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"Forty years ago, the amount of American clothing actually manufactured in America was around 95%. Today, the number has plummeted to an unsettling, shocking, downright scary 5%. It&amp;#x27;s one of many reality checks I got from Marc Levin&amp;#x27;s excellent HBO documentary, Schmatta: From Rags to Riches to Rags--an absolute must-see for anyone who fancies herself a Slave to Fashion. Sign up for Glamour.com&amp;amp;#8217;s Style Tips of the Week and Beauty Tip of the Day newsletters! Schmatta (the Yiddish word for &amp;quot;rags&amp;quot;) is a true New York story, loaded with Jewish and Italian history, incredible old footage of women shopping on Fifth Avenue in the 60s, interviews with everyone from Anna Sui to Stan Herman, and a hefty dose of blunt pessimism about the rapidly declining state of the garment industry. Here&amp;#x27;s the reality: It&amp;#x27;s a lot cheaper for most designers to haul their production off to China or Malaysia or the Philippines, where workers (most of whom make as little as a few dollars a day, and many of whom are as young as six) can churn out loads of clothes in a fraction of the time. And most designers are so focused on building their brands, on scoring licensing deals and developing fragrances and creating unforgettable red carpet moments courtesy of A-listers wearing their clothes that they&amp;#x27;ve all but forgotten about the true heart of the fashion industry--manufacturing garments. Truth be told, I was more angry than anything else when I finished watching this film. &amp;quot;But...how could they...how could this...why didn&amp;#x27;t anyone...&amp;quot; went through my head on a repeat cycle for a few hours after I clicked off the television. It&amp;#x27;s downright depressing to see how an immigrant industry that was essentially the backbone of New York City waste way to practically nothing. But it was a brilliant and utterly illuminating hour and fifteen minutes of my weekend, and it absolutely forced me to think about fashion and its weight in an entirely new light. In short: Watch it immediately! Have any of you seen HBO&amp;#x27;s Schmatta: From Rags to Riches to Rags yet? What did you think? Are you surprised to learn how little clothing is actually manufactured in the U.S.A.? Do you make a point to buy American? Discuss! PLUS: Want more Essential Viewing? - 5 things you can thank Coco Chanel for (including her awesome new biopic) - Exclusive scoop from the set of SATC 2! - The Karl Lagerfeld documentary you must rent now More Ways to Get Glamour You could win $50,000 just for registering or logging in to Glamour.com! Add Glamour to your iGoogle homepage Follow Slaves to Fashion on Twitter! Photo: Thinkstock/Jupiter Images Unlimited"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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