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.