No Business Like
Clothes Business
How a
handful of
clothiers
survived
despite
assimilation
and discount
stores.
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
y Lisnov has seen the only were there issues of modesty
good times, the spectacu- and shatnez (forbidden mixing of
lar times, the bad times and the fabrics), Jews preferred to appear
not-so-great times. He's certain different, which is why the but-
the good days are just tons on some Jewish men's cloth-
around the corner again. ing continues to be right over left,
"At a time I should be instead of the traditional left over
retiring, here I am going again," right. Of course, the only place
he says, sitting in his Detroit
office where schedules are still
handwritten and taped loose-
ly to the wall.
The phone rings. It's an or-
der from South Carolina. The
caller insists she must have
Bassonova pants. She can't
wait another day.
Mr. Lisnov has been in the
ladies clothing business for
more than 40 years. He loves
it.
"It's the excitement," he
says. "The fax starts to go and
the phones are ringing — in
our heyday these three phones
were ringing incessantly."
Now, with his optimism
about Bassonova's upcoming
boom, Mr. Lisnov feels that
thrill all over again. "Here I
am, 72, and I'm getting excit-
ed just like a kid."
Beginning with the turn of
the century and continuing un-
til about the 1950s, Jewish
names could be seen virtually
everywhere and in every as-
pect of the clothing industry.
Jews helped produce the fab-
rics. They designed the attire.
They made the clothes and
then they sold them.
Today, there are the big
Jewish fashion design hous-
es — Donna Karan, Calvin
Klein, Isaac Mizrahi, George
Marciano and Albert Scaasi
(read it backwards) — and
Jewish executives in the cloth-
ing manufacturing business in
New York.
But as with many other
small, family-run businesses,
Jewish-owned clothing stores
— those friendly neighborhood Cy Lisnov feels like a kid again.
places where the manager
stopped to ask about your kid one could guarantee that his
brother and talk about the latest clothing met all the criteria was
Rita Hayworth film — have all from another Jew.
but disappeared.
A second factor is education.
What happened?
Although Jewish tailors are
One factor is assimilation.
still around, especially in New
Until the 20th century, Jew- York, the business is today most-
ish dress was distinctive. Not ly in the hands of other ethnic
groups. Like most Jewish immi-
grants at the turn of the centu-
ry, Jewish tailors had higher
aspirations for their children. By
guaranteeing their sons and
daughters a college education,
they guaranteed that they would
go into more lucrative profes-
words: discount department
stores.
hat Jews started making
clothing at all is not sur-
prising, considering the
Torah's comprehensive
guidelines about exactly how
Jews should dress and how the
clothing must be manufac-
tured.
The Torah commands Jews
to dress modestly, with details
about exactly what one should
wear on his head, legs, upper
body, as an outer garment or
coat — even on the feet.
The second issue is the pro-
hibition against shatnez, mix-
ing wool and linen. The
commandment against shat-
nez can be found in Leviticus
19:19 — "You shalt not let thy
cattle gender with a diverse
kind; you shalt not sow they
field with two kinds of seed;
neither shall there come upon
thee a garment of two kinds
of stuff mingled together"; and
Deuteronomy 22:9-11, which
states, "You shalt not wear a
mingled stuff, wool and linen
together."
(Numerous cities, includ-
ing Detroit, maintain shatnez
factories to check for the wool-
linen combination.)
By the Middle Ages, Jews
were playing a leading role in
the textile industry. Among
them were Jacob ibn Jau, a
businessman in Spain whose
silk clothing was said to be in-
comparable.
In Eastern Europe, too,
throughout the decades, Jews
were involved in virtually
every aspect of the industry,
from manufacturing to buy-
ing and selling.
In pre-World War I Poland,
almost half the textile facto-
ries were owned by Jews,
while another 27,000 Jewish
PHOTOS BY GLENN TRIEST workers made their living in
the business. Jews figured
prominently in the clothing
sions, such as medicine and law. industry in Bohemia, Germany
Then came a third factor and Hungary, where Adolf and
which had nothing to do with Heinrich Kohner established the
Jews specifically and everything country's first modern wool fac-
to do with the Changing nature tories.
of American retail and business
Those fortunate enough to es-
development.
cape Hitler and immigrate to
Mr. Lisnov sums it up in three CLOTHES page 8
T
LO
0)
C)
N-
CC
CC
LU
U_
B7