Late last night, while trying to meet a deadline for a new store, we stumbled across an HBO documentary that premiered at TIFF last year, Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags.
A very worthy watch for all, the documentary details the incredible rise and subsequent destruction of New York's garment district, in less than 100 years. Old footage, photographs, and interviews remind us of a very different Seventh Avenue, where rolling racks made pedestrians watch their backs, delivery trucks crowded garment center streets, buyers perched themselves on showroom sofas as elegant models sauntered past, and tough-talking, cigar-smoking garmentos haggled for the best prices. Workers were known as knights of labor and they were proud. Today, those sidewalks are very different. Most of the prolific workshops inside the buildings have been dismantled, empty dress forms hovering like ghosts.
Recent documentaries such as Valentino: The Last Emperor and The September Issue have shown us life at the top of the fashion industry. In Schmatta, we see all the steps below. It is an eye opener to say the least...
p.s. schmatta = rag
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