By Elisabeth Reed
Check out the label on the shirt you are wearing. The shirt I am wearing is 50% cotton and 50% polyester and reads “Made in Vietnam.”
Was it really made in Vietnam, though? It is more likely that Vietnam was only one stop in a global tour this t-shirt took before it landed in my hands. Textile labeling laws require that companies list only the last significant operation in the manufacturing process. This could mean sewing on a pocket or inserting a zipper. In the case of my shirt, the story is likely much longer than the “Made in Vietnam” label tells us. Let’s formulate the full story of my t-shirt. The cotton could have been grown here in the United States, at a large Texas cotton farm. Polyester, a synthetic fiber made from
petroleum, is produced all over the world. For the sake of this story, let’s assume that it was made in China.
So, the cotton would have been shipped to a textile mill in China, where it was blended with the polyester into yarn. This yarn was then sent to Bangladesh to be knit into the stretchy textile that will make my shirt. The knit fabric was then sent to India to be dyed a variety of colors. The dyed fabric was then sent to a factory in Vietnam. Hundreds of factory workers will cut the fabric and sew the shirts. They will be paid by piecemeal, based on how many functions they can complete in a standard allowed minute. One person will sew the side seams, another will sew the neckline, and so on. So, made in Vietnam does not tell the whole story. Think of all the hands and lives that were impacted by this one shirt. Who grew the cotton? Who works at the spinning factory to blend the fibers into yarn? Where did the wastewater go from the factory that dyed the knit fabric? Were the employees protected from the harmful chemicals used in synthetic dyes? Did a machine cut the fabric into pattern pieces or did a person complete this task? Who sewed the sleeves on this shirt? Who sewed the hemline? Who added the label? Were they sewing under safe working conditions?
And….why is it even important to ask these questions? With the recent anniversary (April 24, 2013) of the Rana Plaza tragedy in Bangladesh in which a building full of garment workers collapsed and killed over 1,100 people, it is our responsibility as consumers to ask these questions. Our everyday clothing we wear, even here in Central Illinois
— is part of a global supply chain that touches thousands of lives — some in more positive ways than others. What
happens in Vietnam or Bangladesh or China does not stay in Vietnam, or Bangladesh, or China. In this global economy, we bring it home.
Do you know where your milk came from? What about your orange juice? Do you read the labels on your food? The saying goes, “You are what you eat” – well, what if you are what you wear? Where were your clothes made? WHO made your clothes? For more transparency within the supply chain, let’s start asking these questions.
Elisabeth Reed teaches fashion merchandising classes at Illinois State University. She grew up in Bloomington Normal, graduating from Normal Community High School in 1996. After receiving an undergraduate degree in architecture from the University of Cincinnati and a master’s in fashion design from the Savannah College of Art & Design, she realized that there was no place quite like home and returned to Bloomington in 2008. Elisabeth lives with her husband, Matt and their two wild little boys in historic Founder’s Grove.
The opinions expressed within WJBC’s Forum are solely those of the Forum’s author, and are not necessarily those of WJBC or Cumulus Media Inc.
