The after of the workers of the Chilean textile industry

By Francisca Vargas Ramos

Every time a new Fashion Week begins or a designer launches a new show, in addition to enjoying each look that takes center stage on the catwalk, I wonder what people are behind the making of that wardrobe. Beyond the lights, the flashes, the glamor and the elegance that a parade has, it is also important to know behind the scenes, right?

From the design, the choice of supplies, cutting and sewing to the definition of small details. Craftswomen, seamstresses or tailors are behind each of these small stations, which together create that dream piece that we would love to wear. If we think of our country, there are several national designers who work with different workshops that provide the manufacturing support needed to finish a collection. In this way, a chain of work is created for women and men who are dedicated to the textile industry that, although it is still in force, has not been in its best conditions lately. 

With the pandemic and confinement, working conditions have changed. The workshops closed, no molds were created, no more fabric was cut, and the machines stopped sewing for a while. According to the National Employment Survey (ENE), at the beginning of 2019 between January and March, 672,511 people in the textile and clothing industry worked at home. With the health crisis, between the months of June and August 2020 there was a large increase, reaching the figure of 1,760,899 people working under this modality. 

For the period between July and September 2021, 1,280,787 people worked at home, of this figure, 555,000 are men and more than 724,000 are women. Workers who had to modify their space and transform a corner of their house into a small workshop that would allow them to continue working while the pandemic passed.

However, the workspace was not the only thing that had alterations. A study carried out by the World Labor Organization carried out in 2021 indicates that , "in the case of Chile, in the clothing chain, the pandemic and with it, the drop in production and sales, has an impact producing an economic worsening and social of the chain as a whole, but affecting above all the most precarious links. At the same time, a worsening in working conditions is generated that is distributed in a similar way, towards those who are in less favorable positions ”. 

The consequences that Covid-19 brought to the textile industry did not go unnoticed. According to the study carried out by the Fundación Sol, the intermittency in maritime and land transport caused a shortage of supplies that were essential to be able to carry out collections. This directly affected the workers of the industry since it made it difficult to continue the services that they presented to large companies in the field. Seeing that their work was increasingly hampered, many women had to restructure the way they worked, looking for new projects that would allow them to work from home. 

The closure of work spaces and commercialization caused a great shake in the industry. According to the interviews carried out by the foundation, both those national designers who saw their production slow down and those manufacturers who helped make the collections a reality, had to restructure their way of working. Even those workers of big brands had to innovate and look for our products to market independently. 

However, as a consequence of the pandemic, the supplies became more expensive and the sales circuits and clientele changed, something that prompted seamstresses, dressmakers and tailors to be in constant adaptation. Although during this period of economic crisis it received state aid, many of the workers in the area had social security gaps due to the lack of control and regulation of working conditions in this industry. 

Despite the fact that the pandemic turns out to be a specific and specific problem that this industry has had to face, many fashion lovers in Chile dream that at some point this category will be valued and developed to such an extent that it is an industry that allows generate stable and well-paid jobs for each of the people who are part of this long chain. 

In addition, in this way the national and emerging design could begin to make its way more firmly. Different samples, parades and interventions could even be part of the socio-cultural program that our country could offer, practices that are well known in countries like Argentina or Spain. 

Strengthening what is done in Chile, improving working conditions for each worker within this chain and making the national product even more visible are some of the great challenges that remain to be faced. Three themes that, to this day, various organizations and groups are trying to improve and that at Nashion It we will continue to make visible.