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LAUDEM GLORIAE 


"Wait—you’re saying that all clothing no matter the company—requires a person to sit down and put together each garment? Even the places that mass produce clothing?”


This was my reaction during a conversation with Veronica that just about broke my brain open to the reality of the fashion industry.


Have you ever looked at a description of a garment on a website or perhaps the tag inside the garment that mentions it was “hand-made” or perhaps “hand-sewn”?


Our immediate (and understandable) response might be “Wow! How unique and special! Someone took the time to craft this garment. Someone actually stitched it together!” Regardless of what the tag or the website says, did you know nearly every garment that required stitching or sewing (*cough* that’s all of them) is hand-made?

There are many fabrics that are able to be created through factory machines, but the actual composition of a garment? Someone was sitting, humming, sewing with twitching hands (possibly with painted nails), putting together the garments we wear. Time consuming, right? A lot of labor, endurance, and meticulous stitching goes into every piece—whether fast fashion companies or an Etsy shop—they are hand-made or better yet, person-made.


Embroidery is often machine made, thanks to technology, but the bulk of the process to create a shirt, dress, shoes, or pants requires many hands. Many people’s stories are behind what we are wearing. The long hours and careful folding these artists give so that someone else might have the opportunity to express their soul. Knit and swimwear fabrics have to be laid out by a person before it is cut because it will shrink—someone has to physically sit there and cut it. https://victorypatterns.com/blogs/victory-patterns-blog/jackie-sewalong-how-to-cut-knit-fabric


There is another person who is in charge of quality control—going through a check list with EACH garment to ensure that they have a consistent product. But wait—if all clothing companies involve people putting in careful time and labor—why are the fancy sustainable shops or small business owners sell clothing at a price exponentially more than big companies?


Many companies in the fashion industry have forgotten the dignity of the human person. Too often fashion industry workers are overlooked and forgotten, not to mention the unethical ways they are treated by the industry. The workers are treated as less than the product (read more in our articles “Who Made My Clothes? https://www.litanynyc.com/post/who-made-my-clothes and “Upholding the Dignity of Garment Workers” https://www.litanynyc.com/post/upholding-the-dignity-of-garment-workers).

I realized in my own experience as a customer, I would treat every article of clothing as if it is made by a machine, because the company has told me (by the way they treat their employees) that these people have the equivalent dignity of a machine. In the past, I would ignore the tag that instructed me how to properly care for the garment so it could last longer than a year. Little did I know how many stories I was holding in a single article of clothing.


A similar reaction is shared in, “Sewstainability”— “Ultimately, isn’t the problem that clothing is so cheap people assume machines are making them? People don’t want to face up to the fact that their $3 t-shirt was made by a person who was probably paid very little to make it. That $3 has paid for fabric, thread, dye/printing, transport costs, storage, tax, profits AND several people’s wages to make it, seems like they probably weren’t paid much!” https://sewstainability.blog/2020/09/29/all-clothes-are-handmade/


At Litany, we seek to uphold the dignity and stories of those who work within the company as well as bring to light the importance of seeing the whole person (read more at “Turning Our Supply Chain Into a #LitanyofLovehttps://www.litanynyc.com/post/turning-our-supply-chain-into-a-litanyoflove).


What ways will you cherish your clothes and the stories you hold?



 
 
 

If you've ever wondered where Litany gets its name, it might come as no surprise that it is inspired by an ancient form of Christian prayer. A litany is a long list of petitions that are recited as a call and response. It is repetitive and rhythmic, musical in quality, and simple so as to be easily imitated. The litany of saints, for example, involves stating the names of various saints to which all respond, “pray for us.” It is a unitive, collaborative type of prayer, ordered toward love and creating something good. 


First and foremost, Litany was named as such because of the litany of saints. Each of our garments is inspired by and named in some way after a particular saint and when the pieces all come together, we see the unique yet cohesive beauty that the saints possess as well. Each garment is imbued with rich meaning and meant to inspire the wearer to live a deeply beautiful life, hopefully striving for unity with God and each other as the saints did.


But as with all beautiful things, litanies continue to inspire us in new ways that are unfolding over time. One of the new ways our own name has touched our mission recently is through the call and response nature of this prayer. At Litany, we are aware of our calling to love everyone, and we are striving to respond to that in many different ways. In particular, we are focusing on viewing our supply chain- everyone from the workers who dye the silk all the way to the woman receiving our garment as a gift- as more than just a list of people but as many opportunities to respond to that call to love.


Our supply chain has become a #LitanyofLove to us because it is made up of people with whom we collaborate- working together to respond to each other's needs, in order to create something good. We desire to respond to the real needs of our suppliers and not just ask them to respond to ours. We strive to simplify our process so as to be manageable, repeatable, and easily imitated by others. We hope to show love and consistency to our customers, so they know they are worthy and special in so many ways. We have received a call to do things differently, and this is our response. We hope that you’ll join in with us.


Stay tuned for the next couple weeks as we highlight our designers, suppliers, laser cutters, customers, and everyone in between and how we plan to respond to our call to love them!


 
 
 
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