By Francisca Vargas Ramos
Every time a new Fashion Week begins or a designer debuts a new show, in addition to enjoying each look that takes center stage on the runway, I wonder who the people behind the creation of those outfits are. Beyond the lights, the flashes, the glamour, and the elegance of a fashion show, it's also important to know what goes on behind the scenes, isn't it?
From the design, the selection of materials, cutting and sewing, to the definition of small details. Artisans, seamstresses, and tailors are behind each of these small stations, which together create that dream piece we'd love to wear. If we think about our country, several national designers work with different workshops that provide the manufacturing support needed to complete a collection. In this way, a labor chain is created for women and men dedicated to the textile industry, which, while still active, has not been in its best shape lately.
With the pandemic and the lockdown, working conditions changed. Workshops closed, molds were no longer created, fabric was no longer cut, and sewing machines stopped for a time. According to the National Employment Survey (ENE), at the beginning of 2019, between January and March, 672,511 people in the textile and apparel industry worked from home. With the health crisis, there was a significant increase between June and August 2020, reaching 1,760,899 people working in this capacity.
Between July and September 2021, 1,280,787 people worked from home. Of these, 555,000 were men and more than 724,000 were women. These workers had to modify their space and transform a corner of their home into a small workshop that would allow them to continue working while the pandemic passed.
However, the workplace wasn't the only thing that suffered changes. A 2021 study by the International Labor Organization indicates that, " In Chile, the pandemic, and with it the decline in production and sales, is having an impact on the entire garment chain, producing an economic and social deterioration, particularly affecting the most precarious links. At the same time, there is a deterioration in working conditions, which is distributed equally to those in less favorable positions ."
The consequences of Covid-19 for the textile industry did not go unnoticed. According to a study conducted by the Sol Foundation, the interruptions in maritime and land transportation caused shortages of essential supplies for the production of collections. This directly affected industry workers, making it difficult to continue providing services to large companies in the sector. Seeing that their work was increasingly hampered, many women had to restructure their work, seeking new projects that would allow them to work from home.
The closure of work and marketing spaces caused a major upheaval in the industry. According to interviews conducted by the foundation, both national designers who saw their production slowed down and the manufacturers who helped make the collections a reality had to restructure their way of working. Even those working for major brands had to innovate and seek out products to market independently.
However, as a result of the pandemic, supplies became more expensive and sales channels and clientele changed, forcing seamstresses, dressmakers, and tailors to constantly adapt. Although they received state aid during this period of economic crisis, many workers in the sector had pension gaps due to the poor oversight and regulation of working conditions in this industry.
Although the pandemic has proven to be a specific and timely problem that this industry has had to face, many fashion lovers in Chile dream that at some point this sector will be valued and developed to the point where it will become an industry that provides stable, well-paid jobs for each person involved in this long chain.
Furthermore, this way, national and emerging design could begin to forge a more solid path. Various exhibitions, fashion shows, and interventions could even be part of our country's sociocultural program, practices well known in countries like Argentina and Spain.
Promoting Chilean products, improving working conditions for every worker within this chain, and increasing the visibility of domestic products are some of the major challenges that remain. These are three areas that several organizations and collectives are currently working to improve, and which we at Vístete Local will continue to highlight.