06 Textile/Apparel Industries

06.1 Global Textile Production & Economic Development

Ehlers, T.B. (1990). Silent looms: Women and production in a Guatemalan town. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-7581-9, suggested price $14.95.

Reviewed by Linda Arthur, University of California, Davis

In Silent Looms: Women and Production in a Guatemalan Town, Tracy Bachrach Ehlers weaves together textile production, economics, gender and power. Through a decade of ethnographic fieldwork in a town in highland Guatemala, Dr. Ehlers has chronicled the deterioration of the "female family business", the traditional weaving industry. But this is only part of the tale she tells. This study investigated the impact of modernization and socioeconomic development on the status of women, using an intimate ethnographic perspective. Its major contribution is that of micro-macro linkage; the shift from traditional Guatemalan to westernized dress was put into a cultural context.
One of the impacts of modernization was the rejection of indigenous symbols. The demand for traditional textiles such as the huipiles (hand-loomed blouses) shrunk dramatically as women faced inflation, devaluation of local currency and a shift in high symbolic status from traditional textiles to westernized consumer goods. Reduced demand for hand loomed textiles with traditional and regional design motifs has nearly eliminated traditional weaving as a woman-centered cottage industry. While women's weaving was geared toward internal markets, the make-dominated commercial yardgoods industry (which all but replaced it) was aimed at external markets.
The shift from the home as the center of economic production to piece-work employment outside of the home had a significant impact on the lives of people in San Pedro, and provided a means of analysis of gender roles in relation to economic change. Gender relations shifted from relative equality between sexes to male dominance. This is not an isolated case.
In a similar study of Indian lacemakers, Mies (1982) found that politics, class and gender also intersected and led to the exploitation of women who produced lace at home for the international market. Empirical studies find that in developing countries, women are challenging the tenets of patriarchal societies, and in doing so, pose fundamental questions about social change and the nature of inequality. While the early development literature maintained that women's lives, recent research (particularly from feminist and marxist perspectives) has shown that economic growth often leads to capitalist forms which turn out to be oppressive to women.
ITAA members will probably be most interested in chapter 5, which deals with clothing and textiles. Unfortunately, Dr. Ehlers used Spanish terms for clothing items without definitions, and never described the traditional clothing and western forms that came to dominate. Regretfully, few photos are included. However, the whole book should be read in order to understand the shift in symbolic meaning away from indigenous symbols. Similarly, Weiner and Schneider's book (1989) also addresses the symbolic and economic significance of textiles.
Finally, Ehler's work is a good example of ethnographic fieldwork. As a qualitative researcher, her involvement in the community gave her a vantage point from which she was able to connect individual choices to societal issues. Complex issues are best investigated qualitatively; because clothing and textiles give us a window to look at large issues, dress can be a visual metaphor for culture.

Mies, M. (1982). The dynamics of sexual division of labor and integration of rural women in the world market. In L. Beneria (ed.) Women and development: The sexual division of labor in rural societies. (pp. 1-27). New York: Praeger.

Weiner, A. & Schneider, J. (1989). Cloth and human experience. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Evans, J.A. (1991). A joy forever - Latvian weaving, traditional and modified uses. St. Paul: Dos Tejedoras Fiber Arts. ISBN 0-932394-16-7, 184 pages, $28.95.

Reviewed by Charlene Lind, Brigham Young University

Jane Evans' book on Latvian weaving would be useful for any serious student of weaving. It is neither a book of patterns though many patterns are included, nor a book of projects though details on weaving the fabrics are included. It is a study of weave structures used by both professional and home weavers in Latvia primarily during the last half of the 1800s and the 1900s prior to World War II. Materials for the book come from textiles in the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, ON Canada and from instruction books published in Latvia.
The three sections of the book cover a brief history of Latvian weaving in its political and cultural setting, theory of weaving structures and finally a short section on contemporary uses and modifications of traditional weaves. Each of the first three chapters begins with an anecdote from the life of a Latvian weaver, and drafting instructions accompany each theory section.
The accuracy and completeness of analysis are impressive. Detailed information for each textile examined includes yarns, size, weave and history of the textile if known. An amazing number of woven structures are covered, each categorized according to Irene Emery's system in The Primary Structure of Fabrics and that of Dorothy Burnham in Warp and Weft. Not all weave structures are given equal attention. There are many examples of derived twills but only a few crepe weaves or color-and-weave drafts. It is assumed the emphasis given different structures is proportional to use in Latvia of the surviving examples available to the author.
Students of textile history will be interested in discussions of sources of designs and non-Latvian influences on both design and weaving equipment. While hand weaving was declining in the United States in the 1800s, it was apparently quite strong in Latvia both for family use and fabrics for sale. Complex weavers will be delighted with the variety of intricate designs for multiple shaft and double harness looms, though these are not shown in full drafts. There are some interesting insights into Latvian life such as the information on intricately woven "coffin towels" (narrow strips of fabric used to lower a coffin into the grave) which were kept as family heirlooms.
For the most part the book was very readable, though it yields the most information from careful study. The one less than helpful feature is the computer generated drafts and drawdowns. The single line of blank squares separating the draft information for the drawdown of the design is confusing. Drafts that use printing characters other than the fully filled graph square are easier to read. Cutting the draft apart and leaving a blank space between parts would have been easier to read. Overall A Joy Forever will give much useful information to the serious student of the craft.
Burnham, D. (1980) Warp and Weft: A Textile Terminology. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum.
Emery, I. (1980) The Primary Structure of Fabrics. Washington: The Textile Museum.

Response to Sara Douglas regarding Dickerson's book, Textiles and Apparel in the International Economy

By Carol Ann Dickson, University of Hawaii

While Dickerson's book makes broad, global statements about the interactive nature of the worldwide textiles and apparel industries, it is my view that the book is ethnocentric. The book might be better titled The US Textile and Apparel Industries in the International Economy. The industries of foreign countries are referenced in highly statistical or shallow macro-industrial terms. Foreign countries are also referenced relative to their positions within international organizations and as signatories to international agreements. This approach is an "arms length", uninvolved approach. The reader is left with little or no understanding of how the industries of foreign countries operate and are viewed "in country". On the other hand, references to the US industries are less distant in nature. In contrast to her treatment of foreign industries, Dickerson examines the inner workings of the US industries in detail, and also describes the US government's relationship with the domestic industries. The author describes the concerns of US consumers and US industry leaders in depth while virtually ignoring the concerns of consumers and industry leaders in foreign countries. Lack of discussion of the concerns of those in foreign countries invalidates those concerns and is an indicator of ethnocentricity.
A few of the more egregious examples of the ethnocentric nature of the book are cited briefly here. 1) The discussion of the Jenkins Bill includes no description of the reaction of the major textile trading partners of the US to the Bill [and there were strong reactions in many countries]. 2) The MFA [and its predecessors] is discussed almost exclusively in terms of the US perspective, with little or no attention to the concerns of US trade partners. 3) Part VI, "Balancing Conflicting Interests in Textile and Apparel Trade", again describes foreign issues in broad, general terms while examining the US concern with specificity: US consumer concerns are described specifically while the concerns of consumers in other countries are treated superficially; the interests of retailers are described in global terms or in terms of US retailers in foreign countries; the interests of US industry, government, and labor are well-described in Chapter 12, while foreign interests in the same sectors are given short shrift. 4) US concerns relative to the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement are examined in detail, while Canadian concerns are dismissed with three diffuse statements.
While I value Dickerson's book and use it in my own undergraduate classes, I am aware of its strengths and shortcomings and compensate accordingly. Use of any text requires critical thinking and then, often, appropriate compensation. We will have to leave it to each educator to determine how the information in the book will need to be supplemented. It takes a substantial amount of reading and practical experience to make meaningful judgments and since many of our colleagues are new to this area of teaching and research, a new text in the area deserves careful scrutiny.

Dickerson, K.G. (1991). Textiles and Apparel in the International Economy. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. ISBN 0-02-328771-3, 546 pages, $45.95.

Reviewed by Carol Anne Dickson, University of Hawaii

There has been, for several years, a need for a text regarding textile products and their place in the international economy. Dickerson addresses many of the components of the international industry in this first attempt by a professional in our field. The extraordinarily complex nature of the subject matter is such that any author would be substantially challenged to address the issues adequately.
The globally interactive and interdependent nature of the international-transnational textile products industry is particularly well-addressed by Dickerson. However, the book is ethnocentric in its view, focusing extensively on the US industry, its policies, and how it interacts with other nations with regard to textile products. Every chapter reinforces, through assertion, the pervasive impact of the economics of the textile products industry throughout the global economy, but there are few examples demonstrating how the policies and practices of other countries have impact on the US and how US policies and practices influence economies of other countries.
The two chapters of the book which describe major international trade agreements influencing textile trade and the structures for facilitating and managing that trade are especially clear, precise, and well-organized. Dickerson's contacts with individual leaders in influential groups such as the Textiles Committee and the Textiles Surveillance Body (TSB) for the Multifiber Arrangement (MFA), the Crafted with Pride campaign, and the Coordination Committee for the Textile Industries in the European Community (COMITEXTIL) lend strength to her reporting.
Dickerson's forte' is factual and technical correctness. For instance, the chapters regarding the US Textile Complex are replete with all sorts of tables and graphs addressing many sectors and issues that are US textile industry related. The text could have been improved conceptually had it addressed, instead, the economics of the international textiles industry as a force, among other factors, which often drives the political, economic, and social policies and practices of nations and groups of nations.
Dickerson's book is suitable for upper division undergraduate classes. Instructors of such classes must provide the requisite underpinnings, including trade theory and development, economic theory, and cross-cultural information regarding the social and political forces which have impact upon and are influenced by the international textile industries, since these are not adequately addressed in the text. In order to provide a well-rounded global view of the international industry, the instructor must also present materials regarding the written and unwritten trade policies and practices of our major textile trading partners, particularly those in Asia. Recent changes in economics, social and political structures in Eastern Europe and the USSR point up the need for an instructor in this area to stay current in an increasingly complex area of study.