Sensitively Bedecked

Left..
Krug and
Popp show a
design they
made for an
Orthodox
customer.

Two gentile
seamstresses have
a growing
business making
gowns for
Orthodox brides.

LYNNE MEREDITH COHN
Special to The Jewish News

1p

eg Krug's 19-year-old son
knows not to go down the
basement in his home while
his mother and aunt are .
orking. Although Krug and her sis-
ter, Dot Popp, are not Jewish, they are
extremely sensitive to their customers'
religious requirements.
The Lathrup Village-based dress-
makers say that as much as 80 percent
of their clientele comes from the
Orthodox Jewish community. The two
sisters throw around Yiddish words
;like sheitel (wig) and tsneut (modest).
Plus, they understand how small
the community can be — clothes
made for Detroit weddings come with
a promise that Peggendott Originals
will not produce similar threads for
, other local customers for at least three
years, to ensure that a bride's special
I day remains hers alone.
Krug and Popp moved to Michigan
as children 42 years ago. Krug's the
redhead wearing a gold cross and
necklace, and Popp's the blondish-
brunette with the tape measure flung
around her neck. Their father was an
Episcopalian minister for 51 years,
their mother a teacher.
Their mother taught them to sew
at a young age. "She sewed very nicely,
,—ut she couldn't ad-lib, didn't know
how to change anything or do fit-
tings," says Krug.
The business began with dolls.
When the Cabbage Patch craze hit
Detroit, "and nobody could find one,"
the sisters made a similar doll. Yet
theirs was "jointed, anatomically cor-
rect and soft," not the hard plastic

Below:
Peg Krug,
Dot Popp
and Anne
Habermann
work on
dresses.

faces of the brand name.
About 16 years ago,
their goddaughter
brought her wedding
dress to them in a panic.
It had "horrific alteration
problems," Krug recalls.
"She stood in the dress,
and you could see all the
way down the back to
the floor."
They fixed it. She sent
a friend to them, and
business snowballed.
Krug and Popp started
making unique, custom
dresses, mostly for brides
and bridesmaids. They
displayed their wares at
the Chicago Bridal
Market.
Then one day Popp,
who also works at Sinai
Hospital in the
Respiratory Care Department, was
talking to Dr. Elliott Samet about her
sideline business. After he referred his
daughter, Chaya, to the pair, word
spread through the Orthodox commu-
nity.
The sisters say the most interesting
part about working with Orthodox
clients is the people. "They are warm
and friendly. We can go to these wed-
dings and feel like family," says Popp,
who lives in Berkley. "We provide cus-
tomer 'service. They don't have to go
to New York to rent something. We
can work with them, can come up
with wonderful things that are theirs."
In fact, the two sisters proudly point
out Peggendott dresses at local wed-
dings.
Krug does headpieces, while Popp

designs the dresses. Popp's daughter,
Kimberlee Carlson, also does head-
pieces, working while her newborn
daughter sleeps beside the three
sewing tables in Krug's basement. Ann
Habermann and Noelle Gilbert com-
plete the Peggendott cast.
Krug and Popp estimate that 65 to
80 percent of their clientele are
Orthodox women. Leah Kohn, wife of
caterer Paul Kohn, and Ruchie
Weisberg schooled the sisters on the
Yiddish words that their clients fre-
quently use.
Samet's wife, Toby, has gone back
to Peggendott repeatedly for clothing
that fits the bill of fashionable and
modest. Her husband takes full credit
for turning the Orthodox community
on to the pair's talents.
"They are extremely sensitive —

they have all the Yiddish words
transliterated on the wall," Dr. Samet
says. "They are extremely sensitive to
the way religious people dress, their
customs. They are really amazing, and
[the business] has blossomed."
Samet likens Krug and Popp to
Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and
Costello. "They are very sweet, very
amusing, and easy to work with," he
says. "They've helped out a lot of peo-
ple. They're willing to do anything for
anybody. They have become a main-
stay in the religious community."
Ruchie Weisberg agrees. The
Southfield resident, whose husband
davens with Samet at Agudas Yisroel-
Mogen Abraham, says, "If you're
Orthodox, sometimes it's hard to find
dresses that are modest enough and
long enough and the sleeves are long
enough. I went to them first when my

son got married, about three years ago."
Krug and Popp designed gowns for
Weisberg's daughters and altered her
dress as well.
"They're a pleasure to work with,
very very nice, very understanding,"
she says. Plus, they're accommodating.
"They're not real sticklers about when
you can come. They usually say,
`Come right over.'"
Like this summer when one of
Weisberg's daughters, on her way to
Israel, needed a dress made before her
departure for her sister's Oct. 29 wed=
ding. "They worked really hard to get
it ready on time," says Weisberg. All
the Weisberg daughter? dresses for the
wedding came from Peggendot.
"They're just lovely people to work
with," Weisberg says. "I enjoy being
with them. Aside from the fact that

11/6

1998
-
Detroit Jewish News

121