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History and growth of women's ready-to-wear industry
From colonial time to end of the 1800s, the majority of American women wore clothes made at home, by midnineteenth century, ready to wear clothing was virtually nonexistent, the few people in the United States wore or could afford. The wants and supplied by custom made imports, usually from England or France, or by small number of custom tailor and dressmaker of their own country.
In 1860,Ebenezer Butterick developed paper patterns that provided the home sewer with help styles and size to aiding these home sewing operation and making of dresses . As we know that the first ready-to –wear clothing in the United States was produced for men. In 1860 it was the first commercial manufacture of ready- to -wear done for women it was articles produced were hoop skirts, cloaks and mantillas .The quality was very poor and completely lacking in good design. Although the industry grew rapidly ones it started, home dresses making continued until into the early twentieth century ,and it was not until well into the 1900s that the term store clothes, applied to early ready –to- wear, was use in other then derogatory manner .
The young women of the United States were very much inspired by ready –to- wear in early days. In not much more than a century, the industry that ones served only the lowest income level of the society has worked its way up to acceptance by the very richest of the women .It was great change in production was the development of the sewing machine by Elias Howe in 1845.Howe's machine was further perfected by Isaac Singer, these machine gives public attention as it was improved in many ways, first operated by foot power with treadle letter by electricity, revolutionized production by making volume out put possible in machine –equipped factories.
A plentiful supply of labor is essential to growth of any industry. Worker to perform those tasks became available in vast number, in the 1880s, in the person of immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe. Many of the newcomers were Jews, fleeing Czarist persecutions and bringing tailoring skill with them ready and willing to master the sewing machine and work at it to survive in their country. This influx of immigrant labor, both skilled and unskilled, made possible in growth of the industry.
Along with the improvements in the textile and apparel production technology, there were advances in the mass distribution. Retailers began to learn the ready to wear business. Continuing in retail salesmanship and advertising stimulated the demand for the ready- to- wear.
In 1900s a whole new breed of busier and more -affluent women began to emerge: women in college, women in politics, women in sports and women in factories, offices, and retail store. World War I further gave many women their first view of an occupation outside the confines of their homes and stimulated the need for ready-to-wear clothing. In the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, however, the situation changed, and huge, publicly owned multiproduct corporations made their appearance in the apparel field, usually by mean of mergers with and acquisitions of existing companies. Another factor was the need to become large enough to be able to deal successfully with ever –larger textile suppliers, on the one hand, and enormously large retail distributors, on the other.
In the early 1990s, a number of privately held companies decided to go public. Companies generally choose this strategy so they can sell shares in the company, and though those sales they can generate capital for the company's growth. When stock is sold for the first time, this is called initial public offer (IPO). Example of the well-known companies that issued stock in recent years were Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan, Tommy Hilfiger, Danskin, and Haggar Corporation.
In 1900s the competition from import has created difficulties for many companies. However, the business climate is tough for the firm, even if imports were not considered because of the large number of U.S. companies competing in the market. As result numbers of companies and apperal plants have gone out of business. Other hand some were merged and some acquired smaller companies. Some have sold off unprofitable parts of their businesses. In general, these changes have resulted in larger and stronger firms with funds to hire professional to manage the businesses. As manufacturing improved, ready-to-wear clothing overcame the stigma of inferiority and cheapness that had originally been attached to it. It became an acceptable answer to a growing need for reasonably priced and respectably made apparel.
It was in the United States that the development of mass markets, mass-production methods, and mass distribution of fashion merchandise was most rapid. Most of the manufacturers and retailers from many other countries turn for the know-how to make and sell fashion- able ready-to-wear merchandise.
About the Author
Lecturer in the school of Fashion Design at (IICC), Punjab Technical University in India
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