Michael Kaback, a.k.a Mike says “ I use the picture of my grandmother to represent those 350 thousands, making clothes for America who just like her came from another country and looked like this!”
Mike’s anecdotes and stories from his real life experience from the Garment district , a garmento himself, takes us through deep insights of what history used to be, and how things have changed over the years.
I couldn’t stop myself but notice the trends that used to be then, is coming back again. I saw his family picture in Gingham checks, I felt related when he said fur used to be a great commodity then but thanks to faux fur we can still look the same, and I felt surprised when he said animal skin was huge then as animal prints are in trend now. Today we are living and wearing the 60’s without the hassle of the 60’s struggle, so as to say.
Till a few days back, my understanding of Garment district was a few alleys with plenty of Fabric shops in them. Walking past Times Square towards Macy’s, I one day saw a giant Needle and Button structure, thinking probably it is one of those open art exhibits that NYC has. Until Mike pinpointed me on the holes in the Button that symbolize F for Fashion.
Fashion holds a huge significance in New York’s history, so much so that in 1625, the city of New York had its flag that had a sailor on the left and a Native American on the right. You could even spot this flag at Macy’s or the library.
Interestingly in those days, Beaver skin was in huge demand for expensive hats by Europeans, that was traded with America in exchange of flowers that would cost just a dime for a dozen. Until PETA had intervened , Animal skins were in huge demand and used to be shipped from here to Amsterdam and other parts of Europe. And later when the European immigrants moved to the US in the lower east side, that was their only source of income to sustain here by selling and working in the factories. Even though, most of them did not speak or understood the language, Garment industry was where they would work silently.
Although, the actual manufacturing has dwindled in the Garment district, the remnants of it still remains. If you are lucky, like we were, you could spot, one or two buildings that has steam coming from inside. We even got a chance to visit a manufacturing unit in the Garment District.
I recall my earlier tour in the beginning of last year, when I could clearly see why 23rd street subway station had mosaics of hats (it used to be Times Square of those times where celebrities and famous people would gather) and why Port Authority has boxed murals of Garment District and Jewelry District (which by the way is non-existent today) . It’s interesting how these subway and bus stations in NYC tells a story (I might write another post on that!) .
Garment was huge in NYC because of its easy access to ships that could land in deep waters unlike Boston or Virginia which also has old colonies of Garment. What once came out of need, is today’s the most dynamic industry. Over the past century, we have seen Garments made of fabrics with chips that responds to music or changes color or monitors heartbeat. “Singer” , a household name for sewing machine was invented because of Civil Wars in the USA when soldiers needed Uniforms in different sizes and shapes.
In the past years, the Garment industry focused more on producing more garments in less cost. And that was only feasible with cheap labour which could be found in countries like China where people were willing to give up their rice fields that had worms and diseases to working in factories for mass manufacturing. Today with technology, those 100 garments are not made by those 100 machines, they are made by 5 high speed high tech machines. Those 5 machines are run by just 2 people. People have been incrementally and drastically getting replaced by machines over the years and hence Mike believes that the future may bring back the industry to the US as North Carolina’s technological advance can produce more and pay more too! Well that is yet to see.
We can look down a series of plagues dedicated to different designers on the street including Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. Ralph Lauren was from Bronx and got famous for the cowboy look of the old west – the plague implies the skirt that has flounce (or ruffles). Calvin Klein got famous for his designs, yes but also from the ground breaking controversial advertisement in the 1970’s of Mark and Brook-shield.
Further as we walked towards those alleys with Fabric shops, Mike tells us about the shop where the gowns are so cheap and so wholesale priced that he got a group from Wisconsin out of which 8 got their gowns. He said, sometimes, the celebrities such as JLo has come here to try designer dresses and people were in awe watching them from outside. He advices me on visiting Mood Fabrics, that has one of the best Fabric selection in town.
All in all, walking past the Garment district with fresh new eyes was overwhelming. It is one of those areas, where I most often pass by either to view exhibits, or to just stroll into some intriguing shop, but this was the first time that I understood it, and it felt great.
Have you been to the Garment district? What do you think of it?
