The Other Side of Fashion: Inside an SF Sewing Factory
June 17th, 2009
We mostly tout the bright, cheery side of fashion. But there’s another side that lurks in buildings throughout the City.
Boing Boing Gadgets blogger Lisa Katayama recently published photos of an abandoned Mission District sewing factory on Action Orange:
My friend Jenny’s mom works at a sewing factory in the Mission district of San Francisco. Every day, she and a dozen or so Chinese ladies make stacks of dresses for Macy’s that sell for hundreds of dollars each, on the second floor of a building right across from hipster bars and nightclubs. Their revenue: $2-3 per dress.
But this month, after nearly 30 years in operation, one of the businesses in her building is shutting down due to declining revenues. Most of the women who work there will be filing for unemployment soon–they don’t speak any English, are uneducated, and only know how to sew.
It’s a reminder that fashion is not born on the rack, nor is it all glitz and glam, and that, yes, real people make the clothes, shoes and handbags we covet and blog about and wear.
(3 Comments)
June 17 2009, 6:05 pm
Great piece!
June 17 2009, 10:41 pm
This story is very sad and my heart goes out to all the families this has affected.
JVS (Jewish Vocational Services) offers a Back to Work program for victims of just this type of thing:
http://www.jvs.org/training_Back_to_Work.shtml
Over the past decade, many industries – particularly the garment industry – have closed their Bay Area factories and moved operations overseas. With these closings, hundreds of skilled garment workers with limited English now find themselves without jobs and without prospects. JVS developed the Back to Work program to help these mainly Chinese-born workers find new careers.Before each Back to Work Program cycle, JVS partners with local employers – securing jobs for the future students in careers such as home health care and environmental service work. The program is then tailored to fit the students’ future careers, including industry-specific vocabulary and skills training. Each cycle includes an intensive 26-week Vocational ESL class, followed by 27 weeks of occupational skills training, 4 weeks computer and professional skills training and finally 4 weeks of job search strategies. For more information, please email Gabriela Bernal (gbernal@jvs.org), or call 415-782-6245.
I don’t know if this is helpful, but I thought I’d pass on the info just in case.
June 18 2009, 1:28 pm
these women should be able to work for themselves. Foprget changing careers they ahve talent that they acna utilize to create their own fashion business.