The New York City Garment Center
Alive and kicking, New York is a city where dreams are made, where style is defined, and where our lingerie is born.
There is a bustling 12 block by 2 or 3 avenue part of Manhattan where you will find young fashionistas ferrying samples from sewing rooms to showrooms. Where the streets are lined with fabric and button stores, and where its easy to find a rare imported ribbon or lace. What you don't see is all the offices upstairs, where calls are made and deals are dealt, and where still rows of sewing machines and long cutting tables yield the contemporary design that moves fashion forward from year to year. The innovators are not born from the ethos, they are born from the cutting room floor. Schooled in the properties of chiffon in the same way a scientist is schooled in the properties of air, they are the ones who think of new ways to make things, new ways to explore the world of design.
Without the Garment Center these skilled crafts, and these artisans of fashion would not come to be, and with them would go so much more than just a factory. It is this passion and ingenuity that was the spark that grew our country into greatness- the Industrial Revolution.
We have passed through a technological revolution and find ourselves moving into an ecological one, in which the ethical and ecological ways in which we have grown are now being questioned. So the answers for a sustainable tomorrow will not be found overseas, but right here, in our backyard... upstairs, in the Garment Center.
-Find our how we're thinking of the future, read Between the Sheets Lingerie's Sustainability Statement
-Save the Garment Center
-Made in NY
-GIDC: The Garment Industry Development Corporation
Plant a seed, and watch it grow- We are new, we ARE Made in the USA
We hear it a lot, people say they don't find anything that's made in the usa anymore. That's just not true, yes maybe you won't find American products lining the shelves of your discount store, because that business model is not sustainable. It's based on "cost effective" aka. foreign labor.
Between the Sheets may not be the most affordable brand of lingerie out there, but we have our values, and we're going to stick to them through thick and thin.
The people who cut, sew, press, and package our goods live in the US, pay taxes in the US, and send their kids to school and college in the US. You might not think that those things are glamorous jobs, but there are many people who depend on these jobs for their families survival and they are becoming fewer and farther in between. We make a pledge to keep our manufacturing within our shores, and within the shores of this island we call home.
And at the end of the day we think a couple of dollars on the end product is worth holding onto those values for, and we don't suggest that you break the bank but that when you make buying decisions be conscious of who and where you are buying from.
A Part of the Economic Recovery
Wondering where all that stimulus money went? No, it wasn't just the big banks who got it. Some of the recipients are people like us, hard-working young entrepreneurs with a dream and a vision and willing to roll up their sleeves to make American even bigger, brighter, and more beautiful... and hey, we started with the basics - underwear!
Between the Sheets was fortunate to receive a small business loan backed by the Small Business Administration and supported by the economic stimulus program enacted in 2009. This loan is through a local consortium of community development credit unions. These credit unions have a mission to support economic development and provide financial services to under-served and under-privileged communities throughout New York City.
Our loan, which helped launch our first season, was quickly reinvested in our local community paying local suppliers of lace, silk, and other findings, the people who cut, sew, press, and pack our goods.
We've been shipping for two years, and we're paying that debt back with interest, AND with pride in our country, for allowing us the freedom and supporting this new American Dream.
Find out more: click here to read about how BTS got SBA backed funding
