Pinky Shears Attends Meeting of the New York/New Jersey Designers Club

Pinky Shears Attends Meeting of the New York/New Jersey Designers Club

Earlier this week I was invited by Steve Steinberg of QST Industries to attend the New York and New Jersey Designers Club meeting at Arno’s Ristorante. Arno’s Ristorante is a popular meeting spot for people in the NY garment district.  You guys would have loved hanging out with this group, everyone was welcoming and full of industry stories and jokes.

I met people from JCPenney, Alvanon (makers of dress forms), Utica Thread, and Direct Textile (maker of linings and interlinings.) The New York and New Jersey Designers Club is a spin-off of the International Association of Clothing Designers and Executives.  One of the members mentioned that you used to have to take tests in order to join.  Part of the test consisted of patterning, but that was phased out.

Most of the people who attended were salespersons with many years of experience.  They began the meeting downstairs in a private room where they discussed old business.  As we entered the room, one salesmen from a thread company jokingly said he didn’t appreciate his competitors product front and center in a picture frame on the wall where we were to eat.

After old business they gave me the opportunity to talk about PinkyShears.com.  I gave a brief talk and offered PinkyShears.com as a way to get the word out about events they had planned,  such as a forthcoming Actor’s Studio-like interview with designer Joseph Abboud.  As I sat down, I knew there was more I wanted to say, but I did manage to keep my enthusiasm in check. There’s always next time, I hope.
They briefly talked about the HBO documentary Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags and how it wasn’t true to form.  One guy mentioned he thought they left out an important part of the fabric of the garment district which was the happenings outside of 530 7th Ave a building that housed a lot of fashion houses and manufacturers back in the day.

The club’s new business was to figure out how to bring in more members. The club is especially focusing on a new generation of members to get their perspective, outlook, and suggestions.  During the main course and dessert members debated how to encourage and increase membership. I was trying to keep from jumping up and down and saying “hey! my website does exactly that!”

And finally to my relief someone said, “Well let’s ask Brandon.”  I reiterated who our readers were, what stories we’ve done, and the value NY/NJ Designers Club could be to the PinkyShears audience.  For example, a presentation about jacket construction would be fascinating to young people just entering the field, especially if it came from someone as experienced as the members of the Designers’ Club.  Just getting the opinions and suggestions of the current members and to be part of a club of like minded individuals would be a reason to join.  Most people in the industry don’t actively go out looking for fashion groups to join; mainly because they already have a full schedule. I think, if we present the club the right way people would see the benefit and make time.

I’m interested in joining the group and will keep you updated on the next meeting.  Hopefully PinkyShears, our readers, and the New York and New Jersey Designers Club can work together to make even more information available to designers and others in the fashion industry.

-Brandon Graham, publisher

Tags: Brandon Graham, ny/nj designers club, qst, QST Industries, Schmatta, Steve Steinberg

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 4:02 PM and is filed under Events, career advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.