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Article: Clothing Industry
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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CLOTHING INDUSTRY
CLOTHING INDUSTRY.
Throughout the eighteenth century, clothing manufacture
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from the raising of the raw materials, through the spinning and weaving, to the sewing
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was largely a household industry in the United States. In the colonial period fine imported textiles, including clothing and bed and table linens, were costly items. Tailoring shops, particularly in the larger cities, produced up-to-date, custom-made clothing for the well-to-do. But in the average family all stages of clothing manufacture were carried on in the home, where women and children made plain, durable clothes of wool or linsey-woolsey, a wool and linen or cotton mixture. The ...