“Schmatta: Rags To Riches To Rags,” a documentary about the rise and decline of New York’s garment district — and the efforts to preserve what remains of a sector that played a vital role in the American Jewish experience during the past century — premieres October 19 on HBO. Its director, Marc Levin, recently sat down with the Forward’s senior writer Nathaniel Popper to discuss the Jewish workers, employers and gangsters who shaped the fashion industry; how the garment district influenced designers like Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Donna Karan, and what the Torah has to say about what we wear.
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Podcast editor: Gabrielle Birkner
I watched Schmatta last night with a broken heart. My mother and her sisters worked in the New York garment industry as young immigrants over a hundred years ago. My mother through her talent and sheer determination ended up as a very successful dress designer in los Angeles in the mid nineteen forties through the fifties. What has happened to an industry that was the entrance to the American dream for so many is tragic.
I have not seen Shmatta yet, but I suspect the real reason for the collapse of the garment industry here is that, even as a home sewer, I cannot make a skirt for less money than I can buy one at a discount store. Only the highest priced garments, such as designer wedding gowns, can be made here at a profit. As in many other industries, we have priced ourselves out of the market and can only price competitively by outsourcing the manufacturing to countries where miniscule wage levels allow low retail prices with profitability. I can't see these jobs returning, and if they do, those hired will be immigrants working for minimum wage (or less, if they are undocumented).
A shame, really, but so long as deregulation rules the day, we're all screwed sooner or later. I'm a word processor and we're the latest victims of outsourcing.
Thanks Ronald Regan, Bill Clinton, George the 1st and your imbecile son and now President Obama.
Think about Ralph Nader (or any party but the two major ones that have been putting to screws to workers forever).