Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags

Last night I enjoyed watching the HBO documentary Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags. It covered the history of New York's Garment Industry from turn of the century sweatshops on the Lower East Side, the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in 1911 (as a side note seeing a film on this tragedy as a child moved me and I have been haunted by the images ever since -- "Who's going to protect the working girl?") and the heyday when the industry was "New York's single biggest employer" . Did you know that in 1965 - 95% of American clothing was made in the USA. But by 2009 that number had dropped to 9% !!! Sad to think that now much of the industry has returned to sweatshop labor -- only now we farm it out overseas.

Ananas handbags are proudly made in NYC -- buy American my friends!!!