The Clothing Revolution - Conclusion

By the late 1800s, almost all clothing for men and boys was "ready-made."  Hand-me-downs, slop clothes were no longer used as a derogatory manner.  No longer was manufactured clothing inferior in fabric or quality to the tailor made clothing.  The new term became "reach-down" clothing (meaning to reach down from a rack.)  Then by the turn of the century, the term became "ready-made" clothing.  While Americans struggled to find the right term that wasn't offensive, the new clothing - everything from suits, shirts, hats, coats, undergarments, stocking and shoes - were now being purchased ready-made.

Shoes, until the mid-1800s, could only be bought in "straights" which had no distinction between left or right feet.  Once a manufacturer made a pair of "crooked shoes" by mistake, the change was on.  Now shoes were made to fit left and right feet.  By 1862, Gordon McKay perfected a machine that sewed the soles of shoes to the uppers.  The Union Army was the first recipient of these crooked shoes..  It was several decades before the middle and upper classes preferred ready-made shoes.

What helped to power the clothing revolution?  The immigrant!  Ready-made clothing instantly Americanized the immigrant.  It was inexpensive and a quick transformation.  Their desire for the ready-made clothes stimulated the clothing industry economy.  They found jobs in the "sweet shops" in the late 1880s where the women and children worked piecemeal for long hours and low wages.

It was said that the clothing industry was an agent of democracy.  The machines were inexpensive and it was rather easy to start your own business and move up from an employee to an employer. 
 
"If the condition of a people is indicated by its clothing, America's place in the state of civilized
 lands is a high one.  We have provided not only abundant clothing, at a moderate cost for all           classes, but we have given them that style and character in dress that is essential to the self-respect of a free democratic people"  (Quote from The Americans:  The Democratic Experience)

The clothing revolution certainly provided that!

Next time...The Birth of the Department Store
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On July 1, 1887, Clay Allison, eccentric gunfighter and rancher dies in a freak wagon accident.  Some of his eccentric behavior included riding on horseback nude through the streets of Mobeatie, Texas and after having the wrong tooth removed by a dentist, he took a pair of pliers to the dentist and removed one of his teeth.