I recently read a fascinating article about garment making– not my usual reading, but a girl has to branch out on occasion. This article compared the 2 major hubs of garment manufacturing Cholet, France and New York City, NY to find how they had sustained the industry in face of difficulty. It seems that the two locations have two very different models.

NYC has employed what the authors term a “Sweatshop Model” that is a model in which they stay alive in the face of globalization by becoming hyper-efficient. Cholet, however, is surviving not through hyper efficiency but rather through entrepreneurial endeavors. (more…)