Clothing, then and now, and a lost manufacturing base.

derek guy@dieworkwear

at the turn of the 20th century, working class men had something like two pairs of pants, three shirts, and a pair of boots. middle class men wore detachable collars bc shirts were expensive. one man died bc he got drunk. his head drooped & he choked to death on his stiff collar

Very interesting, really, and not just in the context of the Very Stable Genius and his trade war with China, but in terms of the focus of this page.  

I've discussed this before, but cheap clothing is a post World War Two thing.  The entire series of jokes about people having vast numbers of shoes, or t-shirts that are decades old, reflects a bonafide change in how people live.  I recall my father mentioning that at one time it was considered ideal to buy a suit with two pairs of pants, as you could stretch out the cleaning.

Clothing now costs less, and frankly it lasts a lot longer, than it once did.

Indeed, how often do you really wear out clothing?  I'm do wear out shits, but waistline expansion over time is more likely to render my trousers unwearable than really wearing them out is.  Granted, part of that is because I have a fair number of them.  If I was wearing the same two or three pairs of trousers every day, the story would be different.  But they also simply last longer than they once did.

This is really intended to be an observation on clothing, then and now, but a little remark about now is warranted.

I have a cotton Colorado Rockies kelly green baseball hat sitting here where I'm typing.  If you look at the label, it's made in China.  Lots of Levis are made in Vietnam.  We have, truly, exported clothing manufacturing overseas, which is to say, the producers did.  I do lament that, but do U.S. consumers want to pay more for clothing?  I wonder.

I guess with tariffs, we'll find out.

I have, as readers  here know, a fondness for M65 Field Jackets.  I'd like to have an OG 107 one for every day wear.  I thought one would be easy to find, but they aren't, so I ordered one, to my present regret, from Propper.  It came Chinese made (of course) and the size is completely wrong.  I should have sent it back, but I didn't, as my extreme introverted nature precludes me from doing so.  I thought maybe I could shrink it, but it doesn't look like I'll be able to.  Anyhow, it's just wrong.  

I note this as US military uniforms are in fact made in the U.S., and indeed I believe there may be a statutory requirement to that effect.  Some years ago there was a scandal when the US ended up with some berets that were made overseas.  I've heard of the military actually checking to make certain that soldiers don't deploy with foreign made gear, but that must be tougher than ever, with the loss of so much of the US manufacturing base.

All of which is to say that I'm sympathetic with those who lament that loss.  But the time to really address it came and went some thirty to forty to fifty years ago and, if could be addressed, which is a huge if, it can't be done all at once.

And, my Propper M65 Field Jacket aside, things made overseas are not, by and large, of cheap quality anymore.  Some things surely are.  The stuff you get at Harbor Freight might be second rate. . . or not.  As overseas manufacturing has increased, quality has too.