In the antiquity people got dressed
very simply, because the available means to weave fabrics were slow
and of relatively difficult operation, and it was necessary to save
the necessary material for the suits. The rich people were more
different by the adornments of their dresses than by the fabrics
they wore . There were very few dressmakers , and making the dresses
did not need women with a special knowledge to sew them. But in
the XIII and XIV centuries the commerce created great wealth in
Italy, and this brought a new luxury in dressing. In this trend
the Italians were the first , and the city of Milan produced the
fashion, not only to Italy, but also to the north and east of Europe.
With the luxury of the suits it increased extraordinarily the needlwork
, and when, two or three centuries later, the steam engine put in
movement the looms and the weave manufacture began to extend in
great scale, diminishing the costs , the people began to wear two
or three times more clothes than before, and the dressmaking gave
jobs to thousands of women and girls of a special class in all the
great cities. This occupation, that from the oldest times of history
seemed peculiar to the women, got to be so general and the wages
became so low, that it gave rise to the misery and suffering of
those who were dedicated to this work .
In 1843, Thomas Hood published his
famous "Song of the Shirt", to lament himself of the class
of women who lived on the needle; and it is a curious and interesting
the fact that, during that same time, the sew machine was perfected
in the United States of America , coming to release these poor women
of the hardest work that for a long time had been enslaving them
.
In spite of these conditions and the interest that at first produced
its invention , the sew machine was not well received by the women.
There was a great prejudice that the machine would not execute the
work with the cleaning, security and perfection made by the feminine
fingers. The centuries of practice, with the needle in their hand,
had created prejudices and opposition to everything that was not
hand finished , which refused to be supplanted overnight. The only
change that could be appreciated in the needlework , from the primitive
ages to the principle of XIX century, was that a steel needle was
used, instead of a of bone or wood one .
It was the industry, represented
by the factories, which demonstrated the possibility of success
of the new sewing machines and the factor that forced its entrance
at home. The adornments , weaves and other manufacturers articles,
whose production depended until then on the practice and skill of
the human fingers, recognized the many advantages of the sew machines
. This not only reduced the cost of the production, but increased
it to a degree never predicted, reducing considerably the number
of workers. Thus using this new invention, it extended innumerable
department store specialized in the manufacture of clothes done
for both sexes, that in those times allowed everybody to dress better
and to a much lower cost than the one paid by our lesser lucky ancestors
.
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