Competitive Dynamics of Southern California's Clothing Industry: The Widening Global Connection and its Local Ramifications
- 2 July 2002
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications
- Vol. 39 (8), 1287-1306
- https://doi.org/10.1080/00420980220142646
Abstract
A general outline of the functional and spatial characteristics of the clothing industry in Southern California is sketched out. Two important trends are noted: the increasing design- and knowledge-intensive structure of the industry; and, the marked increase in off-shore sub-contracting by local manufacturers that has occurred in recent years. The predicaments and promises of this situation are explored. Will the industry simply continue to lose its employment base in the region? Will it succeed in making the transition to the status of a major world centre of fashion? It is argued that the southern California clothing industry is potentially capable of rising to the latter challenge, although it remains strongly overshadowed by the New York industry in terms of both fashion significance and commercial reach, and it also retains strong elements of its traditional underbelly of sweatshops. It is further argued that considerable effort needs to be invested in building social infrastructures to reinforce current positive trends in the industry. Given the right kinds of private and public response, it is submitted that Southern California is capable of becoming an international fashion centre on a par with New York, Paris, London or Milan.Keywords
This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit:
- Production, Organization and technological change: the German clothing industry in international competitionPublished by Taylor & Francis Ltd ,2019
- Los AngelesPublished by Bloomsbury Academic ,2002
- Industrial and Regional Restructuring in the US Women's Dress Industry, 1963 – 92Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 2001
- The Coevolution of New Organizational Forms in the Fashion Industry: A Historical and Comparative Study of France, Italy, and the United StatesOrganization Science, 1999
- International trade and industrial upgrading in the apparel commodity chainJournal of International Economics, 1999
- The North American Free Trade Agreement, emerging apparel production networks and industrial upgrading: the southern California/Mexico connectionReview of International Political Economy, 1999
- Immigrant Incorporation in the Garment Industry of Los AngelesInternational Migration Review, 1999
- The Third China? Emerging industrial districts in rural ChinaInternational Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 1997
- Cheap Labor Strategies and Export-Oriented Industrialization: Some Lessons from the Los Angeles/East Asia Apparel ConnectionInternational Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 1997
- Le couturier et sa griffe : contribution à une théorie de la magieActes de la recherche en sciences sociales, 1975