New York Trip Part V - Fabric (Mendel Goldberg)

Finally, the pièce de résistance.  I've been told for years that Mendel Goldberg was a magical place if you are in love with fabric, and Rosie took me to see it.  Well, you all were right!  We were lucky enough to be there when almost all of the new fabrics had come in, so we saw the stock at its most complete condition.  Wow, just wow!

Every designer you can think of was represented, especially every couture designer.  Of course there were things that I liked more than others, but the quality overall was exquisite.  Rosie took lots of photos, and I will share with you.

As you might have guessed, the first two photos are of the fabric that arrived on my doorstep.  I am so thrilled with them, and although there was choice enough to find fabrics for 20 different beautiful suit combinations, this one leapt to my eye.  The 'plain' fabric with the border texture is to be a skirt.  The border is pieces of fabric and yarns attached to the base fabric, and as the photo suggests, that border will be a few inches above the hem edge of a straight skirt.  Totally frivolous, yet somewhat restrained and severe.  Just my kind of thing.  The fabric to the left is for the jacket, and it's so much more beautiful in person I can't tell you.  The yarns it's woven with are gorgeous and of such a quality that you would think they were high-end hand knitting yarns.  There's a lot of gold in it and the selvedges are beautiful, and will be used as trim here and there.

Now, on to the other fabrics we saw and 'snapped'.

Do you wish you'd been with us yet?

It's The Economy...

Things must actually be getting really bad economically. I just saw a news story about the January Couture shows that are coming up. Nieman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman are not attending, and Saks say they have not made up their mind yet. This really shocked me. As self-proclaimed fashion leaders in the retail world, it would seem that their attendance would be automatic. True, they're not going to actually sell these clothes, and I suppose they feel they can get just as much out of a trend report, but they rely on the public's perception of their unmatched fashion contacts and expertise. This may call that reputation into question.

Chanel laid off 200 workers very recently too, and in mid-December Bill Blass Couture laid off all 60 employees without warning (or severance) and is in bankruptcy. Granted, Blass has had no real leader since Bill Blass died, and that's likely the problem, but it's a sad ending for them.

I am hoping that couture in general does not get hit so hard by the global financial downturn that they'll have to curtail the collections. I've seen reports recently that households with a net worth over $30 million are planning to spend as much or more this year as last. Surely this is the only group that is wearing couture anyway, so maybe they'll do their civic duty and keep it up. I hope so anyway. It would be really sad to lose all that beauty and creativity, and almost impossible to start up the mechanics of creating it all again once it's been shut down.

Where am I getting all this news? I decided that for a little Christmas gift for me, I wanted a subscription to the online Womens Wear Daily, and I am loving it.


The fashion news is great, and I like their reviews very much. The business news is interesting as well.

Hepburn as Chanel

Now that's an intriguing title, isn't it?



I listen to lots of audiobooks and podcasts while I'm sewing and knitting, or doing housework or whatever. One podcast I like is called ScreamAndKill by Stella Maria Krazelberg von und zu Brabant. It's billed as an Outrageous Operatic Podcast, and it certainly lives up to its billing. It's great fun, and the music is wonderful. A recent edition is called "Glitter and Be Gay", an obvious reference to Bernstein's Candide, and the aria is included.

What I thought pertained to sewing/fashion was a completely unexpected song sung by Katherine Hepburn. I don't think I've ever heard her sing before, and she's no songbird, but of course puts across a song with verve. (Her friend, Greta Garbo described her as sounding "like Rose Kennedy". Hepburn was about 63 at the time.) She played Coco Chanel on Broadway in the musical Coco in 1970. You can hear her sing "The Money Rolls in Like Freedom" at about 32 minutes into the podcast. It's quite an interesting song, as much about women's freedom as jewels, although costume jewelry plays a humorous part in it.

Spot That Fake Chanel!

 

Piecework Magazine had a great article this month by Claire Shaeffer about the "detective" process she goes through to decide if an unlabeled Chanel-style suit is the real thing or just a close copy.

I used to subscribe to Piecework, and liked it very much. It is aimed more at the history and curation of textiles of all kinds than at the creation of pieces today. They have wonderful instructions and tutorials for recreating some of the techniques or items that they show. Not really recreating of course, but just enough to give you a taste of the technique, and enough information to send you on your way towards learning and doing more, if you are so moved. The photos are wonderful, and their range is very wide. I finally quit subscribing, but I still look at it on the news stand now and then, and the other day I was stunned to find this wonderful article in the latest issue (Nov/Dec07) without even a hint of it on the cover!

If you're interested in the inner workings of Chanel garments, this is invaluable information. It's not exhaustive, but so much has been written already, much of it by Claire Shaeffer herself, that we should be able to find the 'basics' in other places. This is just a little icing on the cake.

One of the things that caught my eye was the use of one of the blouse fabrics (this couture suit came with 2 blouses) to embellish the lining, and also the fact that it had pocket flaps with no pockets. Unusual, apparently, but not unheard of, and the kind of thing I myself would do, since I'd know I would never put anything in one of the patch pockets on the front of the jacket, and it would simply add bulk. Since it is apparently unusual, I'm sure it was the client's idea.

The other very interesting thing was the telltale topstitching on the edge of the jacket, but not on the lining. Very tricky.