Photos: Lisa Katayama
My friend Jenny's mom works at a sewing factory in the Mission district of San Francisco. Every day, she and a dozen or so Chinese ladies make stacks of dresses for Macy's that sell for hundreds of dollars each, on the second floor of a building right across from hipster bars and nightclubs. Their revenue: $2-3 per dress.
But this month, after nearly 30 years in operation, one of the businesses in her building is shutting down due to declining revenues. Most of the women who work there will be filing for unemployment soon–they don't speak any English, are uneducated, and only know how to sew.
Several hours after they vacated the factory a week ago today, I dropped by the building to take these photos with Jenny, who told me stories of a childhood filled with pretend train rides in giant clothing hampers and the time her mom sewed her some emergency clothes after she peed in her pants because she was scared of the dirty toilet.
