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CLOTHES page 7
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MARKET FACT
he Jewish News reaches the Detroit area's most investment-oriented
audience more efficiently than any other local publication.
Crain's Detroit Business
Detroit Monthly
Observer & Eccentric Papers
Don't Read Regularly
80%
68%
72%
Source: 1993 Simmons-Jewish News Study
BS
THE JEWISH NEWS
Eretz Yisrael brought their skills ly left that position and opened a
with them, so that by the late hosiery and ladies notion shop,
1930s the nation was home to which he continued expanding
some 250 clothing-manufactur- and expanding and expanding.
Eventually the store, which
ing plants. Less than 30 years lat-
er, Israel's textile business had opened as a small shop in down-
become the country's second lead- town Detroit, went the way of
ing industry, following foodstuffs. other successful businesses and
And clothing was the second- became a ladies ready-to-wear
largest export, with diamonds in chain.
he sewing machines stand
first place.
in line, like a row of sol-
In the United States, too, im-
diers waiting for order.
migrants put their business acu-
They're on green ta-
men into action. This was
especially true of German Jews, bles, with deep-brown, wooden
who settled here during the mid chairs behind. On the floor are
- 19th century and early part of large bolts of blue, pink and
brown fabric, with cut scraps
the 20th century.
Assimilated, hard-working and strewn about like large confetti.
ambitious, they often opened There's a shelf with zippers in col-
their businesses and made their ors like "mulberry" and "amber"
homes in large metropolitan ar- and "mint."
At first glance, the Bassono-
eas. This was part of a pattern be-
gun in eastern Europe, where va factory seems like something
Jews were least likely to en- you might see in a film about
counter anti-Semitism in cities turn-of-the-century America,
because the population was more where immigrants who barely
speak a word of English are pro-
sophisticated and educated.
These early German-Jewish ducing black suits and stylish
immigrants to the United States dresses. Even a number of the
quickly found success in the gar- workers at Bassonova are new to
ment industry, where they often this country, or else they are the
employed other Jews, including children of immigrants. None are
new immigrants. Typical was Ly- Jewish.
Despite its Old World aura, the
man Gustavus Bloomingdale.
Born in New York in
1841, Lyman Bloom-
ingdale's was the son
of German-Jewish im-
migrants. His first
store, which he ran
with his brother,
Joseph, sold women's
hoopskirts. Later, Ly-
man expanded the
business and opened
the first Blooming-
dale's in 1886, on the Cy Lisnov: A stitch in time.
same New York City
factory is anything but antique.
site where it stands today.
Jewish success in the clothing The sewing machines are com-
industry proved true in Detroit puterized to close a seam within
as well, where by the mid-1920s an instant. With the release of a
the city was home to such busi- pedal, the seamstress can cut
nesses as the Alaska Knitting thread. A high-priced automatic
Mills Co., the Acme Mills Co. and seamer, complete with an electric
Textile Industries Inc., the Peo- eye, can sew together two pieces
ple's Outfitting Co. and B. Siegel of fabric in a matter of seconds.
Cy Lisnov got his start in the
and Co., among others.
Often, these stores were run business in the 1950s after he
by some of Detroit's most promi- came back from the war and a
nent families, like Henry Wine- friend got him a job as a sales rep
man and his brother, Andrew, in ladies ready-to-wear.
"You couldn't name one thing
who operated the People's Out-
in this industry that I knew when
fitting Co.
Mr. Wineman was active in I got into this business," he says.
Buyers would take a look at a
numerous Jewish communal or-
ganizations, including the Fed- pair of pants and ask, "Is this 100
eration (of which he was percent flannel?"
Mr. Lisnov would answer hon-
president), the Jewish Commu-
nity Center, the Jewish Home for estly, "I don't know."
Most of the buyers were sym-
Aged, the Allied Jewish Cam-
paign (where he served as chair- pathetic to a returning vet like
man from 1925-1930), Temple himself, Mr. Lisnov says. They
Beth El, the Jewish National would say, "Yes, it is 100 percent
Fund and Sinai Hospital. He also flannel," and then Mr. Lisnov
would know exactly what to say
was a leading Zionist.
Among those who got started at the next stop.
He came to Detroit in 1954,
in the early days was Milton
Petrie, an Indianapolis native opening his first store at 1425
who started out in Detroit doing Broadway, just off Woodward, in
a six-story building. The business
advertising for J.L. Hudson's.
The late Mr. Petrie eventual- was called Crown Cloak.
do
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