The Fashion Industry And Manufacturing Process - 842 Words

The fashion industry is certainly not for the faint of heart. It is an industry full of ups and down. And it is one that is quite labor-intensive. Fashionable apparel begins as the aesthetic brainchild of a designer (or team of designers). And as the item(s) gain life, each works its way through the many facets of the manufacturing process. The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress, Modern Social Theory notes that â€Å"to understand fashion, it is necessary to go beyond the discussion of pure aesthetics. It is a chain of [events], which are industrial, economic and cultural, as well as aesthetic† (p. 220). Simply put, the fashion industry and manufacturing process is like an unintentional collaborative process - one that brings society†¦show more content†¦All in all, it sounds like globalization is the way to go. It seems like everyone has an opportunity to be a winner through potential economic stabilization and increased competition. However, as in most things in life, there is a downside to the process. When we think about offshore fashion production, our minds often do turn to sweatshops – cheap labor (often children and women) under dirty working conditions. And this is true; however, many consumers never give thought to this. All they see is fashion (or whatever the product is) with a cheaper price tag. They forget (or choose to ignore) incidents such as â€Å"the factory collapse in Bangladesh, which killed over 1,000 garment workers† (That Made in the USA Premium). It seems we are often willing to sacrifice quality and lives all in the name of mass production and saving a dime. Another issue that negatively impacts globalization is the fact that while globalization frequently brings jobs to economically deprived countries, the process itself can create global economic havoc (the caveat referred to under the pluses for globalization). The problem occurs when the process takes jobs away. When this happens, economic depression can occur – the overall global economy then takes a hit. And when the global economy suffers, everybody suffers. And while this latter problem may seem like a far cry from the beauty of the fashion