"Made in California"

Southern California bustled past a milestone in the U.S. textile industry last week.

P: The Bank of America closed deals for three new factories--a rayon mill, a hosiery mill and a suit manufacturing plant.

P: An eastern corporation was rumored to be negotiating for land to build a California manufacturing plant.

P: More than 3,000 apparel buyers from all over the U.S. and Hawaii splashed through a Los Angeles rainstorm, scrambling to place orders for spring and summer sportswear from the 1,000 small factories already operating.

All of this, except the almost blasphemous weather, was good and exciting news to the local citizenry. Eight years ago they were forced to buy nearly all their clothes from Eastern manufacturers, had none to sell in return. Now the local apparel industry is 475% bigger than it was then, employs 35,000 people and does a business of $265,000,000 a year, selling 85% of its products east of the Rockies.

The industry's success is due to its having avoided direct competition with the Eastern makers of fancy women's clothes. Instead it concentrated on bold, original designs in women's casual clothes (trademark: "Made in California").

The story of its development is the story of small operators with shoestring capital and striking originality. A typical example is Mabs of Hollywood. Mabs Barnes, 35, a flaming redhead, ex-discus thrower and ballet dancer, was disgusted with the girdles and panty girdles on the market when she was a Hollywood movie dancer in 1933. She made a girdle herself, found that other dancers wanted similar girdles, so she quit dancing and started a actory. Now Mabs sells girdles, bathing suits and sports clothes in 800 stores in the U.S. Californians are sure that they have many more like Mabs on the way up.

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