The Clothing Industry.

Before the 1870s most Americans women made clothes. Only the wealthy could afford to have their garments custom-made, and to them clothing was the mark of their success. Manufacturers began to make some inexpensive, ready-made clothing in the early nineteenth century, but it was of poor quality and was worn mainly as work clothes by sailors and southern slaves. New technology in the textile industry —especially the invention of practical, workable sewing machines around 1850—and an influx of cheap immigrant labor produced cloth goods that were cheap, durable, and fashionable. The demand for uniforms during the Civil War forced manufacturers to develop an efficient model for the ready-to-wear clothing. Northern garment makers geared up to fill orders for hundreds of thousands of Union army uniforms, creating standard sizing based on government statistics that identified the most commonly occurring human measurements...