I Am A Garmento.

I come from a long line of Garmentos who made their dime in the factories of New York's Garment Industry. My family's business began as a tailor shop on 37th street a couple of generations ago, today it's a wholesale leather goods business with a showroom on Seventh Avenue. I've always been fascinated by that area of the city. It's a gold mine of zippers, tailors, buttons, lace, spandex, and factories. But, the business of making clothing in New York has slowed substantially. This past fall filmmaker Marc Levin made an HBO documentary about the Schmatta buisness (that's Yiddish for rag, and it's the affectionate name given to the garment trade by it's largely Jewish workforce) and the state it's in, which isn't good. one might be able to say that about any number of businesses right now, but there is something particularly sad about the Garment District diminishing. It's a New York institution. It's my family history.

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