I’m excited to announce that I'm doing a new column at Bloomberg, Fashion Capital, which is focused on the intersection of fashion and business. The first piece looks at how the US could realistically re-shore manufacturing in apparel, textiles, and footwear.
The current plan — mass deportations paired with higher tariffs — would create relatively few low-wage jobs while pushing clothing prices even higher for everyone else. I argue for a different approach, one modeled on countries such as Italy, France, and Japan.
Rather than racing to the bottom by making $10 T-shirts and $30 jeans, the US should move upstream into high-value production: fine tailoring, luxury knitwear, and Goodyear-welted footwear. With targeted public investment, we can modernize equipment, rebuild parts of the domestic supply chain, and train workers in skilled craft production. And instead of antagonizing trade partners, we should build goodwill and then export American-made luxury goods to wealthy foreign consumers. The goal is to be a center for high-end craft production, using the global market as our customer base.
This hasn’t worked in the past because the US offers little structural support to its apparel industry. But this can change. Link in bio.
288: Derek Guy on the Language of Clothing
The vocabulary of outerwear and dress as a form of social language with the menswear historian behind Die, Workwear. 🎧Listen: booksmartstudios.com/lexiconvalley
#lexiconvalley #podcast #onlanguage #derekguy #dieworkwear
