Made in USA!

Media Criticism is indeed the appropriate name for this course; I cannot watch television, go on the computer, or walk down the street without acknowledging and criticizing some sort of media object. Commercials are no longer a time to go to the bathroom, advertisements on websites are no longer annoying flashing blobs (they’re just more annoying), and in this case, the words on the window of American Apparel are no longer just words.

Last night, I was walking down Broadway and I glanced at American Apparel’s storefront window. Right above the American Apparel logo read, “Crafted with Pride in Los Angeles, California.” I walked two steps further and there was a sign right outside the door that said, “Made in USA.” And then I turned to my left and looked at the door and there was a sticker that said, “I like America and America likes me.” Oh, and I’m not done. I went inside and there was a whole rack of t-shirts that said “Made in USA” on them selling for $22 (http://store.americanapparel.net/4321sp.html?cid=201). Okay, we get it. Your clothes are made in America.

I am pretty sure that had we not learned about commodity fetishism in class, I would have noticed the abundance of “WE MAKE OUR CLOTHES IN AMERICA AND NOT CHINA” signs but I wouldn’t have thought twice upon looking at them. When I got home, I decided to go on American Apparel’s website to read more about the company and its tactics. They use the vertical integration model with every bit of their manufacturing done in-house in downtown LA, including dyeing, cutting, sewing, advertising, and design. They make it loud and clear that they do not rely on any outsourcing; their employees model the clothing used in their ads and they own every retail store they have rather than franchising them.

Commodity fetishism, a theory coined my Marx, refers to the social division of labor that exists in a capitalist society. Because the labor exists so far from the consumers, the effort and labor that goes into making the commodities is masked and consumers only know about the resulting relationships of price between commodities. It is American Apparel's vertical integration tactics which are executed right in their downtown LA factory that counter the Marxist theory. They apparently like to make it loud and clear too. Maybe I should pitch them a new slogan: “American Apparel Against Commodity Fetishism.” Any takers?