by pure, clean groundwater aquifers that can become badly contaminated with the heavy metals and toxic chemicals used in the process, as well as with the oil and gas itself.  As “the Saudi Arabia of natural gas”, like Nancy Lazer, co-head of New York-based International Strategy & Investment declares, the U.S. will no doubt see be a plethora of investors ready to drive this potentially polluting cause of fracking under blind pretenses such as job creation, economic stability and global energy dominance. It would seem this current petroleum energy investment, production and dependency cycle is one “made in the USA” equation we could do without.

Yet, energy obtained via fracking is in fact a choice many manufacturers are leaning toward, especially in the energy-dependent apparel industry. But what happened to the creation of jobs through green energy investments? Why don’t our nations top researchers embark on studies for the viability of nationwide green energy schemes that can be utilized by cities and industries alike? Why aren’t we more aware of the implications of a Made in the USA? Most importantly, why can’t so many of these large manufacturers, our government and the people of this nation work together to bring honest, responsibly functioning, environmentally sound and highly efficient production systems into existence?

Made in the USA is definitely a direction we should be heading in, but not at a great cost to the environment or the long-term stability of domestic industries. Isn’t now the time to demand and input systems and methods that will work realistically to create a different view of true homeland security in an environmentally and culturally egalitarian country?

Check in next week to hear more about clothing labels that are realizing this and carrying it out.

Image: USDAgov

The post The Insourcing Trend: What is the Impact of Clothing Made in the USA? appeared first on EcoSalon.