We are swamped by clothing made by workers who are paid virtually nothing, in dangerous factories run by companies that don’t have to pay any attention at all to their impact on the environment or to the welfare of their workers. That has served to disguise the fact that properly made clothes, made by people earning enough to survive in the west, were never cheap to begin with and have been getting more expensive while the rest has been getting cheaper.
Good quality leather goods have never been cheap. Even belts, for example. A proper belt uses up a good part of a hide that could serve many purposes, so if you make it into a belt, it’s not going to be cheap.
Over the past year or two, it’s been noticeable that some smaller scale makers have been choosing to make their clothes here in the UK, so you have small mills and looms being brought back into use, along with all the other stuff that goes along with it: button making, spinning, people that fix the machines, pattern makers, hand looms, a whole little industry out there being revived.
