Trimming fabric

Trimming fabric

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Description
Workers in the famous El Monte sweatshop used this bundle of knit trimming fabric (collars and cuffs) as they sewed Airtime brand shirts. While the sweatshop was located in El Monte, California, Dolphin Trimming Inc. (where the fabric was cut) was nearly 3,000 miles away in Miami Lakes, Florida. The apparel production business is typified by small shops doing specialization work. Authorities seized the fabric along with other evidence during a well-publicized 1995 raid. The bundle is part of a larger Smithsonian collection of artifacts documenting apparel industry sweatshops, focusing on the El Monte operation.
On August 2, 1995, police officers raided a fenced seven-unit apartment complex in El Monte, California. They arrested eight operators of a clandestine garment sweatshop and freed 72 workers who were being forced to sew garments in virtual captivity. Smuggled from Thailand into the United States, the laborers’ plight brought a national spotlight to domestic sweatshop production and resulted in increased enforcement by federal and state labor agencies. The publicity of the El Monte raid also put added pressure on the apparel industry to reform its labor and business practices domestically and internationally.
Object Name
trimming fabric
date made
Late 20th Century
1990s
place made
United States: Florida, Miami Lakes
Physical Description
fabric (overall material)
paper (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 2 3/8 in x 19 in x 4 3/4 in; 6.0325 cm x 48.26 cm x 12.065 cm
ID Number
1996.0292.05
accession number
1996.0292
catalog number
1996.0292.05
Credit Line
State of California. Department of Industrial Relations. Division of Labor Standards Enforcement
See more items in
Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
El Monte
Work
Sweatshops
Exhibition
Many Voices, One Nation
Exhibition Location
National Museum of American History
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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