The Lines of Clothing. Shot in China, following clothing creation from a cotton seed to the the fini

Rows of cotton which becomes thread, then fabric.
Pattern lines are cut. Rows of sewing machines.
Pieces put in boxes to port.
Tankers sail.
Cargo containers on trucks. Retail racks. Cashier lines. Closet rod lined with clothes.

My dream assignment is essentially a photo journalistic venture entitled “The Lines of Clothing.”
The assignment would take me to China, a country where I would follow the creation of clothing from a seed of raw material to the shipment of the finished product.
I would start with the raw material of cotton, a seed that is planted in lines in the ground.
China today is the largest cotton producing country in the world.
I would follow the growing, harvesting and processing of cotton into thread.
I would go to a processing plant to see the cotton prepared to be sent to where it will be spun into thread. Shooting the ‘lines of thread’.
Then shooting the finished spools of thread which is then woven into fabric.
Onto the dying of the fabric in lines of vats.
The rows of fabric as it is woven and then put on bolts.
The bolts that are sent to the clothing manufacturing plants.
The lines of the designers sketches for the clothing.
The lines of cutters or machines that cut the fabric.
The lines of sewing machines, with operators constructing the clothing.
The rows of boxes the pieces are put into.
The lines of trucks or train cars that take the boxes to the port, where it is shipped to the USA.
My assignment would bring me back to the Port of Los Angeles to track the unloading of the cargo containers. The lines of trucks and/or train cars that take the clothing to different distribution points.
The unloading of the product at a retail location such as Target or Macy’s.
The lines or racks of the product.
The lines of dressing rooms.
The line of the cashier for purchase, and the last line, hung in its new owner’s closet.
The point of the assignment is to show what constitutes something we take for granted. The ease with which we as Americans go to a retailer and purchase clothing. This will stop the viewer and cause them to realize all that has come before they step into a store and make their purchase.
Starting with the cotton seed, tracing the entire process to a finish garment in a closet.

So many of us read the Made in China label every day and yet we have no idea of the process in China that brings these goods to our shores.

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