My grandmother, Rose Gross, was among the first women buyers in the garment industry. Toward the end of her career she worked for a company named Prestige. Does anyone have information about this company or a resource I can contact?

Thank you.

 

Hi Richard,

Do you know what city Rose worked in for Prestige?  What line of clothing?  Mens?  Womens?  Childrens?

Regards,

Sherri Bobish

Hi from Paris,
Dear Richard,
Concerning search of "Prestige", a garment company in NYC, I would advice, according to Rose's period of work :

• NYC "yellow pages" or equivalent of this period
• ILGWU (International Ladies Garment Workers Union) / JLC (Jewish Labor Committee) at http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/wag_025_001/
• Workers Circle (former Workmen Circle) at https://www.circle.org/

Khavershaft
Bernard Flam
Archives & history of Medem Circle - Arbeter Ring of France (Bund, Skif, Workmen Circle)

I found "Prestige Juniors" in a New York City directory (via Ancestry), Googled the name and located the attached news item in an ILGWU (union) newspaper. Hope this helps.
Regards,
Larry Freund

There was another union associated with the garment industry in NYC in addition to the ILGWU (International Ladies Garment Workers Union), the ALGWU (Amalgamated Ladies Garment Workers Union) that might also be source of information.
--
Rich Isaak
Londonderry NH

I have the same questions about a NYC men's suit manufacturer where my grandfather, Isidore Slatas, worked. He worked in the Philip Dann shop from 1915 and became "chairman" of the shop in 1922. When Crawford bought the company he retained that position until the firm closed in 1962. I have a copy of an undated article written about him in "The News of The New York Joint Board." It states he joined "the union of clothing workers in 1911, and became a member of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers when it came into existence in 1914." 

He was also on the Executive Board of Local 25 for many years. I would love to get more information on his union membership, but don't know how. I'd really appreciate some advice. 
--
Barbara Sloan
Conway, SC

When I worked at a department store in Pennsylvania in the 1970s, a buyer was the person who chose the clothing lines that the store would sell in each department; there were separate buyers for the womens, mens, childrens departments, and so on.

So, did your grandmother work as a buyer at a store that sold clothing? Then you would be looking for a store with a name including the word Prestige.

Or did your grandmother work for a clothing manufacturer? I'm not sure what the name of the position would be for the person who chose the fabrics, buttons, zippers, etc., but perhaps someone here must know what that type of position was called. I suppose the 1940 NY yellow pages that are on Ancestry or other places might be a help with this. That is, if you are talking about NYC.

[This subject is reminding me of the old Formans of Orchard Street, in the Lower East Side of NY City. Back in the 1980s, you could buy womens clothing there for a good 50% off of department store prices. It was run by a Hasidic family. A store that is long gone.]
--
Michele Lock

Lak/Lok/Liak/Lock and Kalon/Kolon in Zagare/Joniskis/Gruzdziai, Lithuania
Lak/Lok/Liak/Lock in Plunge/Telsiai in Lithuania
Rabinowitz in Papile, Lithuania and Riga, Latvia
Trisinsky/Trushinsky/Sturisky and Leybman in Dotnuva, Lithuania
Olitsky in Alytus, Suwalki, Poland/Lithuania
Gutman/Goodman in Czestochowa, Poland
Lavine/Lev/Lew in Trenton, New Jersey and Lida/Vilna gub., Belarus

Hi from Paris,
dear Barbara,
You could find a good start simply by searching "ILGWU Local 25" on Google  and discover Cornell University is the deposit of its archives :
https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/KCL05780-071.html
ILGWU and Amalgamated Union, and later Jewish Labor Committee (est. 1934) had been very close and acted to be representatives of Jewish workers among American Jewish community and representatives of Jewish workers among all American workers.
Here in France we have a special debt to them as they acted during Holocaust as they could (with also Emergency Rescue Committee of Varian Fry) to get American visas and also after Liberation, when they financed foster homes for Jewish orphan children in Europe.
Numerous members of our association had been these children and we had commemoration in our former "Kinder Heim" in 2017 and 2019...
We don't forget !
Archives of JLC : http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/wag_025_001/
Khavershaft
Bernard Flam
Archives & history of Medem Center - Arbeter Ring (Bund, Skif, Workers Circle)

Women's Wear Daily was a trade newspaper that my father always carried around.  He was also in the garment industry.  Maybe their archives would have something.

Best of luck!
Tara Blieden Rothman

BLIEDEN, BLIDEN, BLEEDEN (Zagare, Lithuania and Wenden, Latvia)
WOLFSON, KAIT (Lithuania and/or Latvia)
ABRAMOWITZ, SMARKOWITZ  (Jelgava, Kurland Latvia)
KESSEL, CHARIPPER, COHEN, KESSLER (Brody, Poland/Ukraine)
FELDMAN, BURDMAN (Bessarabia)
STERNERSON, STERNER, STERN, STEIN (Odessa)
VINOKUR (Odessa)

If all else fails, I would suggest that you may be able to obtain some further information and/or guidance from someone at the NYC Library.

Good Luck! :-))

-- ~Brian D. Kerr, Esq | SSG, U.S. Army (Retired) | SSA, Brigade G1, U.S. Army (Retired) |>>Known Family Surnames (Researching): Dessler, Walk(Valk), Mahler (Maler), Paradisgarten (Paradisegarten), Tomasy (Thomashy), Gluck, Preisz (Priess), Steinhardt (Steinhart), Grossman (Grosman), Sholtz (Shultz), Kaplan, Bloom, Fischer (Fisher), Levy, Baum, Duwidewic, Meisal (Maisel)<<|>>Known Family Locations/Regions (of Surnames): Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Hungary, Lithuania<<|