#Fashion Merchandise

[luvebooks]

Discover unique and stylish designs at Thanks4Salling's Redbubble shop! 🎨 Explore a curated collection of Rescuccel merchandise, from trendy apparel to eye-catching accessories. Elevate your style and show your love for Rescuccel with our exclusive products. Shop now at thanks4salling.redbubble.com and let your passion shine! 🛍️ #RescuccelLove #FashionWithPurpose #ShopNow 🚀

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Star Wars sneakers - Clarks (1978)

[jordanjump-scare]

I WANT IT ALL!

[hussyknee]

Made in the USA: Wage Theft, Fraud and Hidden Sweatshops

Unrolled twitter thread by derek guy (@dieworkwear)

4 Oct 24 • Read on X

ALT enabled on all images. Video has closed captions but is not transcribed.

Not trying to create a pile-on here. But let's talk about why something might still be made in unethical conditions even though it bears a "made in USA" tag. 🧵

The first thing to understand is that not all workers are covered by US labor laws. You might assume that workers get paid a minimum wage (after all, it says "minimum"). In fact, many garment workers in the US toil under what's known as the piecework system.

Piecework means you get paid not by the amount of time you work but the number of operations you complete. This system should be familiar to many of you. As a writer, I get paid per word. The pay is the same whether it takes me 100 or 10 hours to write a 1,000 word article.

My situation is fine bc I get paid enough to eat. But for a garment worker, the pay structure can be peanuts: three cents to sew a zipper or sleeve, five cents for a collar, and seven cents to prepare the top part of a skirt. These are real numbers for LA-based garment workers.

Piecework is how companies skirt minimum wage laws. Among labor organizers, the term "wage theft" refers to the difference between what a worker should have earned under min wage laws and what they actually earned through the piece rate system.

This system is incredibly common. A 2016 UCLA Labor Center study showed the median piece-rate worker in Los Angeles scrapes together $5.15 per hour—less than half the state’s mandated minimum wage. Labor conditions are also very bad: poor ventilation, dusty air, rats and mice.

A Federal Department of Labor investigation the same year found that 85 percent of Los Angeles garment factories were breaking labor laws. In 2016, these violations amounted to $1.3 million in back wages owed to 865 workers in a sample of 77 factories. This is wage theft.

In 2021, labor organizers won a fight to get piecework banned in California. But two years later, it's still incredibly common. I interviewed an LA-based garment worker who toils 12 hrs a day for $50. She sleeps in the corner of a kitchen. From my article in The Nation:

Currently, there's a new fight get piecework banned nationwide through the FABRC Act. I would link, but Twitter throttles threads that have outbound links, so I would prefer if you Google how you can support this legislation. Or follow @GarmentWorkerLA for more info.

The other reason why a "made in USA" tag may not mean much has to do with how the label is applied.

When you see this label inside your garment, what do you assume? Think about this before moving on to the next tweet.

The Federal Trade Commission has pretty strict rules on who gets to apply that label. For clothes, the item has to be cut and sewn in the US using materials that were made in the US. The FTC tries to match its rules with the common understanding of what "made in US" means.

If you're a giant company like Levi's or LL Bean, you may have lawyers who are advising you on these rules. This is why you see labels like "imported," which means the item was made abroad. Or "made in the US from imported materials" when they can't meet the MiUSA standard.

But it's incredibly common for companies to violate FTC rules. In 2022, the FTC fined the pro-Trump brand Lions Not Sheep $211k for labeling their t-shirts "made in USA" when the shirts were actually imported from China and other countries.

The company was basically importing blanks from China, ripping out the "made in China" label, screen printing the shirt in the US, and then applying a new screen-printed "made in US" label. CEO Sean Whalen claimed he was being persecuted for his pro-Trump views.

But the whole thing started bc Whalen made a video about how his customers are price sensitive, so he imports blanks from China. That's what kicked off the FTC investigation. So while this mislabeling is common, it's hard to get caught unless you make a video about your crimes.

The truth is that making a t-shirt in the USA according to FTC standards will result in a relatively expensive garment. Heddels and Velva Sheen both produce shirts in the US from US grown cotton. The first is $26; second is $90 for a two-pack.

Once you add things such as screenprinting—or if you want a more unique cut and not just basic blanks—the costs go up. This is why Bikers for Trump sourced their merch from Haiti. They knew their customers would not pay an extra $8 for true made-in-USA production.

Today, there are countless companies that make merch for other organizations. They source their t-shirts from a variety of places—some made in the US, most not—and then screenprint a design and fulfill orders. This way, the other org doesn't have to do any work but marketing.

When you see a screenprinted t-shirt for $20, ask yourself: Where was the material grown? Where were the yarns spun? Where was the cutting, sewing, and finishing performed? Where was the screenprinted done? What were the wages and labor conditions along these steps?

I'm not a nationalist, so I don't prioritize American jobs over foreign ones. But I do care about fair wages and labor protections. Just because something was made abroad doesn't mean it was made in a sweatshop. Just because it was made in the US doesn't mean fair wages.

Paying more for a garment is also no guarantee of ethical manufacturing. But when the price of a garment is so low, you leave little on the table for workers. Just because you see a $20 t-shirt that says "made in USA" doesn't mean it was made fairly.

Please don't harass the person who posted that original tweet. My intention is not to cause harm or stress for anyone. Only to help shed light on what goes into garment manufacturing, fair labor, and labeling. Hopefully, you will consider these issues when shopping.

For the inevitable question: "How do I make sure my clothes were made ethically?" This is very difficult to answer in a thread. My simplest answer is that we should elect pro-worker politicians, fight for pro-labor laws, and empower unions so workers can advocate for themselves.

--------------------End----------------------

TL; DR: Doesn't matter if it's the US, if it's not union it's probably a sweatshop. And not all merch is priced high because of fair labour conditions (looking at Taylor Swift and Beyoncé). Look for supply chain transparency.

[blvststims]

Self-indulgent Sakura Kinomoto (Cardcaptor Sakura) stimboard featuring fashion, rollerskating, food, toy, pink, white, red, and gold stims!

💗 - 💌 - 🛼 💌 - ✨ - 💌 🎀 - 💌 - 🩷

[hotwaterandmilk]

Series: Tenshi no Shippo Artists: Fujita Kazuko Product: ‘Shoujo Comic Original Album: Jewelry BOX’ (03/1993) Source: Scanned from my personal collection

[justanoval]

PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO COMMIT CAPITALISM.

[guttergutter]

give us your thoughts on our embroidered merch of our original artwork. everything is handmade by us’

models @raethehater @chcmistry

[poppyfleurs]

Can someone tell riot to bring back the Viktor and Jayce embroidered hoodie 😭

I found it today but they’ll only restock it if there’s demand!

[nostalgiahime]

Sailor Moon Wallet (1999) [✩]

[dreamgrlarchive]

So as of right now, I am in community college getting my general classes out of the way before I actually transfer and major in fashion merchandising (or marketing I am still deciding). As much as I really wish I could just fast forward to being in my major, what would you recommend I do to increase my knowledge or experience involving that major in the meantime? I feel like I like fashion, but not enough and I want to be able to breeze through and have fun with my major when the time comes.

omg congrats! never minimize it you’re doing your thing! keep in mind that fashion school is there for you to learn. if you knew enough you wouldn’t need the schooling. so be aware that this is a journey 🎀

Fashion Resources 🪡💕:

all these books will help you learn more about the industry, especially if you’re pursuing design specifically.

plus check out these posts out:

BabyPhat05’s Fashion Industry Resources

Fashion Industry Career Quiz

Small Things:

watching fashion shows and studying cohesion and concepts, fashion sketching in your free time, putting together actual moodboards when you have ideas, research fashion design software, try making some of your own clothing and accessories, keep a fashion diary, read books about your favorite designers and fashion houses, if you’re into bratz at all, i truly recommend buying some vintage coloring and activity books. there’s a lot of design activities that i love in those books

[cdawgcaps]

Connor Modeling Apari x Ironmouse | 2024

[evaraeveryday]

Sucia

[aqours-stims]

idolcore christmas ♡ 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9

[tamara-kama]

Heather Langenkamp in promo brochure handed out at theaters when Tim Burton’s Batman opened.

Heather Langenkamp looked good in the Batman biker gear! I actually prefer how this apparel looks more than most biking gear I've seen.

Batman merch was also huge in 1989! So I'm kinda not surprised this stuff existed!