The finished product is what intrigues most to the fashion industry. The fashion shows, the models, the celebrities in the front row, the clothing, the editors, the spreads in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, the designers. Intrigued by the sheer force of a superficial $173 billion industry, priding itself on its ability to sell the pseudo-reality of beauty through expensive clothing and models, it hides the force which drives its. What is hidden beneath the $20,000 gowns, is the seamtressess, the cutters, the assemblers of the garments, especially those in the rich historic garment district of New York City, heavily immigrant.
A new book by Danie Soyer, A Coat of Many Colors: Immigration, Globalization, and Reform in New York City's Garment Industry explores the importance, as well as the shift of the rugged aspect of the NYC garment industry. In a book review by Forward (Tracking Change, and the Lack of It, In New York's Garment Industry), the reviewer writes:
The well-written essays …by historians, sociologists and economists explore the emergence and decline of the garment industry in New York, its shifting geography, its tailors and "troublemakers," its various "cultures of work," its men and its women and their expanding spheres of participation, and what all this has meant for New Yorkers … all of whom are experiencing the global process of economic change.
Depth is what this book provides. It’s a much-needed supplement to the essential works of fashion industry scholars, who instead of writing about the clothing, they take a deeper, critical look into the reality, into the truth of what fuels this industry. There are trade pacts, economical shifts and trends, consumer behavior, farmers, herders, third-world countries, conglomerates, labor laws, fair trade issues, and much more that builds this industry. The Forward reviewer writes:
"A Coat of Many Colors" reminds us powerfully of our obligation to help construct international fair-labor standards, and to call for the social responsibility of corporations, as well as governments, unions and individuals, all of whom are involved, willingly or not, in the global political economy of the garment industry.
I couldn’t agree more. As a fashion industry journalist, who hopes to one day embark on a project that would contribute to providing depth and shedding light on this industry, and it’s multiple facets, I applaud this collection of essays which chronicles the changes, and shifts in this historically immigrant industry. It is a breath of fresh to read something other than Naomi Campbell’s cell phone bashing and Kate Moss’s drug binges.
