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Ghetto to Glamour

Ghetto to Glamour

from ghetto to glamour

how american toppled couture and redesigned the industry

Johanna Neuman

alph Rueben Lifshitz’s father was a housepainter who longed to be an artist. RHis mother, green-eyed Frieda Lifshitz, insisted that Ralph and her other three children attend yeshiva in the hope that they would bring her “Jewish nachas.” But Ralph, born in 1939 in , had other ideas. While other kids in the fifties were wearing motorcycle jackets, he saved money from after-school jobs to buy oxford shirts, crew neck sweaters and white high-top sneakers. When he couldn’t find clothes to match his instincts, he designed his own. Encouraged by his father, who appreciated his sense of color and texture, Lifshitz, by then , founded his own company in 1968, choosing the name Polo to evoke the power and style of the upper-class sport. From the start, his clothes reflected the gentrified sensibility of polo matches, yacht clubs and family crests. He became the breakout design star of the post-war era, a pioneer who understood the global hunger for assimilation. Today, Lauren is ubiquitous in fashion, head of a powerful global empire that designs all of its products—from to fragrances to home furnishings

and even paint—with an aura of casual American comfort and upper-crust British c ourtesy of polo r a lph l uren class. In keeping with the Polo image, Lauren has perfected his persona as a charter member of the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant establishment. He’s a car enthusiast who maintains a world-class collection of rare automobiles, andby a patriotJohanna who Neuman helped the restore the flag that inspiredThe Star-Spangled Banner. Art Credit

34 july/august 2009 july/august 2009 / Moment 35 labor for garment factories in New three dollars, Davis began making a pair Their business grew into the world’s and the advertising. Corporate America York, Philadelphia, , Baltimore of trousers in 10-ounce duck twill that largest shirt company, the Phillips- still maintained a strong glass ceiling— and elsewhere. “Based in urban he had purchased from Levi Strauss’ Van Heusen Corp., which by 1921 had so-called gentlemen’s agreements barred centers and pushed by history toward dry goods store in San Francisco. As he introduced the self-folding and entry into fields like medicine and the entrepreneurship, Jews found fashion one was stitching them up, he noticed some begun trading publicly on the law—but in the schmatte business, the of the fields open to them,” says Valerie copper rivets nearby, the kind he used to Stock Exchange. In 1929, the company only ceiling was creativity and sweat Steele, a historian at the Fashion Institute attach to horse blankets for cattle cemented its appeal by introducing equity, savvy and timing. Jews, says of Technology in New York. drivers. “So when the pants were done,” shirts with attached collars—looser, Alana Newhouse, “used their knowledge It was one of those paradigm-shifting he later recalled, “the rivets were lying more comfortable and easier to wash in of the garment industry to pole vault moments in history. As author Malcolm on the tables—and the thought struck new electric washing machines. themselves into high fashion.” Gladwell writes in Outliers: The Story me to fasten the with rivets.” From the beginning, the connective of Success, the Jewish immigrants had The quintessential American garment, tissue of Jewish history in the rag trade he 1930s designer Adrian was born the skills to match the times: “To come blue jeans, was born. The pants were an was family. “This business, the fashion Tto immigrants in Connecticut. to in the 1890s with a immediate hit—Davis sold 200 pairs in industry, is truly a family business,” said Although Adrian Adolph Greenberg background in dressmaking or sewing or the next 18 months—and soon imitators Andrew Rosen, founder of the Theory knew no one in the garment business, he schwittwaren handlung (piece goods) was began copying his design. His wife fashion label and now CEO of Helmut was armed with talent: While studying a stroke of extraordinary good fortune. objected to a patent, arguing that he in Paris, his designs caught the eye of It was like showing up in Silicon Valley had already paid good money for two Rudolph Valentino’s wife, and he began in 1986 with ten thousand hours of successful patent applications that had “t o c o m e t o n e w designing for the actor. It was only a matter computer programming already under made them no richer. So Davis wrote y o r k c i t y i n t h e 1890s of time before he left for Hollywood, becoming its first major costume your belt.” to his supplier, Strauss, asking him to w i t h a b a c k g r o u n d i n Jewish immigrants had another become a partner. Strauss agreed, and designer and helping Hollywood moguls, advantage—a talent for reinventing the firm gave the famous “501” lot dressmaking w a s a s t r o k e many of them Jewish, define glamour. As themselves and a sensitivity to image. number to the pants with the rivets. The o f extraordinary g o o d chief designer at MGM, Adrian set new Centuries of wandering had bred a rest is history. standards in movie creativity by dressing f o r t u n e i t w a s l i k e unique antenna for the cultural zeitgeist The Davis-Levi Strauss partnership . the characters in the 1939 The Wizard of gentile society. That inheritance (Davis sold his share in 1907) was one s h o w i n g u p i n s i l i c o n of Oz. (We have him to thank for film’s translated into a keen understanding of the first major Jewish footholds in the v a l l e y i n 1986 w i t h 10,000 signature red-sequined ruby slippers.) of what would sell. In a country where American garment industry. Although Macy’s copied one of Adrian’s designs for image was king, Jews created looks that New York was its epicenter, Jews owned h o u r s o f c o m p u t e r Joan Crawford—worn in a 1932 movie spoke not to their ethnic backgrounds dry goods stores throughout the country programming u n d e r called Letty Lynton—and sold a half but to their instincts about how that were well positioned for entrepre- million dresses. His designs in the 1939 y o u r b e l t .” Americans saw themselves—and of how neurial expansion. During the Civil War, film were so breathtaking Former yeshiva student Ralph Lauren became the breakout design star of the post-war era. the world would see America. the Fechheimer brothers of Cincinna- that while the movie was shot in black

ti—whose father and grandfather were —m a l c o l m g l a d w e l l and white, the studio used Technicolor Ralph Lauren’s parents had come In Europe, only a few professions acob Youphes came to America from peddlers in Germany—won a contract for a 10-minute fashion parade featuring from Belarus, and his success can be were open to Jews. Largely barred JLatvia in 1854 with grand ambitions. to supply standard size uniforms to the his work. in part attributed to his immigrant from owning land, they were forced to Changing his name to Jacob W. Davis, Union Army. The company, now owned Lang, a big New York clothing company. While Adrian was designing for Greta upbringing. “By virtue of his status as an earn their living as tailors or traders, he traveled the country, investing in by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, Rosen’s grandfather Arthur founded Garbo and Norma Shearer, a few Jewish outsider, he was able to look at WASP honing skills that would serve them breweries, coal, tobacco and pork, even is still making uniforms for police offi- Puritan in 1910, his father designers in New York were gaining culture and see and create the fantasy of well in the New World. They arrived panning for gold. But as he approached cers, firefighters, postal workers and even Carl was a leading Seventh Avenue national attention. Austrian Henrietta it,” says Alana Newhouse, editor of Tablet in 19th-century America just as a new 40, with a wife and six children to baseball umpires. executive. “It’s about relationships, Kanangeiser renamed herself Hattie Magazine. Like other Jewish designers, technology—the sewing machine—was support, Davis resigned himself to the Each wave of Jewish immigration about community, about threading one Carnegie (after the nation’s most famous including , revolutionizing the apparel business. As Old World life of a Jewish tailor. brought success stories. One of the most generation to the next,” he says. industrialist, Andrew Carnegie), and and , he owes something to Americans moved from the farm to the He was in his shop on Virginia Street dramatic is that of Rabbi Moses Phillips As the industry grew, so did the designed colorful dresses and artful jewelry the generations of Jews who made and city and began buying from the Sears & in Reno one December day in 1870 and his wife Endel, who emigrated from extended family. Soon Jews were for Crawford and Tallulah Bankhead and peddled clothes throughout Europe, Roebuck catalogue or the general store, when a woman ordered a pair of work Poland. In 1881, with eight children to involved in nearly every aspect of public figures like Clare Boothe Luce and most of whom never saw an English a new industry of ready-made clothes pants for her husband, a large man feed, they began sewing shirts by hand clothing—from the supply end to the the Duchess of Windsor. country estate, stepped foot on a yacht began to take shape. Jewish immigrants who kept wearing out the pockets and and selling them from pushcarts to retail world, from the sweatshops and Sally Milgrim designed the light

c ourtesy of polo r a lph l uren or heard of polo. streamed into the cities, providing cheap splitting the seams of his clothes. For coal miners in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. manufacturing to the department stores blue gown that Eleanor Roosevelt

36 july/august 2009 july/august 2009 / Moment 37 wore to her husband’s first inaugural early financial backer of No. 5, On the defensive, Paris designed launched Junior Sophisticates, creating ball in 1933. Known for the quality of and his family would acquire the entire its own rescue, creating a spectacular a new category of clothing in a field that her clothes and accessories at a time company after the designer’s death. exhibit of hundreds of dolls, standing was until then defined as men’s, women’s when most ready-to-wear items were The fashion landscape was turned 27.5 inches high and dressed by the city’s and children’s. Gearing her designs to anything but, she won contracts from upside down when the Nazis rolled into top couturiers. The Theatre de la Mode younger, slimmer girls, she provided a actresses Ethel Merman and Mary Paris, for all intents and purposes cutting dolls traveled the world to rave reviews, sportier look. In 1968 she introduced Pickford. Another early star was Mollie off French couture from its manufactur- reminding audiences of the marvel of her own line, pioneering mix-and-match Parnis, who with her husband Leon ers and clients. The war also made fash- French artistry. Giving notice that Paris separates as well as clothes for petite Livingston (née Levinson) opened a ion a luxury that would rob soldiers and was back, French designer Christian women like herself, yet again creating business at the height of the Depression. armies of needed material. Stanley Mar- sparked the first rage in post-war new category of sales. Though she couldn’t cut, sew or draw, cus, head of the Neiman-Marcus Depart- design with his New Look of cinched Around the same time, Ralph Lauren Mollie Parnis Livingston had what one ment Store in Dallas, went to Washington waists and voluminous skirts. had launched his first Polo store (it only observer called “an architect’s eye for to work for the War Production Board, But where once American sold ties) and Calvin Klein sold his first proportion,” producing designs geared which promulgated a regulation (the in- manufacturers had copied French design line of coats and sleeveless dresses to to flatter women over 30. famous L-85) that limited the amount of for the mass market, now they had Bonwit Teller. The Bronx-born Calvin Austrian-born Nettie Rosenstein, fabric in new clothes. more freedom to design. Their location Klein took mundane items like jeans and dubbed by Life as “among the handful of became an advantage: They were attuned underwear and turned them into objects American dress designers who compete to economic, cultural and generational of sexual fashion, becoming famous for successfully with Paris,” was responsible w o r l d w a r i i m a d e shifts occurring throughout America. the 1980 ad in which 15-year-old actress GIs had returned to attend college, build for both of Mamie Eisenhower’s r o o m o n t h e w o r l d posed in blue jeans and inaugural gowns. In an era when homes and grow businesses. Women asked, “You want to know what comes department stores insisted on putting s t a g e f o r a m e r i c a n empowered by wartime employment between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” their labels on clothes, Rosenstein j e w i s h d e s i g n e r s . t h e were outfitting themselves and their For 30 years Klein rode atop the convinced and I. children for a new suburban lifestyle fashion world. Shocking the tabloids f a s h i o n l a n d s c a p e w a s Magnin to carry her line under her that included PTA meetings and Sunday with a personal life that rocketed own name. “Certainly until 1930 you t u r n e d u p s i d e d o w n picnic outings in the family Buick. between women and men, between didn’t hear the names of designers w h e n t h e n a z i s r o l l e d The trend was a relaxation of the drugs and sobriety, he turned his in America,” says the FIT’s Steele. old dress code, a celebration of the personal biography into an international “Department stores like Wanamaker’s i n t o p a r i s , f o r a l l good life. “After the war, there was a brand. By the time he sold his company and Garfinckel’s” controlled the label. i n t e n t s a n d p u r p o s e s real explosion of casual culture,” says to Phillips-Van Heusen in 2003, he had Gabriel Goldstein, curator of a Yeshiva lent his name to everything from belts “As late as the 1960s,” she adds, “most c u t t i n g o f f f r e n c h department stories deliberately kept University Museum exhibit called “A to perfumes to jackets, and its cachet designers in the background.” c o u t u r e f r o m Perfect Fit: The Garment Industry and is still earning millions. But by then he But it was World War II that made i t s manufacturers American Jewry 1860-1960.” Dior’s was out of money and drive. “In order Diane von Furstenberg, daughter of a Holocaust survivor, designed the in 1973. room on the world stage for American New Look “may have impacted what to survive in fashion industry, you have a n d c l i e n t s Jewish designers. Paris, long the center . ladies wore to lunch,” he adds, but to be so on top of the zeitgeist,” says of couture, was dominated by big-name “leisurewear, California clothes, kids Christina Binkley, a style columnist who true survivor spirit, after the war Lily powerful and practical and the wrap clothes—Paris couldn’t do that. They covers the fashion industry for The Wall took her entire reparation check from dress satisfied those needs,” she says. fashion houses like those of Charles When the war was over, and when c ourtesy of di of ourtesy Frederick Worth, Elsa Schiaparelli British and American fashion writers had to take that from America.” Street Journal. “It’s almost a sickness, you the German government and blew it on Von Furstenberg—whose wrap dress and Coco Chanel—a fashion icon got their first look at French wartime can’t ever stop thinking about it.” a new sable coat. “She had been so cold is still popular—celebrates her Jewish

designs, they were horrified. “While nter a new generation of American Five years after Klein hit the scene, in the camps and she never wanted to be roots, although Yom Kippur is the only a

who invented the knit suit for day u diego by (photo furstenberg von ne and the little black dress for evening. we are wearing ,” lamented Vogue, Efashion powerhouses ready to Diane von Furstenberg—child of a cold again!” says von Furstenberg. Jewish holy day on her calendar. “I Jewish individuals and companies were usually a loyal cheerleader for Paris, “the create designs for the new era. Jews Holocaust survivor and one-time wife In 1973, in an age of counter-culture believe in the message of the holiday. customers, but few were part of the Frenchwoman is wearing yards of .” were prominent and prescient alongside of a prince—took center stage. Born two experimentation when women tried For me it is a time of reflection and industry. One exception was Jacques Although the designs were extravagant, fellow designers such as and years after her mother’s liberation from a on pants suits and men sported Nehru contemplation. [It’s] a clean start for the Heim, who was forced to flee Paris truth was that most women in France , and later Nazi concentration camp, Diane Simone jackets, von Furstenberg introduced the new year.” during the Nazi occupation. (After the during the war were freezing, wearing and . Michelle Halfin early on adopted her wrap dress, an unapologetically feminine While von Furstenberg’s appeal was war, he would introduce the .) threadbare clothes and culottes that was one of the early mother’s optimism. During the frigid design. Her genius was to rebel against to women of every age and income, c Behind the scenes, Jews were major allowed them to bicycle when they could visionaries. In 1948, at the age of 25, winters, Lily Nahmias had been forced trend. “Women were ready for clothes another Jewish immigrant designer was hitel) investors: Pierre Wertheimer was an no longer afford petrol for cars. the New York-born Hannah Golofski to march for days in the snow. So, in that let them be both sexy and successful, making a name for herself in luxury,

38 july/august 2009 july/august 2009 / Moment 39 died of breast cancer. Executives asked detail the way designer clothes are have moved to Asia and beyond. “More 1993 for designing a grunge look. He is the 26-year-old Karan to complete the made—the special press of the jacket, clothing comes into the Port of Los now creative director for Louis Vuitton. collection and later named her chief the turned head of the , the way Angeles from Asia than any other point In his own line, Jacobs has managed designer for the Anne Klein brand. She the shoulder pads are inserted. “God,” on the globe,” says The Wall Street to make grunge both feminine and kicked off her own DKNY line nine he said, “is in the tailoring.” Journal’s Binkley. “Massive quantities are profitable. , who as a child years later. Mizrahi was one of the first designers being made in factories that run 24 hours stole yarmulkes from his grandparents’ Like Karan, Kenneth Cole has to take his fabulous seams down market, a day. We’ve added seasons, so stores have synagogue to make dresses for dolls, family roots in the profession—his partnering first with Target and now new collections every week.” Increased is dressing stars, winning praise from father Charlie owned the El Greco with to deliver fresh, production is not all positive, she adds. clients , , Kate manufacturing company. In 1982, trendy clothes at a modest price. He was “Some would argue that this benefits the Winslet, , the younger Cole set out to preview also one of the first to mass manufacture consumer, who gets the clothes quickly. and Beyoncé for his feminine aesthetic. his own line of at Market Week offshore, taking advantage of cheap But we are filling landfills.” The global hunger for assimilation, at New York’s Hilton Hotel. Without third world labor. still strong, no longer rules. Ethnicity funds to pay for a hotel room let alone a Both trends have deeply impacted mid the frenzy, a new generation of is in, and from its depths has emerged showroom, Cole rented a trailer. But the the fashion industry: American design AJewish designers is making a splash. what Slate recently dubbed “schmatte city would only grant parking permits to may still be king but American factories was fired by Perry Ellis in chic.” Levi Okunov, the 24-year-old trailers used in movies, so he changed Continued on page 78 his company’s name to Kenneth Cole Productions, writing in his application that its purpose was to shoot a full- The Dark Side of the Garment Industry length film,The Birth of a Shoe Company. On March 25, 1911, William Gunn Shepherd was walking through The story goes that he sold 40,000 pairs ’s Washington Square when he saw smoke coming from a of shoes in three days, and did make a building on Greene Street. The top floors of the Asch Building, which movie. Ever since, he has been known housed the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, were engulfed in flames. for elegant footwear. Some of the company’s workers, Jewish and Italian immigrants, most of them young women, were screaming at the windows. Outside the Isaac Mizrahi is also a child of the building, firefighters arrived but found their ladders would not reach business. The only son of Zeke and the 7th floor. The girls were trapped inside: The owners, concerned Sarah Mizrahi, he grew up in a tight- about the pilfering of fabric, had locked the doors from the outside. knit Syrian Jewish community in “They were burning to death in the windows,” recounted New Jersey. His father worked in the Shepherd, a reporter for the United Press. “One by one the window garment industry, first as a pattern jambs broke. Down came the bodies in a shower, burning, smoking, flaming bodies, with disheveled hair trailing upward. These torches, cutter on Wooster Street and later as a suffering ones, fell inertly.” manufacturer of children’s clothes. His The Triangle Fire left 146 workers dead, bringing to light the dark mother took her son to the ballet, and side of New York’s booming garment industry. Fueled by immigrants Zac Posen designs for stars including Natalie Portman, Rihanna, Cameron Diaz and . on shopping expeditions to the major who came off boats through Ellis Island into the Lower East Side department stores, teaching him to looking for work, the neighborhood between Fifth and Ninth Avenues and from 34th to 42nd Streets had become an economic hunt for quality, showing him the magic designing whimsical jeweled handbags Fashion was in the blood of many powerhouse. By 1880 New York was producing more garments for first ladies and Hollywood stars. Born post-war designers. Donna Karan, of designers like Chanel and Cristobal than all its urban competitors combined. By the turn of the century, and raised in Budapest, Judith Leiber creator of the DKNY line that is a Balenciaga, a Spaniard in Paris with a clothing manufacturing was the city’s top business. And 10 years was spared the concentration camps tribute to urban, sophisticated style, reputation for exacting standards. later, 70 percent of all women’s clothes in the —and 40 thanks to a forged diplomatic passport. grew up in the industry. Her mother Openly gay, Mizrahi has said he feels percent of men’s—were made in the city. But conditions for many were brutal, wages barely enough to Forced to abandon her dream of was a , her father a tailor and her Jewish in his soul but is conflicted by the support families. The Triangle Fire rallied public opinion: Tammany studying in London, she instead became stepfather a hat-maker. At 14, working orthodox belief that homosexuality is Hall politicians were replaced by reformers who pushed for stricter an apprentice to a handbag craftsman. in a clothes shop, she felt confident wrong. (Another Jewish-born designer, fire codes. Labor unions, once laboratories for radical politics, “If the Nazis hadn’t occupied Budapest, enough to advise customers on which —regarded by some as successfully championed the plight of sweatshop workers. Another I would have become a chemist,” Leiber outfits would most flatter their figures. “a groovy alternative to Oscar de la eyewitness to the fire, a wealthy Bostonian in New York attending recalls. With her father an art collector She trained at Renta”— is so conflicted he is said to no graduate school, later became the first woman to hold a cabinet position. Appointed as labor secretary by Franklin D. Roosevelt, longer identify himself as a Jew.) Once, and her grandmother a hat designer, before signing up with Anne Klein. In Frances Perkins often said that the Triangle Fire was “the day the Leiber muses, “perhaps I inherited a 1974, just after Karan gave birth to when Mizrahi was asked about what New Deal began.”—Johanna Neuman c orbis sense of design.” her daughter Gabrielle, Klein, only 50, defines couture, he described in loving

40 july/august 2009 july/august 2009 / Moment 41 Continued from page 41 kurdistan

son of a Lubavitcher rabbi, has crafted Jews, as it is to immigrants from the have had a major impact on the world’s gowns dotted with poetry by 13th- israel former Soviet Union and South America, wardrobe. Says schmatte chic designer politics century Sufi poet Rumi, translated into and to the burgeoning fashion talents of Levi Okunov: “We were slaves, a bunch English, Yiddish and Arabic. He recently Tel Aviv. of peasants coming off boats, people were did a show in which models wore What ever the future, waspy or starving and trying to do general factory clothing made from the blue velvet used schmatte chic, haute couture or global work…and then it became a little more for Torah coverings. Jewish-Brazilian sarah cheap, there’s no denying that Jews glamorous.” Alexandre Herchcovitch emphasizes silverman Bussolati designs that powerful and poignant symbol, the Star of David. “Engaging with Jewish iran advertising symbols and materials has become My mother says we’re a talented bunch something of a trend, not an enormous one, but a trend,” says Alana Newhouse. Jewish designers are not the only ones to go Jewish ethnic. In fact, French icon STAY UP TO DATE Jean Paul Gaultier is perhaps the best WITH EVERYTHING known designer to do so. Japan’s Yohji Yamamoto and Korea’s Gunhyo Kim are JEWISH also exploring the crevasses of time with Hasidic-inspired hats and coats and any (funny & eclectic) and a few others agree image that evokes Jewishness. WITH MOMENT’S Their experimentation with ethnic Moment magazine INTHEMOMENT BLOG themes is part of the expanding Asian The Jüdische Kulturbund Project influence in the design business. A new MOMENTMAGBLOG.COM New Israel Fund wave of immigrants—like Jason Wu who The Inextinguishable Symphony Project designed First Lady Michelle Obama’s inaugural gown—is now breaking sports through. As did Jews who poured into the garment industry more than a century us ago, they see in the clothing business an politics bussolati.com opportunity for success and acceptance. “In a way it’s fitting,” says FIT’s Valerie Steele. “Modern American fashion is a reaction formation against being an immigrant. It’s a very competitive JOIN THE field, hard to break into. Now, with our CONVERSATION! factories moving to China or Vietnam, an and now you can Become a fan uncle in China might help,” just as family of Moment on Facebook, What was the Jüdische Kulturbund? and follow us on Twitter! ties once aided Jewish immigrants. Their It was a Nazi-sanctioned Jewish cultural association success, she says, is “a function of their immigrant story.” 1933-1941, in which Jewish musicians and artists per- The tight-knit Jewish family business technology formed in theatres in 42 cities across Germany. The power that once characterized the rag trade of music, the resiliency of the human spirit, and the will to has frayed. Career options outside the business have thinned the ranks, and survive: The legacy of the Jüdische Kulturbund. We want globalization has done the rest, with large china to tell this story to the world. For more information and to conglomerates swallowing the earlier proud markers of Jewish achievement. offer support, please visit tisproject.com But the pull of history and the allure of design is still a draw to young American bussolati associates // design + marketing // bussolati.com

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