The result of the implementation of export-oriented industrialization strategies has been the impressive growth of garment production in Turkey. Supported by flexible production and subcontracting relations, family-owned garment ateliers have become the prominent location of production and have opened up the doors of the global markets. As family-owned businesses, ateliers draw on inexpensive and often unpaid, flexible, and loyal immediate and extended kin to provide labour. Garment ateliers operate informally on the outskirts of big cities, such as Istanbul, where rural migrant families comprise a cheap labour pool for enterprising migrant business owners. The role of women’s unpaid and underpaid labour involvement in garment ateliers in Istanbul is a reflection of how these ateliers manage to integrate the social networks of extended kin relations into garment production. This study-through two case-studies-focuses on family labour and extended kin social networks to analyze the role of women’s unpaid and underpaid labour in these garment ateliers.