Where did the primary economic value of a garment shift after the widespread adoption of the sewing machine?
The value migrated rapidly to the design, the fabric, and management of the production line.
The introduction of the sewing machine fundamentally altered the economics of clothing production. Prior to the 1850s, because of the immense time investment, the true value embedded in a garment was heavily weighted toward the skilled labor needed to cut and sew it. Once the sewing machine provided a five-fold speed increase, the labor cost plummeted. Consequently, the focus of economic value swiftly reoriented toward intangible or material components that were not so easily mechanized: the artistic design elements, the cost and quality of the machine-produced fabric, and the efficiency achieved through the management and organization of the factory production line.
