01-History of Garment Industry

As industrial revolution started in the 19th century, garment industry also began to evolve but it was in its immaturity and had no developed system for garment manufacturing. It was observed that they can develop standard patterns which can fit more than one. They developed a mathematical sizing system to accommodate most women with very few patterns. As businessmen, interested in lowering costs, they continued developing these patterns to become paper “information systems” engineered to control quantities of exact reproductions in cutting and stitching clothing in mass production systems.

The production of ready-made clothing, which continued to grow, completed its transformation to an "industrialized" profession with the invention of a practical and commercially viable sewing machine in 1850s. (Elias Howe patented the first sewing machine in 1844 although Isaac Merritt Singer, whose name is synonymous with the machine, added modifications and marketed the sewing machine for the first time to the mass public in the early 1850s. For more information, see also Sewing Machine.) The sewing machine, available to individuals for a relatively small amount of capital, allowed for a level of production hitherto unseen. Rather than forcing seamstresses and other contractors out of business as many reformers had warned, the sewing machine's advanced technology increased both employment and production.



The need for thousands of ready-made soldiers' uniforms during the Civil War helped the garment industry to expand further. Armies, both Union and Confederate, also instituted a standardized system of sizing for soldiers' clothing to make allotment easier; this system would continue on even after the War ended. By the end of the 1860s, Americans bought most of their clothing rather than making it themselves. Although ready-made clothing for women lagged behind that of men's due to more intricate tailoring demands, changes in style reversed the trend by the 1880s. With an ample supply of cheap labor and a well-established distribution network, New York was prepared to meet the demand. During the 1870s the value of garments produced in New York increased six-fold. By 1880 New York produced more garments than its four closest urban competitors combined, and in 1900 the value and output of the clothing trade was three times that of the city's second largest industry, sugar refining. New York's function as America's culture and fashion center also helped the garment industry by providing constantly changing styles and new demand; in 1910, 70% of the nation's women's clothing and 40% of the men's was produced in the City.

Composition of the Garment Industry. 
Even before the invention of the sewing machine, the ready-made garment industry relied on a system of "putting-out." As early as the 1820s, clothing manufacturers contracted work to female workers who would do the job for wages 25% to 50% less then that of male tailors. Rather than working in the clothing shop, the women seamstresses would complete their assigned sewing tasks in their homes. The ethnic composition of the seamstresses mirrored the general trend of immigration to New York City. Prior to 1850, most seamstresses were German immigrants or native born, poor Americans who had come to New York from rural areas, while from 1850 until the 1880s Irish immigrants dominated the industry.



In the 1880s the nature of the garment industry experienced another significant change. Immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe replaced seamstresses, who often worked alone or in very small groups, with contractors. Under the new arrangement, factories produced the fabric and the designs, which were then distributed to contractors on credit. The contractor was responsible that the fabric that he had acquired on credit be made into clothing, and then sold to stores and other retail outlets. He (it was almost always a "he") hired neighbors and other women in the area to do the job. The contractor paid by the piece, though he could refuse to pay for work he considered shoddy. As factory machinery became more sophisticated in the 1870s and 1880s, parts of a piece of clothing could be mass produced and women working at home did finishing work rather than making whole pieces of clothing from scratch. 



Female homework satisfied the desire of most husbands for their wives to remain at home and allowed the women to supervise their children. Working at home also eliminated commuting time and left more time for household chores. Women from different apartments would often work together in one of their kitchens or best rooms (the room fronting the street or rear yard and therefore receiving the most sunlight) to keep each other company. In warmer weather women often moved into the hallways or onto the roofs and fire escapes (when they existed). 

By the end of the nineteenth century and on into the twentieth century the putting-out system gave way, for the most part, to "sweat-shops." In this system, manufacturers provided the raw materials, designed the clothes, and marketed the final product, but the work of making the clothes was again handed over to contractors. The contractors would now secure a workspace, sewing machines, and ten to twenty workers, usually female immigrants. Each worker had a specific task to perform but was paid on the basis of how many garments the whole group was able to produce. By the turn of the century, most ready-to-wear clothing came from such shops.