Spreading the news!
Starr
I read with interest last week a discussion about dwindling fabric shopping
in New York.
No kidding! I've been a costume designer in New York since 1972. Way
back
then there were several fabric districts - 57th Street, the 30's (the
Garment District), 14th Street (cheap fabrics for off-off-Broadway and
dinner theater), and Orchard Street (Jewish-owned stores open on Sunday).
There were also stores on lower Broadway, which is now more of a college
town for NYU. For those "in the know" there was also Louis Gladstone (up
near MOMA) and LP Thur on 23rd Street. Diamond Discount and C&F were in
the
East Village. There was fabric and trim ALL OVER the city.
Practically all the fabric outlets outside the actual Garment District
have
closed. When it was time to renew the lease, their rents went through the
roof. I was on Orchard Street a few days ago. It used to be a place you
could find wonderful, affordable fabrics and trim, stacked to the ceiling
in
hole-in-the-wall shops. I was amazed to see one ultra-cool eatery after
another and up-scale shops selling witty little evening bags that cost
more
than an off-Broadway production of Hamlet.
Now the Garment District itself is fighting for its life. New zoning is
threatening to open up space once zoned for light manufacturing (cutting
rooms, etc.) to office space. Not only the small manufacturing and design
spaces on the upper floors in the Garment District are disappearing. The
costume shops, milliners, vintage clothing rental establishments are being
priced out of the area. And so are the fabric and trim shops that have
always occupied the ground level.
Can this unique area be saved or will New York become a city of office
workers and Starbucks? There is a group fighting this and we ask you, as
people interested in costume and fabric and fashion, to become involved.
Please have a look at the web site- http://savethegarmentcenter.com/.
Sign
the petition, write a letter in support. Read the letters from other
costume
people under "Press and Stories."
Meanwhile, if I can help any out-of-towners with shopping specifics in New
York, I'll be glad to. I just bought some perfectly lovely linen for
$5.00
a yard on 39th Street. And, by the way, Greenberg & Hammer has just moved
downtown from 57th. Google their web site for information about the new
store.
Martha McCain
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