A 'thimble-ready' cause

If Michelle Obama really wants to influence the world of fashion, she should tackle sweatshop conditions abroad while steering the industry back to our shores.

April 28, 2009 USA Today

By Mary Zeiss Stange

It may or may not be true, as the old saying goes, that clothes make the man. But judging by the international fascination with every outfit that Michelle Obama has donned since her husband's election, they definitely make the first lady.

(Illustration by Web Bryant/ USA TODAY)

Michelle Obama has a great sense of style. Her support of younger American designers, and her mixture of couture with off-the-rack items that are at least in theory available to the average woman, is timely and refreshing. She and her daughters are the best thing to happen to J. Crew in years. But therein lies an issue that has received surprisingly little attention — and one that Obama might fruitfully address.

Most of J. Crew's apparel is made in China and its Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong. When questioned about this fact shortly after the inauguration, company creative director Jenna Lyons explained to the Chicago Tribune: "If we could make more things in the U.S., we would. We are a large company, and one of the problems is that there is no place to go in the U.S. We make all of our denim and belts and (swimwear) in California. But nobody in the U.S. makes shoes; no one makes sweaters. There are a few (manufacturers) in Brooklyn, but they couldn't handle our volume."

Of course, the U.S. once was a major producer of shoes, and had its fair share of knitting mills as well. All that changed in the latter half of the 20th century, with the outsourcing of production to cheaper facilities abroad. China is today the world's largest manufacturer of apparel. And according to a 2004 investigative report by the social justice organization Oxfam, those clothes and shoes are produced under often intolerable conditions, including excessive overtime; reduced wages due to dropping prices; denial of rest periods, holidays, maternity and sick leaves; violations of minimum wage and overtime pay; and non-payment of health insurance.

The real slaves to fashion

Workers, most of them women, are prone to repetitive stress disorders, back injuries, headache, respiratory disease and eye strain. The product description of Obama's Hong Kong-made "crystal constellation" cardigan, which sold out within hours of her wearing it in London, speaks volumes: "Each and every cluster of sequins, glass beads and rhinestones on this shimmering sweater is hand-done, a process that can take days."

To the company's credit, J. Crew has implemented a Code of Vendor Conduct that, spokesman Walt Winfrey assured me, is "a stringent policy that incorporates International Labor Organization core labor standards and that emphasizes ethical and responsible conduct in all operations and respect for the rights of all individuals." Such codes have been widely adopted by fashion merchandisers, in the wake of the anti-sweatshop activism against labels such as Nike and Kathy Lee Gifford that turned public attention to the issue of international garment workers' rights in the 1990s. They are surely a step in the right direction.

Yet they are just as surely largely unenforceable. Good intentions are not enough. Experts consistently point out that government support and regulation have been conspicuously lacking in China and Hong Kong.

This is where Obama has an opening to make a real difference. I have seen a generation of young college women go from being oblivious to the question of where their clothes came from — "That's just not an issue for me," a Skidmore coed told me, circa 1991— to forming campus chapters of United Students Against Sweatshops. Against that background, I was curious how twentysomething women were reacting to the first lady's fashion choices. I don't do Facebook, but a young friend of mine, Katherine Oyster, does, and she polled some friends for me.

Their remarks were revealing. They worried about sweatshop conditions — the fact that, as Central Washington University junior Janna Sanford phrased it, "There are a thousand human rights violations occurring to produce the shirt I'm about to purchase."

But they worried, as well, about price. As Ellen Draeger, St. Olaf College '07, observed, "I am an entry-level employee at a non-profit organization, and even though I care about human rights, my salary means that most of my clothes come from the clearance rack at Target, J. Crew or Gap."

Katherine herself acknowledges that it won't be until she finishes med school that she'll "have the power of the purse to be a responsible global citizen."

Made in the USA once more

Obama has that power, though, and she clearly has some influence with J. Crew. What if she held J. Crew to its claim that if the company could make more clothes here, it would? What if she and J. Crew worked together to bring the clothing and shoe industries back to these shores, where corporate Codes of Vendor Conduct are in conformance with labor laws? We have the workers, and we need the skilled and semi-skilled jobs these industries provide.

This would be a great "thimble-ready" cause for Michelle Obama to get behind. And it would, like so much else this remarkable first lady does, truly blend style with substance.

Mary Zeiss Stange teaches women's studies at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. She is a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.