Textile Friday: Uncrippling Ourselves in Modern Times

      The oldest tailor joke is probably about a guy going into a store to buy a suit. There's probably a thousand versions of this, but the one I've found that is closest to my grandfather's version goes like this:

     "This guy walks into the Ye Olde APL Tailor Shoppe. And wanting to buy a suit, the tailor pulls one of the rack, and has him try it on.
    The guy says to the tailor that the jacket doesn't fit right, one arm is much longer than the other.
    'No problem", says the tailor, 'Just hunch up your shoulder on that side, and it'll look fine.'
    'The lapels are uneven.' says the guy.
    'Oh, that. Well, push it over with your chin.'
    The guy also notices that the pants aren't the same length.
    'Hitch up your hip on the longer side, and it'll be fine. Now, my! Doesn't that look great!'
    The guy gimps out of the tailor shop wearing his new suit, and passes two old ladies walking the other way. After he passes, the one says to the other: 'Oh, that poor old man. Did you see how crippled up he was?'
     'Yes, but doesn't his suit fit him well?'"   ~Robert Bernecky in Quote Quad

      In general, it's agreed that our modern clothing and footwear weighs 20-40% more and provides 20-40% less mobility than our grandparent's clothing in the 1950s. And that's the expensive "quality" stuff. BBC did a great example article on this a few years ago you can see here. We've gained a lot through modern production methods, namely cheap affordable clothing. In volume, my wardrobe rivals a countess or lord of the 1850s. But, does it really free me to look my best? In our quest for disposable beauty, 86% of the population no longer has clothing that actually fits them. Myself included.
       Knowing a problem exists is not the same as fixing it. I've watched ill-fitting clothing slowly creep into the wares I sold at Belk's department stores for almost a decade. It's what made me decide to get into manufacturing. And they are symptomatic of a trend you see in any major department store: Dillards, Macys, etc. Everyone is guilty. The masters and experts of my parent's and grandparent's generation say it's been happening since the late 1970s and early 1980s which is almost 30 years. I should add here that JC Penny is considered the only noted exception by some judges, I leave the truth of that to people who actually have spent more than 20 years in the business.
        After 3 years of moving over to the manufacturing side of house, I have come to agree that newer designers, cutters, and sewers tend to allow a lot more "slop" in the system than older ones. The bull's eye gets much much smaller for acceptable pass/fail standards the more experienced the craftsman (or woman). I've got my own cheat sheet I've built to understand what a designer's actual ability is when they are talking to me, but I won't bore you with the numbers. Mostly, it's a technical way of saying sloppy. In short, it is as if moving up a level of trade skill involves recognizing and embracing these tighter demands.Some people never recognize these levels, but doing so helps you grow.
       Which brings me to computers. Computers are a huge crutch for beginning designers, manufacturers, and tradespeople. But to quote one of my favorite patternmakers, "Computers don't make your designs better, they just help you get there faster."  But no computer, no matter how shiny, is real substitute for ability and I think we as a nation are learning that the hard way after the technology boom of the 1990s. And manual (analog) ability often takes a lot of hard work to get to. Thankfully, there's a lot of great masters in my area willing to share their thoughts and ability so begins the hard task of moving up the ladder from journeyman to master. I'm reading a lot, doing a lot, and you dear customer get to benefit from better products all around. Hopefully, we can all answer this question together as American manufacturing comes home and we rediscover what being skilled labor means. I look forward to the future with you and hopefully we'll all have suits worth wearing that don't make us look like cripples. And set us free.

Textile Friday: Advice on Starting A Small Business

             "Many people think that the most important part of a startup is the initial idea (you often hear ‘I want to start a company but don't have any ideas'). What they don't realize is that coming up with ideas is actually the easy part—the hard part is executing on them." ~Dave Gilboa in "Goop"
             
              Today is my birthday and I would like to give you a gift of the most important article that I have read in 3 years since starting a small business. I know I normally post about textile topics on Friday, but it's been one of those weeks where I've been reminded of the stark difference between ideas and reality and wanted to give you the best wisdom I have read this year. Apt advice is rare and often overlooked due to it's simplicity. The longer I am in business, the more I come to believe that an ability to understand if a thought is worth executing is the difference between chasing a fantasy and building something of value. And it gets down to a fundamental question that must be asked: "Is there any real value in producing this idea?"
         
              I hope this gives you value today. Especially to my fellow designers and small business owners. So go read the article and ask yourself, "What do you believe is worth producing? How do you measure your creative spark?" It is a question I am forced to answer again and again in this business. I hope reading this article helps as much as it has helped me. And happy Friday, today I am 31.

Textile Friday: Made in America

         I've been thinking this spring about the US textile industry as a whole. A lot of people in the textile industry like to point out that manufacturing has been decimated the past decade. As a whole, the textile industry has lost over a million jobs or 60% of it's workforce. North Carolina is a textiles state traditionally and we have been very heavily hit. But this post is not a doom and gloom post, it is the opposite. We have almost 1,500 textile factories with close to 500 workers in them plus a host of smaller shops dotted all across our state who are doing great is this economic downturn and tough economy. Every designer out there has to keep this in mind as they seek to be successful. I have a lot of friends who have cut their losses and gotten out. NC State's design program is a shell of it's former glory in the 1980s. I wince every time I talk to a professor or teacher and they say, "Oh textiles? Really? I didn't think anyone was actually making a living at that."
         To which I privately think to myself, "You know that the textile industry has actually maintained a steady market share since 1978 and I've actually worked on a number of factory lines. There's plenty of people out making a living, a good living off the garment industry." I've worked for billion dollar companies that only had 7-9 seamstresses. What has changed drastically is that the work that used to take several thousand people, now only takes a handful. And they're doing quite well, thank you. After some specific machine investments.This spring I have decided to feature some of the local US textile companies making a living, a good living, putting out a product(s) worth buying. I would like to stress that all these companies have taken different approaches and are locally available for purchase in the Triangle area. I love reading and supporting men and women who have found a way to make their idea accessible to the masses such as myself. So, if you want to support your local fellow designers, share this story with a friend and maybe pick up one yourself. I don't have all the answers, but let's look at what some other companies are successfully doing.
       Today I would like to talk about the Darn Tough Vermont: Running Socks Company out of Vermont. These guys make awesome socks that are so tough they come with a lifetime guarantee. They also manage to pay their employees well with benefits and use superior quality wool that is incredibly durable. You can pick one up locally at Bull City Running Company in Durham, Tobacco Road Outdoors in Apex, and Townsend and Bertram in Carrboro. There's a number of sock manufacturers in the area, particularly out of the Burlington area, but I don't know of anyone else who's making socks of this quality. They're reasonably priced in the $7-20 range depending on type etc.
        Nash and I both do a fair amount of walking and these socks also make AWESOME Sock Monkeys. I mean like rockin' sock monkeys. Looking through the modern sock factory, you will notice something very important, a lot of machines to not a lot of people. Machines are much much faster than people at repetitive tasks which allow you not to wear out your employees. Good equipment can help with repetitive wear/injuries helping the people who work for you stay safer and healthier for longer. People like to be treated like people, not machines.You are responsible both to your customers and the people who work for you to make both their lives better. Darn Tough is answering this call in a modern age. For that they have my admiration and respect.
           Many of those machines will be computer driven. If you want to hand-knit socks, you can certainly do so and they look great. Nash has a pair of hand-knit wool socks he got as a Christmas present that rapid wolves could not pry out of his hands. You  generally make one sock per day if you're a knitter, putting a handmade item in the VERY rare gift category. About twice as slow as scarves for me. A professional knitter in the 1700s would produce 12 socks a week or 6 pairs which I find frighteningly fast. See the YarnHarlot's blog for more info if you want to learn about hand-knitting socks which is where this picture is reprinted from. She's also a fun fellow knitting addict. The first month I started Li Sashay I tried to...gasp....make a living hand-knitting scarves. Several stubborn weeks later (and cramped hands), I gave up that idea, but I still knit for fun. For me, I love designing, but I also struggle with how to affordably give it to friends and family while paying employees. Good tools seems to be the answer I've found and a number of other designers. So go check out the couple minute video and feel a little inspiration for your day. American made is still out there, doing just fine thank you, though perhaps not in the way you envisioned.