The US apparel industry is worth $350B in revenue. Only 2% of that volume is made in USA.
The future is about bringing back the 98%.
For local supply chains to scale to making the 98%, prices must be accessible. BUT real-impact fashion is more than accessible price points. Creating the future is creating beautiful clothing with a purpose.
What is beautiful clothing?
Clothing that makes us feel good. When customized for our perfectly unique bodies, they celebrate and enhance our personalities.
They’re made by one team. Connected, nimble and reactive across sourcing, design, production, and shipping.
They are made by well-meaning, well-cared-for people in local factories we can visit and see
They are made just when we need them, with quantity-precision. No excess to pollute this stunning world.
They are made of yarns that cuddle back into their original womb of the earth, because the future is about circularity.
When you wear “beautiful” clothing, the commodity becomes a connection.
As we learn to build the future, we discover that there has been a timeless, unifying philosophy across centuries on how to make beautiful clothing.
Humans, according to studies, first wore clothes about 170 thousand years ago. After skin and leather, the first types of woven textiles were natural and hence circular. Flax, cotton, silk, and linen were made locally across India, Egypt, China, and Japan. From making textiles, emerged the skills of making clothing. The history of how clothing was made is both fascinating and varied across different cultures
In more recent history, in the early 1800s before the sewing machine, homes in rural areas “owned” the whole textile and clothing making process. Wool and linen were most common. Yarn dyes were made from berries, roots, and barks. Sheep were fed and sheared by men. Children cleaned. Then spinning yarn, cooking colored dyes, weaving, and sewing was done by the women of the household. The children also took care of the knitting for stockings and caps. There was no waste, because all items were made to cover needs across varying weathers in exact quantities for the family. The entire family worked as a connected supply chain to produce cloth very locally in their homes.
Until the 12th century, clothing was a means to cover the body only. The tailor then emerged, especially in the cities, a magician able to cut and piece together a garment in different ways to enhance the contours of the body with customized clothing. The tailor carried forward the no-excess tradition of made to order, but in addition, he was also able to sell the privilege of expression through fashion.
Along the way, towards the middle of the last century, we outsourced our production to far flung countries, and the American Apparel industry lost its way and lost its purpose. We became the unwise emperor with his new clothes, running the streets thinking we had on a shiny set of fabulous new clothes, when really, we were running the streets naked. We literally lost our shirts.
Whether 2500 BC or 1718 or 2018, clothing with a purpose, or “beautiful” clothing always has been made locally, with natural circular lifecycles, made to order, made with no waste, made through a connected supply chain. The “why” of making beautiful clothing will always stay the same across the past and the future. It is just the how – automation, robotics, and technology – that has changed.
If we, the American Apparel Industry, understand our purpose, and live our purpose, the future is ours. All 100% of it.
“”
The US apparel industry is worth $350B in revenue. Only 2% of that volume is made in USA.
The future is about bringing back the 98%.
For local supply chains to scale to making the 98%, prices must be accessible. BUT real-impact fashion is more than accessible price points. Creating the future is creating beautiful clothing with a purpose.
What is beautiful clothing?
Clothing that makes us feel good. When customized for our perfectly unique bodies, they celebrate and enhance our personalities.
They’re made by one team. Connected, nimble and reactive across sourcing, design, production, and shipping.
They are made by well-meaning, well-cared-for people in local factories we can visit and see
They are made just when we need them, with quantity-precision. No excess to pollute this stunning world.
They are made of yarns that cuddle back into their original womb of the earth, because the future is about circularity.
When you wear “beautiful” clothing, the commodity becomes a connection.
As we learn to build the future, we discover that there has been a timeless, unifying philosophy across centuries on how to make beautiful clothing.
Humans, according to studies, first wore clothes about 170 thousand years ago. After skin and leather, the first types of woven textiles were natural and hence circular. Flax, cotton, silk, and linen were made locally across India, Egypt, China, and Japan. From making textiles, emerged the skills of making clothing. The history of how clothing was made is both fascinating and varied across different cultures
In more recent history, in the early 1800s before the sewing machine, homes in rural areas “owned” the whole textile and clothing making process. Wool and linen were most common. Yarn dyes were made from berries, roots, and barks. Sheep were fed and sheared by men. Children cleaned. Then spinning yarn, cooking colored dyes, weaving, and sewing was done by the women of the household. The children also took care of the knitting for stockings and caps. There was no waste, because all items were made to cover needs across varying weathers in exact quantities for the family. The entire family worked as a connected supply chain to produce cloth very locally in their homes.
Until the 12th century, clothing was a means to cover the body only. The tailor then emerged, especially in the cities, a magician able to cut and piece together a garment in different ways to enhance the contours of the body with customized clothing. The tailor carried forward the no-excess tradition of made to order, but in addition, he was also able to sell the privilege of expression through fashion.
Along the way, towards the middle of the last century, we outsourced our production to far flung countries, and the American Apparel industry lost its way and lost its purpose. We became the unwise emperor with his new clothes, running the streets thinking we had on a shiny set of fabulous new clothes, when really, we were running the streets naked. We literally lost our shirts.
Whether 2500 BC or 1718 or 2018, clothing with a purpose, or “beautiful” clothing always has been made locally, with natural circular lifecycles, made to order, made with no waste, made through a connected supply chain. The “why” of making beautiful clothing will always stay the same across the past and the future. It is just the how – automation, robotics, and technology – that has changed.
If we, the American Apparel Industry, understand our purpose, and live our purpose, the future is ours. All 100% of it.
