Word: garments
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Boston, boutiques and basements alike offer a broad spectrum of apparel to a diverse market. But Bob Garnett, the founder of Strutter's, sees a clear distinction between the recycled clothing sold in the vast rooms of The Garment District, and the vintage clothing displayed in Newbury Street shop windows. "I consider vintage clothing to be clothes made in the 1940's and maybe 1950's. The jeans and the flannels and everything that is really popular today is just recycled clothing...it depends on how and when it was made," explains Garnett...
Located four blocks from the Kendall T stop at200 Broadway, Cambridge's Garment District andDollar-a-Pound are manifestations of the recycledclothes trend. And the history of the organizationtypifies that of the new generation of usedclothing stores appearing across the country.Founded in the 1940's, the company produced"wiping clothes" (i.e. rags) to smokestackindustries, such as sugar manufacturing. Thesweatshirt your dad outgrew in 1958 may have endedup here; it would have undergone a simple processwhich included sorting bales of discarded clothingfrom various sources, cutting them into 18-inchsquares, and adding chemicals to improve thefabric's absorbency...
...they had.His request made co-owner Bruce Cohen see a futurefor the struggling rag warehouse. "This stuff isactually worth something," he remembers thinking,and the company shifted to the recycled clothingbusiness: Dollar-A-Pound opened in 1980, and whenthe printing company upstairs moved out six yearslater, The Garment District was established...
Today the company receives clothes from acrossthe country, grades, sorts, and then sells them.The best merchandise is steam-cleaned and soldupstairs in The Garment District; the lower-gradeitems are sold in the basement at Dollar-A-Pound,and the rest is shipped out to wiping clothmanufactures or other used clothing stores acrossthe country...
...Garment District is by far the largest usedclothing store in Boston, with over 13,000 squarefeet of floor space. It is a clean store withdressing rooms and funky decorations, including apair of hanging motorcycles, a mechanical monkey,a bust of Elvis and a life-sized pink plastichorse. The Garment District caters to both youngand old, who generally learn of the store by wordof mouth...