Textile workers of the world unite!

May 1, 2023 8:37 AM

Look for the union label. Online exhibit Union-Made: Fashioning America in the Twentieth Century features the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA). Today’s successor unions to these historical labor organizations are UNITE-HERE and Workers United. Vintage shoppers often look for the union labels in clothing as a clue to the age of the item: "The AFL and the CIO merged in 1955, therefore any ILGWU labels with AFL-CIO (look closely, as it is often very small) on them are post-1955."

Understanding how to read vintage clothes labels provides a bit of a fashion history lesson. "The garment isn’t older than 1964 if it has the first Woolmark logo (100% wool)."

posted by spamandkimchi (10 comments total)

Excellent post, happy May Day!
posted by chavenet at 10:11 AM on May 1, 2023 [4 favorites]

well, I know what tune will be in my head today. Heard that ad on tv a lot when I was a kid. Support unions; they make a huge difference to workers, and are being successfully phased out, to all our detriment.
posted by theora55 at 10:32 AM on May 1, 2023 [4 favorites]

My grandmother was a proud ILGWU member. She worked in NYC's garment district her entire adult life, starting out with some of her half-brothers and half-sisters (she was the baby in the family). Early census records show her occupation as "hemmer". She didn't want to retire, they had to push her out when she was 70. We all knew the "Look for the union label" song. Still do. May 7th is the 117 anniversary of her birth. Happy Birthday Grandma!

There are some incredible resources here! I am going to be busy.
posted by ceejaytee at 10:35 AM on May 1, 2023 [4 favorites]

Great post. I wasnt able to play the .mp3 link in the article, maybe it's my ad blocker; here it is on youtube.
posted by theora55 at 10:40 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]

Union made clothing available here.
posted by doctor_negative at 11:42 AM on May 1, 2023

✊
posted by Ahmad Khani at 11:45 AM on May 1, 2023

Proud member of UNITE HERE Local 34 since 1999. Solidarity, comrades!
posted by Unioncat at 4:44 PM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]

I knew Evy Dubrow in DC when I was a journalist. She was the lobbyist for the ILGWU and wore Calvin Klein.
posted by Ideefixe at 7:13 PM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

★
posted by kmt at 4:53 AM on May 2, 2023

Great post - and thanks for posting the song mp3s theora, since they somehow didn't have a working link anywhere. I'm already on record here for teaching it to my kid from a young age. There are still some remnants of garment makers in the garment district, but covid wrecked a lot of the last of them, and I can't remember the last time I saw anyone pushing a rack of clothing through the streets - definitely over a decade now, though admittedly I haven't worked in midtown in years, either. In retrospect I guess it was naive to think that a charming, earnest ad campaign would be enough to save a whole industry's livelihoods in capitalist America, but damn.
posted by Mchelly at 9:45 AM on May 2, 2023 [1 favorite]