alt Hacker NewsHold up, why it changed matters to parent-poster's argument. Consider the difference between:
1. "The technology's capability was inferior to what humans were creating, therefore the quality of the output dropped."
2. "The costs of employing humans created a floor to the price/quality you could offer and still make a profit. Without the human labor, a lower-quality product became possible to offer."
The first is a question of engineering, the second is a question of economic choice and market-fit.
Some of both.
The fabric and clothes were worse, and cheaper. This put many traditional workers out of business, making actually good clothes scarcer, and eventually, more expensive than they previously were.