Kat's Adventures: New York City Tour of the Garment Industry (Day 4)

Another bright and early morning in New York City, well it wasn’t THAT bright. For the majority of our time in the city the weather was as radical and bipolar as Tennessee weather. It had been rainy, wet, and humid most of the time, and not only that but one day it would be scorching hot then the next day it would be too cold for the summer season. It was quite annoying to deal with.

Obviously the weather didn’t stop the large group of students and chaperones from seeing our plans. The first appointment was with Nobland, and excellent apparel cut and sew manufacturing company that assists New York based designers and brands with creating their garments from storyboard to finished product. They work with brands such as Alexander Wang, Old Navy, H&M, Target, Antropology, Kohls, Publix School, Gap, and many more. We talked with Philip Leeming, the creative direction team member who was very insightful, knowledgeable, and very enthusiastic about what he does for the company. To be honest I thought this appointment would be the worst of the bunch. I thought I would get extremely bored for the next 1 ½ hours. BUT I was completely wrong. It ended up being one of my favorite places to see out of the 12 we had planned to visit. Nobland was exceptionally insightful on the process of mass producing and creating a collection to sell in stores. They have offices and manufacturing facilities in Korea, Vietnam, and, Los Angeles, and New York. They produce most of their textiles and fabrics within their company and sometimes outsource from Paris and Italy. Nobland emphasized greatly on keeping up with the latest styles and trends and paying attention to what happens in the world day by day. They advised us students to be aware of everything such as art, history, culture, current television, movies, exhibits, watch the many annual award shows (Oscars, CMA’s, Grammy’s ext.), go to events in NYC, and to realize that everything influences everything in fashion. Philip also advised us to not say no! Be indispensable and work well with the people around you. I cannot express how great it was to get to know this company. It would be great for me to someday get involved with them somehow in the future. They offer internships, but right now they do not have any availability. It was an amazing appointment indeed.

Shortly after our small coffee break we all went off to our next stop at Pink Chicken, a children’s wear clothing brand that is preppy and vintage looking. This small brand currently sells their garments in 4 different stores in New York and Los Angeles, CA. Their designs are inspired by vintage fabrics they find on ebay, closing fabric stores nationwide. They especially love the textiles they find from India and China. The designers love the printed cottons they find and use them as inspiration to create their own computer generated textiles. The brand is a very old school “hand stitched” brand mother daughter company. I was curious to know how their line of doll clothing co-existed with their children’s wear collections and how it was working out for them. One of their designers explained how the idea came up in casual conversation and it’s currently in the experimental stage by test selling in their NYC stores as special sales. I also asked how doll clothing might have impacted the children’s wear industry and they responded by saying the kids are enthusiastic but have not seen a lot of progress in the industry. There has been an awesome response, but they are not sure of what to think about it yet. I thought their prints they developed were cute and the brand hopes to soon start creating clothing for mom’s.

The next appointment of the day was one I was really looking forward to (shockingly enough) was seeing the retail store Jeffery. Jeffery is a unique and very expensive store that is notorious for handpicking distinctive products and exclusively selling in their store located in the Meatpacking District of New York. Currently a branch of the company Nordstrom they sell to a very high class clientele with Jeffery’s special team of sales people who receive a 100% sales commission with every sale they make. The founder Jeffrey Kalinsky grew up in Charleston, SC in a family with much retail experience starting out in a shoe store. Jeffery as a kid was taught by his family what to look for in the fashion industry and how to spot exceptional, one of a kind product.

Jeffery at the age of 25 got a job as a buyer in Atlanta, GA searching for exceptional shoes. His first Jeffery location was based in Atlanta and by the power of word of mouth his brand was able to expand into New York and catch the attention of Nordstrom who eventually bought the store brand. The NYC Jeffery location was the first apparel retail store to open in the Meatpacking District. At the time the area was very sketchy with hookers at every street corner, the smell of rotting animal flesh and blood running down the streets every day. Jeffery found the spot by chance and decided to open shop and slowly over time (15 years to be exact) the sketchy Meatpacking District went from dangerous to high fashion. I asked the store guide, the manager, what does Jeffrey see in the pieces he chooses to sell? He answered “he has emotional connections with what he sees. Jeffrey will walk in show rooms and buy small portions of what he likes. He has a gift for picking the best product.“ A response like that always amazes me and makes me realize that sometimes there is no better answer than that. It is just incredible to hear that people are this talented. I had an appreciation for Jeffrey’s passion and distinctive eye for fascinating fashion. It’s something I can relate to.

It was then lunch time. Our group walked around the corner and down a few blocks to find a cute food and shopping area (similar to a farmers market but also with local clothing and artwork) where we had a wide variety of lunch options. BUT before I get into that I have to tell a short story. Right as we walked out of the Jeffrey store, I looked across the street to see that the “Life is Beautiful” exhibit was in walking distance. I geeked out so hard it was extremely embarrassing. For those of you not aware of what I’m talking about, go to Netflix and watch the movie “Exit Through the Gift Shop” and you will learn all about the crazy French man who became a street artist over night with his insane amount of street art he created and sold for thousands of dollars to the public. Right as we were released to our lunch hour, I RAN to go back and see if the exhibit was open. To my luck IT WAS NOT! I was so disappointed, but I was able to press my face against the glass and see very little in the large building. I almost missed lunch, but I grabbed a chilly dog and waited to meet up with our group for our last appointment of the day.

Our last educational stop was with Izquierdo Studio, a special costuming fabrication company that serves a very long list of clientele providing “soft props” and costuming services for unique entertainment productions. They provide a wide variety of work from Victoria Secret to Broadway productions to movies such as their latest project Zoolander 2, and many others. We were able to see how they screen print stretchy silks to make form fitting costume such as for one of the Spider Man movies, briefly explain how they hand make their super lightweight giant feathered wings, and explained how they custom fit and create full bodied costumes such as the golden tube top for Brittany Spear’s music video. They also create theater props and soft props (large objects fabricated for entertainment purposes and used for productions. Think of the recent remake of The Three Stooges and their hammers and mallets they hit each other with. You wondered how the actors didn’t actually hurt themselves. That’s right, soft props). They advised us to start doing what you love to do and somehow start to build up to body forms; meaning somehow take your ideas and think on a level that can make your ideas wearable on the body form. Starting out drawing and painting is a great start to a creative career such as theirs. I was amazed by how much work they put into their projects and also how much they know about their practice. I really wished I could have just left behind my Nashville life and joined their team, cause I think working with them would have been a great opportunity.

It was not time for our 5 hour free time yet again. Another chance to explore parts of the city on our own time. This time Tia, Carolyn, and I went to Mood Fabrics. It was conveniently just a few blocks down from our hotel and we spent at least 3 hours in the store. There were three floors of just outstanding fabrics of many kinds. Every wall but the one with the door you walked into was covered with fabric. It was an insane amount of fabric. They also sold many trims, notions, laces, buckles, and real leathers and furs to choose from. We even got to visit the store dog Swatch. After spending lots of time there looking for swatches of our favorite fabrics, we went to dinner at an Indian restaurant. It would have been a great meal if the actual meal came in on time. Because we were such a large group we were separated into two tables of 8. One section ordered their food, waited, and received their food at a regular pace. My section, on the other hand, had to wait maybe an hour and a half for our food to arrive. I don’t know what the hell was up with that, but you know what the food I ordered was really good. Plus I also had two Lychee Lovers to drink, which tasted amazing! After dinner some other classmates and I went to find some desert at a local bakery called Holy Cream where they sold their famous doughnut ice cream sandwiches. It was a bitch to find but it was worth it!