Hattie Carnegie designed the uniforms for The Womens Army Corps for which she received The United States highest civilian honor in 1951

The Congressional Medal of Freedom, knowing this, but wanting more information I wrote to The Womens Army Corps Museum and they sent me a lot of information, about Hattie Carnegie and her many contributions to the military to help me out.

They sent me quite a bit of stuff about her, I was surprised.  Included was this poem which I thought was so cute I just had to share.

I received this from the Women's Army Corps. It is a poem honoring our own Hattie for designing the WAC's uniforms.

ODE TO A NEW UNIFORM
They say I shall look pretty
Attractive and Sweet
Wearing the frock
That just can’t be beat
It’s a one piece affair of something called taupe,
Washable my friends with a little bit of soap.
I dreamed and I planned of this new design that the Summer would bring, and then would be mine.
Stacked in the depot ready for wear, the time had arrived for the ladies’ share.
They issued me four of Hattie Carnegie’s latest dream
Gone are the old days, the days of cotton, TW ‘s and khakis,but shall not be forgotten
We will always remember be thankful and keep in mind.
This brand new army, Hattie and her design.
By Virginia L.Clark

http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/wac/images/color23.jpg

THE CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM
Why was Hattie given this medal?......

Here's the story it was for a couple of reasons.

Hattie helped design the "NEW" Women's Army Corp (WAC's) uniforms in 1951.

They were adopted as the offical uniform in 1952.

Also when Hattie was 14 years old in 1900.
Hattie's father decided that their poor family had more of a chance for a better life if they emigrated to America. So they left their native Austria for a new life in America.

Learn all that you can

ALLEGRO

Rose Simon, Curator of The American Style Defined Hattie Carnegie exhibit at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology
had this to say about Hattie Carnegie.

Allegro

"Hattie Carnegie's name became so synonymous with exclusive fashion that she entered the language of popular culture. Lyrics of a song by Rogers and Hammerstein for the 1947 play "ALLEGRO" referred to Tiffany, Cartier and "CARNEGIE".

Advertising for SUCCESS

She was her own best advertisement, Hattie Carnegie never needed a conventional publicist. Nonetheless her widespread recognition is a testimony to her historic place in American fashion."

Opera Fan

Hattie Carnegie was an avid opera fan and attended the opera every Monday during the season, so the song tribute meant a lot to her.

HATTIE CARNEGIE'S 110TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION-MARCH 15TH 1996

I WOULD HAVE LOVED TO HAVE ATTENDED THIS

I emailed The Museum of Fashion and Technology the other day looking to see if they could send me some additional info on Hattie Carnegie for my collection.

They emailed me back today saying that they would send me some of the information they have on Hattie, her life and career. I even offered to give a donation if they sent me some information, but they didn't ask for one.

I am going to make a donation to The Lucy-Desi Museum to support that GREAT place that has kept the memory alive of Lucy and Desi. So I guess I will do the same for a place that has kept Hattie's memory alive.

They are going to send me some information on Hattie Carnegie's birthday party and exhibit the museum had a few years ago to honor her on her 110th birthday on March 15th 1996
If they ever have another birthday celebration for her. I am going to make plans to go. I also have NEVER been to New York City.

Here is the introduction to the brochure that told the visitor about the exhibit in 1996 the Museum of Fashion and Technology in New York City held in tribute to the 110th anniversary of Hattie Carnegie's birth.

Hattiesbirthdayexhibit.jpg

I was once asked if I had spoken to many people who remembered Hattie Carnegie

We Remember

Yes, I have spoken to many people who remember her work.
I am just 35 years old myself,and my husband is 42 years old.
Yet because we have cerebral palsy we live in a building that is 85% elderly. So I know many people that are very familar with Hattie's work.
The bus driver who takes me to work on occasion. Her mother was in the WAC'S so she knew who Hattie was.
Another woman who was in the WAC'S who resides in my building had an opportunity to meet Hattie and her husband Major John Zanft at a military benefit.

The lady in my building told me that Hattie Carnegie and Major John Zanft were so cute together as he was over six feet tall and Hattie was just under five feet small. lol
Most people who live here are very familar with her because she was the top designer when they were younger.

THE FASHION CRITICS AWARD

Hattie received, The Fashion Critics award. Back in November of 1948.

I don't know that much about this award only that it is a high honor. I must conduct additional research.

THE RED LEATHER AWARD

Another award Hattie Carnegie had received which I also must conduct some research on. I guess I have some homework to do.

Somebody emailed me about Hattie receiving this particular award and I will try my best to answer their question.

HATTIE CARNEGIE IS HONORED IN THE SMITHSONIAN IN WASHINGTON D.C.

Some of Hattie Carnegie's fashions and costume jewelry pieces are featured in The Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC

ENTERPRISING WOMEN

Hattie Carnegie was one of only forty women honored in a currently traveling exhibition titled

"250 Years of Enterprising Women"

Honoring Early Businesswomen and Female Business Pioneers.

Hattie was the very first successful female fashion editor.
Congratulations Hattie!

WOMEN IN CHARGE; HETTY, TO HATTIE TO HARPO

 By Jane L. Levere (Compiled by Mark A. Stein)

New York Times Archives-First published March 30, 2003

Perhaps not surprisingly, two of the company presidents included in ''Enterprising Women,'' a new exhibition at the New-York Historical Society on 250 years of women in United States business, are bullish about the progress women have made and their future in corporate America.

Linda G. Alvarado, president and chief executive of Alvarado Construction Inc. in Denver and an owner of the Colorado Rockies baseball team, said she saw women now entering nontraditional areas like construction and sports ownership, which she described as ''the last bastions of male dominance.''

"Women have always had the ability; but have often lacked the opportunity, if there is not an opportunity, you must create it."

Ellen R. Gordon, president and chief operating officer of Tootsie Roll Industries and one of the first women to be president of a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, pointed to the growing number of women serving as company presidents or board members.

''I'm very excited about this progress, but it's never fast enough,'' she said.

Other women featured in the exhibition include historical figures like Hetty Green, the financier who died in 1916, and Hattie Carnegie, the clothing designer who died in 1956, as well as contemporary leaders like Meg Whitman, chief executive of eBay; Oprah Winfrey, the talk-show host who started Harpo Productions; and Martha Stewart, chief executive of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

The show opened last week at the Historical Society on West 77th Street at Central Park, West and will travel the country.

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 Hattie's Habit

Article appeared in TIME Magazine on Sept 17, 1951

Since the founding of their order twenty years ago, the sisters of the Roman Catholic Society of Christ Our King have worn a habit patterned after that of the Carmelite nuns. On the orders farm at Danville, Va., this has led to practical difficulties, e.g., flowing sleeves get in the way when the sisters drive their Dodge truck. Last week the tiny sisterhood (nine members) had a brand-new habit. Its designer: Manhattan's Hattie Carnegie.

Mother Teresa Loved Hattie too.......

It was Mother Teresa's idea. Top-flight fashion designer Carnegie had whipped up the WAC uniform.

Why couldn't she do a modern garb for hard-working nuns?

Hattie's solution, designed free of charge:  a simple two-piece, ankle-length dress in grey wool with a gored skirt that can be turned inside out when the fabric begins to wear; a coat of heavy grey wool with a Peter Pan collar and close-fitting sleeves; a small-brimmed grey hat with deep cloche sides.

Hattie Carnegie is featured in the following books with a biographical essay............

JEWISH WOMEN IN AMERICA -vol 1 by Dennita Sewell.
and Alma A Kenney- Hattie Carnegie in NOTABLE AMERICAN WOMEN: THE MODERN PERIOD" Cambridge Harvard University Press-1980

I get a kick out of the name Dennita Sewell (SEW-WELL) IRONIC CONSIDERING HATTIE WAS FAMOUS IN THE WORLD OF FASHION

THE SPY WHO WORE RED-By Aline Griffith

THE SPY WHO WORE SILK- A second book by former Carnnegie model Aline Griffith

Hattie wrote fashion and style advice columns and readers questions in the 20's and the 30's for BOTH Vogue Magazine and Harper's Baazar.

Hattie Carnegie is featured in a children's book titled,

"A is for Abigail Adams  authored by Vice President Dick Cheney's wife Lynne.

She must really admire Hattie Carnegie because she was selected to represent The Letter C

A IS FOR ABIGAIL: An Almanac of Amazing American Women
by Lynne Cheney; illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser
Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 0689858191
Ages 4-8
48 pages

Here is a review of this book

"Remember the Ladies," Abigail Adams told her husband in a 1776 letter. In fact she went so far as to warn him, "If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation." Unfortunately it was not until the 1900s before women were able to vote. Still, they found many ways to make their mark, have their say, and get their way.

Presented in the format of an alphabet book, A IS FOR ABIGAIL is a remarkable collection of stories about women who have made a difference in the history of the United States. Each beautifully illustrated, often annotated, page is packed with information and quotes. We are shown how women have been able to make a difference in various aspects of life, despite opposition. They have been fliers, artists, business people and inventors, to name only a few occupations.

Robin Preiss Glasser finds the most extraordinary ways to present this information. For example, the letter F stands for "First Ladies."

Portraits of them are shown on teacups, milk jugs, sugar bowls, coffee pots, and teapots. The women who made their mark in the press are shown on the front of a newspaper, while those ladies who gained fame as performers are shown on a stage.

By the time we close this extraordinary book we feel empowered, knowing that women have achieved so much in a world that has not always been hospitable to their successes. We should all be proud of and grateful to Lynne Cheney and her wonderful illustrator for creating such a lovely and meaningful book.

--- Reviewed by Marya Jansen-Gruber (mjansengruber@mindspring.com)

Neiman-Marcus Award

Hattie Carnegie received The Neiman-Marcus Award in the early 1950's (Which is considered the Oscar of the fashion world.)

This award is given to individuals or stores which have made major contributions to the world of fashion and fashion design.

Even though she was almost late for the award presentation itself.

Miss Hattie always gave a most entertaining acceptance speech.

This award was first established by Stanley Marcus' son of Hurbert Marcus' the stores founder. who left Harvard Business School in 1926 only to assist with the family business. However he was soon elected to take over. Stanley Marcus' was a special guest and spoke at Hattie Carnegie's 110th birthday celebration on March 15th 1996. (He spoke about Hattie Carnegie's friendship with his father Hubert. Sadly Stanley Marcus' passed away in 2002.) The Fashion Award he founded is still highly regarded and recognized, a world renowed honor.

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An Interesting Dream about Hattie Carnegie

Last night I had a very vivid and interesting dream featuring Hattie Carnegie.

I wanted to write it down while the details are still clear in my mind.

I also wanted to preserve it on this site.

Brian and I were in New York City. In the present time, which is interesting in itself because, I have never traveled there.

Brian is a major Red Sox fan and we were in New York because he wanted to see an important game that they were playing against the Yankees. The game was taking place in New York.

As we were riding down the street in our wheelchairs, I mentioned to Brian that I was very sad that even though I was in New York City that I would never be able to meet or talk with Hattie Carnegie.

We went around the block and I noticed a faded building just like in a dream sequence. Directly above the glass doors and the display window with all the fashions was Hattie’s famous sign.

It didn’t look real to me and I rubbed my eyes and tried to focus them, but I still saw the sign and Hattie’s brownstone.

 I was kind of frightened by what I saw. It must have been an illusion, but amazingly Brian saw it too.

He saw that I was turning around to head down the street, and he said,

“Honey, This is your dream come true to see Hattie’s shop.” He added, “You will regret it if you don’t check it out.”

I asked him, “Are you coming with me?”

He was telling me what an important game he was going to miss if he accompanied me, so I let him go to the game, and reluctantly went into the building.

When I went through those glass doors, I had literally stepped back in time. It was strange because everything appeared to me as an illusion.

I could see shoppers and customers everywhere.

The ladies who shopped there were so classy and dressed beautifully and looked as if they had checkbooks with six figure sums. The most interesting thing was that I could interact with everyone customers and staff alike.

Hattie’s secretary spotted me almost immediately, and she stopped typing on her old fashioned typewriter. She was a beautiful dark haired lady, but she was simply a spirit who had once lived, but didn’t anymore at least as an earthly being.

All of Hattie’s customers and the shop appeared to me in the same way as an image that once was.

Even though she smiled at me I didn’t want to shake her hand. I uttered,

“Mrs. Hughes?”

She looked at me surprised that I knew her name.

I asked again,

“You are Josephine Hughes? Aren’t you?”

I knew I would have felt foolish if she had said no, but she answered.

“Yes, I am Josephine. Did you come here to see Hattie?”

I managed to answer, “Yes, I did. Where is she?”

She pointed to a beautiful staircase that had a light gray carpet going all the way up. The handrail appeared to be solid gold.

“Her office is upstairs.” she directed me..

She soon frowned as she noticed my wheelchair, “Wouldn’t you like for me to call her downstairs.”

I said, “That’s okay,”

I was getting more courageous,

“I really want to see the upstairs, May I leave my chair here?”

She answered, “Of course you can dear.”

Then she shouted to a mechanic, “Has the elevator been repaired yet?”

The mechanic informed her that it was now repaired, but I elected to walk with my crutches and took the elevator to the top floor.

On the top floor there were several offices for designers and salespeople and even offices for Hattie’s siblings who were employees of the company.

At the end of the hallway there was a beautiful spacious office with big windows and a balcony off of it. On the door that was open, I noticed in big gold letters it spelled out

“HATTIE CARNEGIE”

Her office had a tan carpet, and matching curtains and paneling and appeared much as it does in Hattie’s picture on the main page on the website.

Hattie was sitting with her back to me in one of those chairs that appeared to have wheels. When she heard the tap of my crutches, she turned around in the chair to face me. She was a spirit, but she was very beautiful. Her hair was pure white and her head was full of curls, She was wearing thick glasses, but quickly removed them almost like she was ashamed to wear them. Her eyes were very blue. She was wearing her famous “Little Carnegie Suit” which was a shade of tan, almost in color coordination with her office.

She was wearing her beloved three strand pearl necklace and she had a little turtle with a topaz shell much like the turtle in my personal collection. I was in awe of her.

She was working with some silk fabric, it was a shade of light pink, but she stopped what she was doing and stood up and walked toward me. I could see that she was a spirit, but she was interacting with me. Even with her heels on she was so tiny and cute. The top of her head came up to my chin. She extended her right hand to me. Her nails were beautifully manicured. In her left hand she held some fabric scissors. I took a deep breath and hesitated before shaking her hand. I also noticed her beautiful but unusual wedding ring. It was an oversized pearl encircled by diamonds. She most definitely adored pearls.

“She questioned, “Dear, why do you look like I’m going to hurt you>”

I nervously asked, “Ms. Carnegie, Why am I seeing you?” I thought you were in Heaven.”

She said, “I am very much alive, and laughed.

I asked, “What year is this?”

She looked shocked by my question and replied, “It’s 1928.”

When she told me that I was beginning to become nervous again, and told her.

“I’m sorry, but I have to go now.”

Hattie looked like her feelings had been hurt by my comment and her eyes looked as if she was going to begin to cry.

She commented, “I thought you wanted to be here” It was almost as if she knew who I was. She said, “Why don’t you stay?”

At that moment she noticed my crutches. “That reminds me,” she walked back to her desk and blew out the candlesticks that were on her desk and removed them from the holders. She wrapped up each of the candlestick holders carefully in a silk fabric and proceeded to place them in her desk drawer. The holders were adorable little bluebirds.

“May I ask, Why do you want to put those away, Ms. Carnegie, they are so cute?.”

“Lucille asked me to please remove my candlesticks from my office because birds frighten her.

Hattie told me the story about when Lucille was a little girl, her father died of typhoid fever at the very moment when she was told that he had died, that a crow had flown in the window and a picture fell off the wall and that scarred her for life. Hattie added sadly, “I also lost my father so I understand.”

Hattie took some cigarettes out of her desk, “Do you smoke?” she offered me a cigarette and put the open pack within my reach as she lit a match and burned herself. She swore in German.

I declined and said, “No thank you.”

She struggled to light another match, but was again unsuccessful.

Hattie had an Austrian accent, which made her frustration comical as well as her comments,

“I knew I should have lit this cigarette, before I blew out that damn candle.”

She shouted with obvious impatience in her voice, “What the Hell!” and threw it away in a nearby can without lighting it.

Hattie seemed eager to give me the grand tour of her shop.

“Can you walk, Amy?” She inquired. I never remembered stating my name to her and never questioned how she knew it.

I was happy to see that she was concerned of my welfare, but answered. “I’m fine, Ms. Carnegie.”

“Please call me Hattie.” She instructed me.

She introduced me to all the models. They were all beautiful, one in particular though stood out. She was beautiful and wearing a black polka-dotted dress with a lacy type of collar and she was wearing some gold jewelry. She was platinum blonde, just like Hattie. She also had blue eyes and her hair was fashioned in a 1920’s bobbed style. I could see that she was wearing orthopedic shoes with a metal insert and they looked very uncomfortable, and she struggled to get around on crutches and was in obvious pain.

“Lucy?” I asked. She was surprised at the mention of the nickname, but quickly corrected me. “Lucille” she stated.

I was very excited to be in her presence, she was confused by my behavior, but she politely welcomed me.

I asked her a few questions about modeling while disabled and she told me that this job was secondary she really wanted to be an actress and was in acting school, but

Bette Davis was the star pupil and the school told her mother she should go home and that she hadn’t any acting talent, so her pursuits were a waste.

She told me she would be an actress if she hadn’t gotten sick. She had recently been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and she was taking part in an experimental drug treatment to combat her pain and Lucille told me that she was going to walk again and head out to Hollywood. She wanted to be in musicals, but she had to dance. Hattie had modified her employment and she saw this as her way to stay in New York and obtain experience. I mentioned, I Love Lucy and she looked confused so I said,

“Oh never mind, but you are very determined and you will be very famous one day.

she smiled at me and said, “I certainly hope so” she paused and added,

“Thank you Amy.”

Hattie was giving instructions, so she turned her attention away from and focused it on Hattie.

"Which one of us is the bride in the upcoming show?" I could hear one of the girls yell in her direction.

“Lucille” Hattie yelled in response.

Lucille is so impressive” I told Hattie.

“Yes, she is a good girl, even though she makes my ulcer hurt.”

I followed Hattie and when she introduced me to some of the designers, she offered a little biography of each designer and I was saying their names before she finished the biography.

This time she inquired, “How do you know so much about my life?”

I mentioned my website forgetting the fact that I had gone back in time.

“What is a website?” she asked.

I explained with much difficulty that it was a sort of a book on a computer.

That didn’t help because her next question was you guessed it.

“What’s a computer?”

I tried to think 1920’s lingo in a language that she would understand.

“It’s like a movie screen, with a typewriter Hattie, but much smaller. They are also interconnected. It’s so amazing, it enables you to talk with people all over the world.”

Hattie was not impressed, “You can do that with a telephone, besides interacting on a tiny box is impossible, Where are the computer poles?”

I was glad that Hattie thought I was crazy, so I wouldn’t have to explain that one.

She did have to add an additional comment before we changed the subject.

She gave her opinion.

“Besides those poles are so unattractive. I don’t want one in my house.

What use would it be to me. I already have a coat rack.”

I laughed and she glanced at her watch. It was late. I had been there all afternoon.

“Thank you so much Hattie. I took up so much of your time already.”

“I had Josephine contact Brian, you can stay with us for a few days, and I will show you both around New York City.”

I was so pleased by her offer and accepted. I was going to get to see

Hattie’s townhouse.

The minute we walked out of the shop , the entire New York City surroundings had changed they now looked like they would have appeared in the late 1920’s.

Hattie told me she lived around the corner.

“Can you walk it?” she asked.

“I think so Hattie.”

Her house was beautiful and I could see she collected “imported china” just as I had read and noticed that she had many gold leaf antiques in her house. It looked like a museum, so neat and perfect. I was afraid to touch anything. She also had a phonograph and an impressive collection of records.

“Do you like Opera? Alma Gluck and I grew up together. She is my best friend."

I could see she was disappointed that I didn’t share her love of opera music.

“You probably like the swing music, that my models like. Personally I think it’s nothing but a racket.”

I noticed that Hattie was not the least bit shy about stating her opinions.

This is when I got my eras mixed up. Somehow in my dream the fact that Hattie had never owned a television stood out.

Television wasn’t around in the 1920’s, but I dreamt about it anyhow.

I asked, “Hattie why don’t you have a television set?”

“Those are just a fad, Amy. Television will never replace the movies or the theater.”

“Hattie, you can watch movies on television.”

That comment angered Hattie. She yelled at me.

“If that television comes to be all my theater friends will be out of work.” She continued. “That would include my husband. He is the vice president of the Fox Theater."

Stressing her opinion further. "Don’t you know that television screen looks like s**t.”

I informed her that the quality would improve and that Lucille’s future husband would one day revolutionize television.

Lucille would be the First Lady of Television.

"My Lucille, No Way!"

Hattie wasn’t buying it. She could just see Broadway going under and people she loved being unemployed.

“I’m sorry, I upset you Hattie. Why don’t we just drop the subject.”

I was saved at that moment because Hattie’s husband walked through the door.

Hattie kissed him, and then introduced me to him.

I thought they were the cutest couple that I had ever seen,  Major John Zanft was over six feet tall and Hattie was only a tiny four feet nine inches tall.

Major Zanft said to me. “I heard that you and Brian are staying with us for a few days, so we can show you the city. That’s great even though he's a Red Sox Fan."

Hattie stated, “John and I were just married ourselves only 2 months ago.”

“What year is it?” I inquired again.

“1928!” they answered in unison.

Judging by the comment my dream was set in October 1928.

It was getting late, so Hattie told me that we could stay in the guest room and that Madeline, her housekeeper would prepare it for us.

Madeline was an immigrant from Paris.

Hattie gave me her topaz turtle pin. "I want you to have this."

All of a sudden the turtle wasn't an image, but appeared real to me.

I said, “ Thanks for everything. Have a nice night.”

My alarm buzzed and that was the end of my dream.

It was so neat and seemed so real it was like I had actually visited and talked with Hattie Carnegie.

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Once a Jewish-dominated industry

Story by Victor Wishna

From Jewish News.Com

Date of Article: January 6th 2006

— New York: I’ve walked past the substantial bronze statue on Manhattan’s Seventh Avenue dozens of times, stopping maybe once to smile at the massive man hunched over an enormous sewing machine and note the equally outsized yarmulke on his head. It’s a pretty well-known fact that the clothing industry was once the shmatte trade; that here and elsewhere, Jewish garment workshops were as common as Korean delis, Greek diners, or Chinese laundries. Most people give it only a passing thought n in my case, literally.

But a new exhibition by the Yeshiva University Museum at the Center for Jewish History makes the case that the thousands of workers, innovators, and entrepreneurs who comprised this Jew ish-dominated industry wove together not just shirts and dresses, but the very fabric of American life.

It’s impossible to understand this country’s history without realizing the role of the fashion business, explains Gabriel Goldstein, curator of “A Perfect Fit: The Garment Industry and American Jewry, 1860-1960,” which opened to the public last week.

“The idea that you are defined by the clothes you wear is something of an American idea,” says Goldstein, himself looking quite dapper in a tailored suit, colorful floral tie, close-cropped beard, and black knit kipah. But, he points out, the garment industry also helped define how Americans worked and thought of work, encouraged the evolution of gender roles and the labor movement, and even shaped the structure of the Jewish community.

The demographic story told here is familiar, but it has never been conveyed with such palpable details, through a collection that is part archive n films, photographs, documents n and part fashion show, with more than 100 full-size mannequins decked out in everything from evening gowns to rhinestone-studded cowboy shirts.

It begins in the mid-19th century, when German and Central European Jewish immigrants, with their skills as tailors and “textile middlemen,” arrived just as the sewing machine and the Civil War propelled American garment production into mass manufacture. (Fechheimer Brothers opened in Cincinnati, from where it could produce uniforms for North and South. The company later recreated gray and blue army tunics for nostalgic families (the first throwback jerseys). Peddlers canvassed the nation, some developing new clothing to meet demands of a new American life. An early pair of Levi Strauss’s 501 jeans, circa 1890, looks as though it might still be on sale today.

Decades later, Eastern European immigrants powered the garment trades, where Lower East Side sweatshops became not only symbols of struggle, but centers of social connection and entrepreneurship. A worker who saved and bought three sewing machines and hired three friends could turn his tenement into a “manufacturing center.”

But, as Goldstein points out, the business was New York-driven but hardly New York-specific. The section “A Tale of Six Cities” also includes New York’s five liveliest sisters in the industry (Philadelphia, Baltimore, Rochester, Cincinnati, and Chicago), where Jewish firms flourished, including Hickey-Freeman and Hart, Schaffner & Marx.

After World War I, the West Coast n where many Jews with garment-industry origins had migrated, some to start movie studios n rose as a center of both film and fashion. With glitzy designers like Adrian (born Gilbert Adrian Greenburg), the California clothing industry, inspired by Hollywood, began to have a pronounced influence on American tastes.

When World War II erupted, Jewish clothiers responded as they had a century before, churning out uniforms and supplies. The exhibit includes the offerings of one Sephardi-owned firm, which switched from silk underwear to parachutes.

Beyond tracing trends, though, “A Perfect Fit” examines the impact of Jewish traditions, including the perpetual striving for social justice. Not surprisingly, Jews formed a founding pillar of the labor movement. They filled the roles of managers, workers, activists, and even mediators. The most famous mediator was Louis Brandeis, who established the “Protocols of Peace” to calm 65,000 striking suit-makers.

The exhibit includes a black mourning ribbon worn by members after the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, reflecting some of the unions’ eventual achievements: safety standards, minimum wage, collective negotiation.

The long tradition of women involved in business (often so their husbands had time to study Torah) may help explain a Jewish “advantage” in the industry, with wives, sisters, and mothers often keeping the books, running the stores, and eventually establishing their own labels. One display, for example, honors Nettie Rosenstein, Hattie Carnegie, and Sally Milgrim as matriarchs of American fashion. By the time Mamie Eisenhower donned a Nettie Rosenstein gown for her husband’s 1953 inaugural balls (and carried a handbag by Rosenstein’s protégé Judith Lieber), the influence of Jewish women designers was undeniable.

So, too, was the effect of the industry on American Jewish life. Goldstein only half-jokes how, for much of the 20th century the American Jewish calendar was marked not only by Rosh Hashanah and Passover, but also by buyers’ weeks and the new season’s inventory.

Furthermore, unlike other industries, the garment trade provided a setting in which Jews could comfortably identify as Jews, while still achieving economic mobility. They, in turn, utilized their economic gains to support the community n another proud Jewish tradition.

Ultimately, organizations like the UJA-Federation would have their own clothing-industry divisions, but one of the more touching artifacts is an early invitation to a turn-of-the-20th-century charitable Purim Ball, sponsored by a small menswear company.

The show ends in 1960, Goldstein explains, because soon thereafter, many long-standing truths about the industry began to change. American workshops gave way to international production centers, and family businesses disappeared into big multinationals. At many once-Jewish-owned labels, only the names remain.

As visitors leave the last gallery, they are asked to add their own story to the narrative via computers set to the museum’s website (www.yumuseum.org). “We think almost everyone will have a connection regardless of background,” Goldstein says, whether it’s Irish or Jamaican relatives who worked in the industry or memories of a first suit bought at a department store.

I remember, now, that my own grandfather in Kansas City started out as a sewing-machine operator at the men’s cap company owned by his future father-in-law (nu, he married the bookkeeper). Perhaps he sat hunched over like the man in the statue before going on to bigger and better things n his own start in the sports-apparel business. And I recall meeting admired family friends like Sol Stolowy, a Warsaw-born refugee who became President Harry Truman’s personal tailor.

To say the garment industry, therefore, links me, my family, my neighbors to the annals of American history might be a bit of a stretch. But my walks down Seventh Avenue take on a little more meaning.

I see the common thread.

Victor Wishna lives and writes in New York City. He can be reached at LetterFromNY@juno.com.