Sweater Knits 100 Years Ago

A beach cover-up? Click to enlarge.

A month ago I read an article on the wonderful Maker's Row site entitled, "How Small Manufacturers Can Stay Competitive". Though written by someone with a leather manufacturing business, I found the article very relatable, because much of the post was on the return of manufacturing to the United States.

Many of you know it took a little while before I found a place to get my knits manufactured. One hundred years ago, things might have been easier. Believe me, I have no interest in going back a century. I'd have major social justice issues, civil rights issues, and fashion issues, but one hundred years ago, my current Soho neighborhood was a real hot bed of wool, sweater showrooms, and the knitting related businesses. These businesses spilled out way beyond my immediate neighborhood. Knitting mills were scattered all over the U.S. northeast and midwest at the time. Many of these businesses are documented in Sweater News: The Journal of the Sweater and Fancy Knit Goods Trade vol. 5 (12 issues from 1918), a publication I've been "thumbing" through, that was digitized on Google Books. Earlier and later volumes are also available, but I happened upon this amazing volume first. I'm not sure when the journal ceased to be published. The most recent one I found was 1920.

Sweater News was a trade publication for the wholesale sweater industry. I was already reading the articles and enjoying display ads, when I realized that it was published at 320 Broadway in Manhattan, just a few blocks from where I live and work now. Please click to enlarge pics in this post.

I love the ad for the Dubied machine, pictured above left. The Fashion Institute of Technology still has several Dubied machines, not too different from the one pictured. I knitted on one in "Weft Knitting Technology" in the late 1980s and then again in 2011 in the "Knit Design Principles and Technology" class I was taking.

Ninety-six years ago, wholesale buyers could browse the ads for the knit fashion of the day. "Climax Quality" bathing suits, anyone?

The pages below got my attention.

As I was reading "New Bill to Protect Designs Before Congress" on the right, I glanced at the opposite page and noticed that the American Spinning Company's branch office and warehouse was located across the street from me. You may have caught glimpses of the 66 Greene in my Instagram feed.

Here are pics of the February 2015 street view. Click each pic for a closer look.

Sixty-six Greene is the white building on the right where the old American Spinning Co. was located. The black building on the left (68 Greene) currently houses not only the Diesel Black Gold Shop on the street level, but also the Landau Wool Company, a remnant jobber, on the second floor. According to info gleaned online, Landau Wool was established in 1960, but I'd say it's a real throwback to this Soho, New York, neighborhood from 100 years ago.

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Crafting Electronic - Volume 2

If I'd been wearing a GER: Mood Sweater (pictured above) last week, the collar would have gone through multiple color changes. (More on the mood sweater in a moment.)  Last week was an interesting one, a study in mid-course corrections. It seemed that every expectation, goal, or project had to be altered in some minor or significant way. I'm learning to go with the flow.

One detour brought me to the Brooklyn Design and Fashion Accelerator (BF+DA) in South Williamsburg for a brief meeting. Though so far I've somehow managed to miss every single special event that I ever wanted to attend at BF+DA, (because I was either out-of-town or otherwise unavailable) I was very happy to catch the last day of Cloud-Couture: The Intimate Connection Between Fashion and Technology while I was there.

Despite my interest in the tech fashion area, as professed in my previous "Crafting Electronic" post, I have no plans to incorporate technology into my fabrics. I will only use technology to create the fabrics... for now. Here are my favorites from the exhibit.

For anyone who remembers mood rings, this wearable is bigger, brighter, better. The GER: Mood Sweater was designed by Kristin Neidlinger, founder of Sensoree. GER stands for Galvanic Extimacy Responder. Sensors are placed on the hands and the mood level is broadcast for all to see from the collar of the sweater. It's described as promoting "externalized intimacy".

I loved parades as a child. Sure I liked the costumes and the baton routines, but long before my first disco or dance club experience, I loved feeling vibrations thumping in my chest from the marching bands' bass drums. Enter bassAware Drop.

Worn on the back is a tactile transducer, a speaker for vibration, rather than sound. It provides the inaudible bass sensation only the wearer can feel. Used with headphones and a music player (carried in the front holster), one can have that full disco experience almost anywhere.

You're right. Those aren't simple sequins in the Guipere lace above. (The components on the selvage are the give away.)  They're lights, and they flash in very pleasing patterns. The lights really deserve a video, but I'm afraid you'll just have to imagine them flashing. I imagine this fabric as evening attire -- a cocktail dress, feminine, yet high tech, perfect for making dramatic entrances. This was my absolute favorite at the exhibit; the only item I'd probably wear. I have experience wearing flashing lights. (See electronic jewelry crafted by my husband in that previous Crafting Electronic post.) "Guipere Gold" was one of a few textiles from Forster Rohner, the Swiss company known for their lace and embroidered fabrics, now also known for their technical embroideries and other e-textiles.

My impromptu trip to Brooklyn ended up being an entertaining and educational peek at fashion and technology fusion, considerably more than I've mentioned in this post. And the brief meeting which brought me across the river in the first place? I'm now another step closer to getting my (non-technical), sustainable cotton knit fabrics produced. Yes!

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