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Threading America · Study guide · Chapter 18

The Branded Empire

Designer Denim, Air Jordan, and the Logo as Identity · 1980–2000

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Class

Date

Guiding question

When a brand's clothes are sewn by contractors overseas, who is responsible for the workers who make them?

Part 1Before you read

  1. Read the guiding question. Write down what you already know, or think you know, about it.
  2. Predict one way your answer might change after reading the sources.

Part 2Read

As American mills closed, American brands ascended. The closing decades of the twentieth century reorganized the industry around the logo—the value of a garment lay less in its construction than in the symbol stitched to it.

Even as American textile manufacturing contracted, American apparel marketing reached new heights. Calvin Klein turned jeans into a luxury object with a fifteen-year-old Brooke Shields; Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren built brand universes that sold American identity as merchandise; Nike, signing a Chicago Bulls rookie named Michael Jordan, made athletic shoes among the most coveted consumer objects on earth. Hip-hop culture, rising from New York to Los Angeles and Atlanta, completed the equation: the garment was no longer simply worn—it was performed, photographed, and resold. The 'branded empire' was a fashion economy in which design, marketing, and licensing happened in the United States while the sewing increasingly happened in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and Asia.

An American indoor shopping mall in the 1980s-the retail stage on which apparel brands built national empires.
An American indoor shopping mall in the 1980s-the retail stage on which apparel brands built national empires. Carol M. Highsmith, "Indoor shopping mall," between 1980 and 1990. Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (LCCN 2011635987). Public domain.

Part 3Timeline

For each event, write one sentence on why it mattered.

  1. 1980

    Calvin Klein's Brooke Shields Ads

    Richard Avedon's television spots, in which fifteen-year-old Brooke Shields asks what comes between her and her Calvins, debut in November; several New York stations refuse to air them.

  2. 1984

    Nike Signs Michael Jordan

    A five-year endorsement deal with the Chicago Bulls rookie leads to the Air Jordan, released in 1985.

  3. 1990s

    Hip-Hop Adopts the Logo

    Tommy Hilfiger, Polo Ralph Lauren, Timberland, and others see their goods reinterpreted by hip-hop artists and fans, extending their reach far beyond the brands' plans.

  4. 1994

    NAFTA Speeds the Split

    The North American Free Trade Agreement accelerates a structure already underway: design in New York, sewing in Mexico and the Caribbean Basin.

Part 4Key terms

Write the letter of the matching definition beside each term.

  1. Contractor
  2. Maquiladora
  3. Code of conduct
  4. Anti-sweatshop movement
  5. Factory audit
  1. A.A factory in Mexico or Central America that assembles imported materials into goods for export, often with tax and tariff breaks.
  2. B.An independent factory hired by a brand to make its products, letting the brand avoid owning factories or directly employing workers.
  3. C.A 1990s campaign by students, unions, and activists to pressure brands to improve conditions in the factories that made their goods.
  4. D.An inspection, often paid for by the brand, to check whether a supplier follows labor and safety rules.
  5. E.A company's written list of labor and safety standards that it says its suppliers must follow.

Part 5Primary source workshop

These excerpts are quoted word for word, including the spelling and language of their time.

Document A

Testimony at a Capitol Hill Press Conference on Child Labor

Wendy Díaz (translated by Barbara Briggs), May 1996

My name is Wendy Diaz. I'm from Honduras. I'm 15 years old, and I entered into Global Fashion to work when I was 13. And last year, until December, I was working on pants for Kathie Lee. ... Working those hours, I earned 240 lempiras a week, which they've told me is $21.86 a week.

Context: Díaz traveled to Washington with the National Labor Committee after activists revealed that clothing sold under television host Kathie Lee Gifford's Walmart label was sewn by teenagers in Honduran factories. The scandal helped launch the 1990s anti-sweatshop movement.

Source: Child Labor (Democracy Now!, May 31, 1996). Democracy Now!. 1996. https://www.democracynow.org/1996/5/31/child_labor

Historical context
What was happening when and where this was created?
Intended audience
Who was meant to read, hear, or see it?
Purpose
Why was it created? What did its creator want to happen?
Point of view
Whose perspective does it show, and whose is missing?

Document B

Remarks Announcing the Apparel Industry Partnership

William J. Clinton, April 14, 1997

As has now been painfully well documented, some of the clothes and shoes we buy here in America are manufactured under working conditions which are deplorable and unacceptable--mostly overseas, but unbelievably, sometimes here at home as well. ... The code will establish a maximum workweek, a cap of 12 hours on the amount of overtime a company can require; require that employers pay at least the minimum or prevailing wage, respect basic labor rights. ... Most important, it will crack down on child labor, prohibiting the employment of those under 15 years of age in most countries.

Context: Clinton announced a voluntary workplace code agreed to by apparel companies, unions, and human rights groups. The partnership later became the Fair Labor Association, though several unions left, arguing its standards were too weak.

Source: William J. Clinton. Remarks Announcing the Apparel Industry Partnership Report (Public Papers of the Presidents, 1997, Book I). U.S. Government Publishing Office (govinfo). 1997. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PPP-1997-book1/html/PPP-1997-book1-doc-pg435.htm

Historical context
What was happening when and where this was created?
Intended audience
Who was meant to read, hear, or see it?
Purpose
Why was it created? What did its creator want to happen?
Point of view
Whose perspective does it show, and whose is missing?

Corroborate

Compare "Testimony at a Capitol Hill Press Conference on Child Labor" (Wendy Díaz (translated by Barbara Briggs), May 1996) with "Remarks Announcing the Apparel Industry Partnership" (William J. Clinton, April 14, 1997). Where do they agree, where do they differ, and what might explain the differences?

Part 6Discuss

  1. How old was Wendy Díaz when she started work, what was she sewing, and how much did she earn?
  2. Díaz spoke through a translator at a press event organized by labor activists; Clinton spoke at a White House ceremony with company executives. How does each setting shape the message?
  3. Clinton's code depended on voluntary company participation and monitoring. Using the chapter narrative, explain why brands preferred voluntary codes to new laws.
  4. Many brands now publish supplier lists and sustainability reports. Are voluntary codes enough, or should laws require brands to guarantee conditions throughout their supply chains? Argue.

Part 7Write: claim, evidence, reasoning

Answer the guiding question in one paragraph, using the documents and the reading.

Paragraph checklist
ClaimAnswers the guiding question directly in one or two sentences.
EvidenceCites at least two primary sources by name and at least one fact from the reading.
ReasoningExplains how each piece of evidence supports the claim.
SourcingNotes at least one limitation of a source: who made it, when, and why.

Part 8Exit ticket

  1. In one sentence, how would you answer the guiding question now?
  2. What piece of evidence would most change your mind?

Keep exploring

  • Material Culture

    Calvin Klein and the Birth of Designer Denim

    How a Bronx-born designer made workwear a status symbol.

    https://www.threadingamerica.com/topics/calvin-klein-denim

  • Biography

    Air Jordan and the Sneaker Economy

    How a basketball shoe became a foundation of modern brand culture.

    https://www.threadingamerica.com/topics/air-jordan-economy

  • Impact

    Hip-Hop and the Logo

    How a culture that brands did not market to redefined their reach.

    https://www.threadingamerica.com/topics/hip-hop-and-the-logo

Places: New York