Vintage dress label a piece of immigrant and women labor history

Clothing labels can be used to date clothing and lead a collector on a journey through history. Recently, while inspecting a vintage sailor dress from the 60's or 70's I discovered a union label from the International Ladies Garment Worker Union (ILGWU). This dress can be dated back to the date range of 1963-1974 according to the label listed by the Vintage Fashion Guild (VFG, 2013).  The ILGWU is an interesting piece of history due to it being one of the first union organizations to have mostly immigrant and women members. The ILGWU was one of the largest labor organizations in the U.S. and worked to improve working conditions for workers in the garment industry by increased wages, safer work conditions and eventually health insurance.

The ILGWU began in June, 1900 with 11 men who were primarily Jewish immigrants (Levine, 1924). Less than a decade later, women that worked in the shirtwaist sweat shops joined the ILGWU and fought for safer working conditions. Particularly, after a fire in a shirtwaist factory that killed 146 workers that were primarily women (The Editors, 2009). The horrific Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire inspired American working women leaders like Rose Schneiderman who championed for women to have better working conditions, wages and education. Her philosophy could be illustrated by her quote "The woman worker needs bread, but she needs roses too (Schneiderman,1911)". She described better working conditions and wages as bread. The roses were symbolic of women having access to education, recreation and professional networking.

Currently, the ILGWU is no longer active. However it did in 1995 merge with the Amalgamated Textile and Clothing Workers (ACTWU). ACTWU became the Union of Needle Trades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE). In 2004 UNITE merged with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (UNITE-HERE).

The union tag on a vintage sailor dress helped to date the dress and began a journey through a history of women and immigrant workers fighting for better working conditions. Looking forward in a current fashion industry that makes most of it's garments overseas in similar working conditions that the ILGWU fought to improve, could online communities of independent garment creators and resale sellers work to bring about a kinder garment industry where we can have bread and roses?