March 24, 2023

So imagine you were on your dream island and you could have any wish granted you want and here's your wish:



Interesting question and a lot of fun to play with because, In talking with a lot of you - you are further along on this "wish" than most people.

Expertise 

Let's talk about the money part. 

The history here is fabulous.  During the mid 18th Century, many immigrants were persecuted for their faith and other reasons and were moving into lower Manhattan Island.  Many of these settled in the south part of the island, and then the horrible Triangle Shirt Factory Fire.  This caused the deaths of 146 garment workers.  Because the doors to the stairwells were locked and there was restricted access to the exits of the building, this was the cause of so many deaths.  As a result many more factories, with much better facilities for exits during emergency were built north of the Delancey Street.  However as time grew on, more and more tailors, dressmakers and shops catering to these types of businesses were creeping very close to Central Park and the upper classes didn't like being that close to the "workers".  So a line was drawn at 42nd street and anyone north of that street didn't get business, south of that street got business.  Hence the current boundaries of the current fabric district - 42nd street to the north, 8th to 6th avenues east and west, and about 36th-ish on the South.

This area today has turned into a new residential area because those buildings build after the tragic Triangle building fire, they have large windows with very open spaces and they are perfect for folks who want that open-space look.  As well some of the higher stories can see views of the sunrise over the Atlantic and sunsets over the East River - so water views of both sides make it an excellent selling point.  But they don't want those pesky, lower-class fabric shops in the floor level of their residential business so they are moving out of the fabric district to New Jersey.  (The movie Crossing Delancey is a really fun movie about the difference between south of and north of Delancey Street in New York City). 

That takes us back to the significance of south of Delancey Street. Some of the older, very fine tailors and dressmakers, were in this district south of Delancey Street in Lower Manhattan. 




One of them is this fabulous fabric shop did some remodeling about 6 years ago and ran into the original wall build in the mid 1700's which they glassed in to see it.  Me being a huge history fan, was enthralled.  The shop is Mendel Goldberg Fabrics and her stuff is very expensive - usually $300/yd to $1,500/yd.  Yes, she has fabric that expensive. 


She had this fabric that looked like it was what made this jacket - it had pearl trim and then the pearls were graduated out from the trim, so the fabric was even more exquisite than this garment!




But on her site she has "End Cuts" and she severely discounts them.  This is how you can get some exquisite fabric that would normally sell at hundreds of dollars for a lot less.  Here's an example. 


When you roll your cursor over the photos (click on the photo above to take you to the "End Cuts" section), it will give you the amount of yardage and price.  That 3½ yards for $225 is about $65/yard, and although that sounds like a lot, the quality of the fabric is so excellent, it's hard to describe.  I promise you.  The clothing made from these kinds of fabrics is very limited, and only available in huge metro areas like Paris, London, Milan, Tokyo, Riyadh - not in Kansas City, not it Denver, not in Atlanta, not in St. Louis.  These are the finest made clothing only available in the largest metropolitan areas. 

The middle one above in the Stretch Silk/Linen $275 @ $90/yd is most likely a very soft, with a very slight sheen to it type fabric.  Let me put it this way.  I have never been sorry for the fabric I've purchased at this shop. 

There's other shops in NYC and some of them have comparable pricing but the quality never disappoints and Mendel Goldberg, and I have never been upset about recommending this or purchasing something from them.  I found some very fine Super 200's weight at B&J Fabrics - a very light weight - almost featherweight wool. Then I visited MGF, I found a similar 200's weight wool WITH cashmere for 30% more, and cashmere is the most expensive fabric you can buy.  This was the same featherweight only with cashmere AND Lycra, so it had a slight stretch to it but with the softness of cashmere and the smoothness of that Super 200's wool  made the fabric at MGF so much better.

So I've jumped around here a little bit, but hopefully you can see that a fine fabric is really worth the value that you pay for it.  And I would encourage every one of you to have a garment made of something very fine like this.  There are some other shops through out the US that sell this kind of fabric - Britex and there's some in the fabric district in LA.  But there are some excellent shops in Montreal, Quebec and Vancouver. 


However, the best bargain I have ever found has been with Alice at Mendel Goldberg Fabrics in the "End Cuts" department - even Chanel jackets can be had at this wonderful discounted rate.  It will take some savings to get there, but it's not only worth the end result of the garment, but the joy in working with something that's very fine. 

Time

OK so how you have, the best fabric, the time and the knowledge - what do you sew?  What garment would be worth this much of your resources and knowledge.  There's one garment that comes to mind and that's the Chanel jacket.  Mme. Chanel sewed and you can tell when you make the jacket.  The whole process is filled with the knowledge, expertise and most of all the experience of sewing.  Every time I make one, I grow to admire her more and more, and there were parts of Chanel that didn't leave much to admire.  She was a Nazi sympathizer, and she was a tyrant in her own studio.  But as so often happens with tyrants and people who's politics leave a lot to be desired, their talent is so great that it overcomes their other faults.  She was the creator of the LBD (little black dress).  She was the person who introduced stretch clothing into women's wear.  And she created that dang beautiful quilted jacket. 

Amazingly enough the techniques used to make the Chanel jacket aren't that difficult.  There's nothing really "tricky" to learn to do the jacket.  What is so difficult is the TIME - yes that word again.  The jacket takes a lot of time to make, even when you are using a sewing machine, which Chanel didn't use when she was making the jackets in the 50's when they were first created. 

Even Karl Lagerfeld refused to use machines.  But I'm afraid I don't go that far.  I've used machines every time I've made the jacket. 

There are other clothing that's more difficult to make and requires more extensive techniques - a few of them you see in those magnificent tailoring reels on Instagram.

 

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