Like putting on a different uniform, even a楚云飞 could appreciate the democratic essence of a seemingly simple detail, such as the American style collar.
In the grand narrative of human history, fashion is more than fleeting trends; it’s an extension of ideology.
Haute couture whispers of class, the t-shirt heralds democracy, and military attire embodies national identity. The rise of any fashion trend invariably reflects the ascendancy of a particular ideology. Conversely, every tremor of ideological shift gives birth to new fashion vocabularies.
Under the Trump administration, the “MADE IN USA” concept experienced a resurgence. But can this movement truly shape an authentic American aesthetic amidst an environment of isolationism?
Today, a staggering 98% of the clothing Americans wear is produced elsewhere.
The underlying reason isn’t complex: affordability—a cornerstone of the American ethos.
A survey by Bankrate revealed that 84% of American consumers actively seek to save money during holiday shopping. This echoes Alexis de Tocqueville’s 19th-century observation, which satirized America’s pursuit of practicality, casting the nation as “cheap and nasty” in the eyes of European intellectuals.
For years, Americans have reveled in the practical joys of globalized shopping, fueling the expansion of multinational clothing companies. However, things have changed since the Trump era, and some are striving for a more authentic American-made product.
“Those seeking to manufacture clothing in America aren’t solely driven by profit; they harbor greater ideological ambitions,” claims Alex Goule, author of “Crafted With Pride,” a book dedicated to American-made brands.
“‘Crafted With Pride’ is not only the title of the book but also a signature slogan of the ‘Made in USA’ movement of the last century, and the derived slogan ‘Crafted With Pride in U.S.A.’ was used in the 1980s across clothing, furniture, appliances and other products.”
In today’s vintage shops of Shimokitazawa, Tokyo, products bearing such slogans are highly sought after by connoisseurs and frequently sell at a premium.
American Trench, founded in 2013, is a rising pure American brand that has gained the most media coverage.
Founder Jacob Hurwitz, a man with a penchant for nostalgia, often recalls the mid-20th century: “Back then, Americans wore domestically produced clothing, unlike today, where imports dominate.”
As a values-driven company, American Trench carefully selects its suppliers to maintain the “Made in America” label.
They source wool from Colorado and collaborate with the Ferrera factory, which manufactures for Ralph Lauren in Queens, New York. Jacob Hurwitz believes their collaboration results in apparel that rivals the quality of European luxury brands.
American Trench’s latest navy Blazer product adopted a relaxed cut from Brooks Brothers and a half-canvas construction. They claim the retail price could’ve been $1,100; but aiming to make the American-made experience accessible, they priced it at $795 (approximately RMB 5,500).
While they market half-canvas construction as a masterpiece of craftsmanship, it’s actually a mid-range technique – a compromise between “Made in America” values and cost considerations.
According to a 2021 report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American household spends $1,754 on clothing annually. Given this data, American Trench’s blazer certainly isn’t cheap.
More potent than the “meticulously crafted” jackets in conveying the ethos of American Trench is its sock line.
Reports indicate the company’s revenue relies heavily not on its apparel but on its $14-a-pair socks, which reportedly account for 60% of its revenue.
These socks, which might resemble a popular Pinduoduo item in China as much as they mirror Kimura Takuya’s convenience store style in Japan, are, in the United States, a resurgence of political memory—a signal of a nation dreaming of the Kennedy era.
Kennedy’s appeal might be seen as the lowest common denominator in American politics today. As a Democratic president, Kennedy’s image has been mythologized by Trump supporters. They claim Kennedy was assassinated for challenging the Federal Reserve, with Trump positioned as the inheritor of Kennedy’s challenge to the deep state. Meanwhile, QAnon even suggests Kennedy’s son is still alive and is working with Trump to save the American people.
Strength, vitality, “America First,” and a heroic narrative align Kennedy with contemporary right-wing sentiments, meaning anything Kennedy-related receives warm reception. And what more captivating than the “Made in USA” ethos?
The magic behind the sales of Kennedy socks underscores the challenges faced by those seeking to revitalize American manufacturing. American-made is fine—but expensive American-made? Not quite.
When dealing with everyday necessities, price takes precedence over design and aesthetics, a universal truth.
For the Trumpian MAGA vision, the difficulties presented by globalized industry are not limited to supply chains and costs, but also due to the lack of skilled labor.
In the early 1950s, the apparel and textile industries employed 2.1 million people, ranking third in employment within US manufacturing sectors, surpassed only by machinery/metals manufacturing and food processing. But today, that number has dwindled to a mere 471,000.
As the American apparel industry shrinks, with factories closing and workers losing their industrial jobs, the textiles sector of this new era is no longer absorbing excess workers. This, in turn, leads to loss of skills.
“Many of our products are made from leftover fabric. We can’t get fabric in the US because it’s not really made here… The factories in Los Angeles are comparatively backward, and it’s no comparison to the factories we have in other regions,” said Kathleen Talbot, VP of Operations for the Los Angeles-based women’s brand, Reformation, to BOF.
American conceptions are frequently concrete and tangible:
It’s the unique taste of American-style fried chicken from a mother’s bicycle ride to the farmers market, the youthfulness of skateboarding and oversized garments, the hip-hop rhythms pulsing through your headphones.
Now, as old Western luxury groups led by LVMH dominate the scene, and East Asian culture, particularly Japan and South Korea, are attracting attention through their pop culture influence, the essence of American fashion seems uncertain, caught in an identity crisis akin to that of politics.
Can the return of local manufacturing revitalize American fashion? Let’s take a step back and reconsider.
The subtle anxiety felt today by people in the American fashion industry was straightforwardly articulated by the Financial Times in 2020 in an article, Why is the American fashion industry struggling?
“American designers missed the post-recession boom. During this period, European luxury groups achieved record sales figures… America lacks institutions like LVMH, which patiently fosters the growth of young brands. Many brands rely on private equity firms, which anticipate an investment return within three to four years… The question now for the US is: What to do?”
America’s first major fashion anxiety emerged in 1938.
At the time, American fashion designer and labor activist Elizabeth Hawes complained in her book, “Fashion is Spinach,” that American fashion was a mere follower of the French, devoid of soul and controlled by Paris.
Elizabeth Hawes
Since the 18th-century founding of the United States, the American fashion industry has followed the French influence. In the 1930s, fashion buyers from America took ships between Paris and New York to bring purchases for the wealthy, and the Normandy was nicknamed the Seventh Avenue Express.
Although 80% of American clothing was made in the US, the designs originated from France, either by purchasing licenses or outright imitation.
Understanding such trends, you can identify the reason why “Revolutionary Road” portrays April’s strong aspiration for Paris.
The moment American fashion started to grasp its own destiny came when the Second World War began.
The occupation of France brought fashion to a standstill, and the American apparel industry, no longer guided by a teacher, started to investigate its own aesthetic.
In design, the American utilitarianism observed by 19th-century Europeans started to emerge in clothing design.
This is demonstrated by McCardell’s 1941 design for Harper’s Bazaar, that was aimed at the “dress from housework to cocktails”. The design launched a wardrobe system comprising five items.
At the time, he claimed that the combination of any items in the wardrobe could satisfy women’s dressing needs in any situation. While this idea may seem commonplace today, it was groundbreaking at the time. Remember, the fashion of the old era did not include the mix-and-match trends, and formal wear was formalized.
As American design appeared, the founders also began to promote their narrative. In 1943, Eleanor Lambert started “Fashion Week,” which later evolved into New York Fashion Week.
If there is a core idea for this narrative, it’s ready-made fashion, which emphasizes mass appeal, functionality, and democratization. Previously, the world considered haute couture as fashion, and ready-made clothing was just a cloth of distinction among people and beasts.
Eleanor Lambert
While Dior was still unveiling the “New Look,” the US, thanks to its strong apparel industry capacity, together with Hollywood, the Civil Rights Movement, and youth culture, turned t-shirts and jeans into a global uniform.
Looking back at the history of American fashion, its dominance over old European fashion wasn’t achieved through craftsmanship or history, but by leveraging advantages gained from concepts and institutions. With a powerful industrial chain, universal values, and cultural influence, American fashion became the pleasant game that everyone could partake in.
As a result, American fashion is prone to fall “silent” as institution becomes obsolete and the global market becomes more homogenous.
“Tu vuò fà l’americano” is a satirical Italian song, released in 1956.
The context at the time was that war-torn Italy’s economy, lifestyle and entertainment industry were heavily influenced by the US, and the younger generation all yearned for it. This is where Domenico Modugno, aka Mr. Carosone, satirized those Italians who imitated the American lifestyle on the surface.
What is the soul of American fashion? Is it MADE IN USA?
I believe it is the fusion. In terms of menswear, the American style combines street style formed of Levis jeans and “Timberlands” with the Ivy League style formed of Brooks Brothers shirts and RP.
Although, in the opinion of some American die-hards, the fashion division shows the class fractures that are prevalent in American society. However, the spirit of American fashion happens to be the relaxed and free style mixed between the brutality of the outdoors and refined uniform, which is an eclectic style.
This is not a compromise but rather a wisdom. Standing today, whether examining fashion or the rise and fall of all eras throughout history, you’ll discover that fusion and openness are the source of all vitality. The loss of this spirit means we’ll be met by a rot, from the surface to its core.
Today, the widespread Made in America sentiment reflects a reprise of the “Crafted With Pride” movement of the 1980s.
Just like today, the 1980s movement was an emotional response to the crisis in domestic manufacturing sectors. The movement tried to use cultural identity to salvage the structurally shrinking industrial structure, but in the end, became an empty patriotic claim and a capital marketing campaign about the romanticism of workers.
The domestic manufacturing the modern Americans yearn for stems from their resentment of globalization, their nostalgia for the old days, but a lot of their loss might not be a fault of the system; more of a cost of evolution.
As globalization develops, the revival of domestic manufacturing isn’t so much for revitalizing old factories and their smokestacks, but more the act of soothing a diminishing identity anxiety.
Although, for those practicing this, making a piece of garments with wool and brass zippers means knitting an imaginary America. But when viewed from the context of shifting tides, they are very much like a performance.
In less than a short time such thoughtfully made MADE IN USA clothes will appear in the thrift shops of Shimokitazawa and become a collection piece of some niche fans.
A piece of news from May indicated that the price of a box of 100 pieces of weaves from China went up for the first time in two years, from $250 dollars to $300 dollars.
Practitioners claim that fewer and fewer people do box braids, and at the same time, America began seeing copies of Chinese styled braids.
Like in the cities of modern day, a person cannot live independently of society, in this age of globalization, it’s true for fashion, and for countries as well.
Good fashion doesn’t tout its moral power, and mature politics doesn’t emphasize their own justice. Power does not come from self-proclaimed, but it works as the former president, John F. Kennedy said:
“We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but we will let it shine forth and let it be followed.”
Original article, Author: Tobias. If you wish to reprint this article, please indicate the source:https://aicnbc.com/1826.html
