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Nicolas Caito Studio

Nicolas Caito is a true modeliste. Whilst his favorite French radio station is blasting in his studio, the man is sample-making and producing some of the most elegant looks seen on the NYFW runway. He works with brands such as Proenza Schouler, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Jason Wu, and much more. If you need to outsource production for some of the more special looks and garments in your collection, Nicolas Caito is the man to go to. I have personally worked with him once before on a ombre-printed ostrich feather gown. He works very hard and has a very keen eye and hand for garment construction and delicate fabrics.

Nicolas Caito was featured in Loic Prigent’s 2009 documentary film « The Day Before » alongside Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough of Proenza Schouler. Some prototypes of Nicolas Caito’s work were part of the American Beauty exhibit curated by Patricia Mears at the FIT museum in 2009. A section of the exhibit book is dedicated to Nicolas Caito.

See More Below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIU1mCQ9_bI

http://nicolascaito.com/

Images from Vogue Magazine and Marina Moscone FW2018 Collection

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Button Down Factory

If you are a young designer making clothes for sample or production in New York and have a fair budget, Button Down Factory NYC is highly recommended by me. Sofia Suh, the owner and studio manager at the factory, graduated from Parsons School of Design. She is one of the most calm, kind, collected, and talented, individuals I have come across in working in fashion so far. I have worked directly with her and her husband for a few different fashion labels now and she has been extraordinarily considerate, helpful, and sweet to my position as a student . When I was a freshman in school, I was interning for a company that was giving me a lot of hours with very little pay. I was not really making ends meet to properly eat healthy food, and I was constantly being sent off in a rush on production missions with little guidance and no leisure. I will never forget the time when I showed up to their factory after a day of fittings and they gifted me with a coffee and cookie. This little act of kindness was in such contrast of everything else I was surrounded by and really warmed my heart. They always made sure that I was not pushing myself too hard and gave me great advice.

Regardless of our personal relationship, they really deliver. Working over-time, the staff at BDF delivers high-level finishing, tailoring, ready-to-wear, and beyond.

Read More on CFDA manufacturing database below:

 https://cfda.com/resources/resource/c623fe98-a399-4c02-bb9e-a2430f78c1bb

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UOVO: LIC

41-54 22nd St, Queens, NY 11101

Some large fashion companies have archives of clothing for reference. They horde masses of clothes to re-use, reference, and revitalize. UOVO, the name referencing “egg”, provides temperature controlled museum quality storage and can deliver them to your headquarters at a moments notice using their digital archive. 

Working as a designer, I have used their facilities to pull references for a collection. Although their primary function is for art storage, they offer fashion storage through their MODA program. The experience goes as follows: you show up to their facilities, go to your designated archive, pull the pieces you would like to use together onto racks, and then check out with your attendant. They catalog what you are checking out in a spreadsheet and the racks are loaded onto a truck. That truck later shows up to the atelier via the freight elevator and are used. We would sometimes pin, tape, scan, and destroy the garments. Sometimes the clothes would never make it back to the facility. In this process of deconstruction, new plans for clothes are being made. This kind of transformative reconstruction takes place at a very large scale and hundreds of catalogued and coded garments are scattered across New York. Similar to fashionGPS by launch-metrics, the archive is able to track various stages of where the garments have been.

Below is a list of capabilities from their website:

MODA fashion storage is fully customizable. Each client selects their ideal storage type and climate control level based on their unique needs. We have solutions for archival projects, brand heritage initiatives, museum show preparations or simply not enough closet space.

Private storage:  UOVO Fashion Storage offers secure private storage spaces with individualized floor plans, customizable lighting, bespoke racking for any type of apparel and optional built-in work spaces. Ideal for clients who want direct access to their collections. Concierge storage: A traditional valet receive-and-release approach priced per garment. Level 1 climate: Temperature stabilization Level 2 climate: Temperature and humidity stabilization, creating a museum-standard environment for optimal archival preservation

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Breakaway Courier and Paramount Courier

If you are going to work in fashion, you are going to need to get things done– and get them done fast. You will need to familiarize yourself with the various courier services that will get your garment from point A, to point B in seemingly inhuman speed. We do this by using courier services that specialize in garment delivery. If you need to get 10 garment bags to Conde Nast at 1 World Trade in 30 minutes, you can call a courier from Breakway. A man with a bike will come to your location, pick up the goods, and turbo to their destination.

Sometimes I would be asked to get a look prepared and sent to a celebrity or public relation office in L.A the very next day before 9am. Even if it is afternoon, or after 6, there are people and places in New York that can get that done. Paramount Courier is a one of the best services to do this. They guarantee that your shipment will arrive at it’s final destination before 9am. They do this by getting your package on the very next flight.

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REMCO Button

https://www.remcobuttonco.com/

Manufacturer in New York City, New York Remco Button Company, Inc. 109 West 38th Street Room 204 New York, NY 10018 murray@remcobuttonco.com Tel: 212-564-3726 Fax: 212-564-3679

Founded in 1918 as the Cohen Brothers, Remco Button Company, Inc. has been manufacturing and supplying trimmings to the garment district in Manhattan for almost a century.  Below is an original ruler used at a time that pre-dated United States ZIP Codes.  The two-digit 18 was called the postal zone number and eventually became ZIP Code 10018.  Phone numbers contained the letters of the central office to which each telephone was connected followed by numbers.  Today, Remco Button Company, Inc. supplies garment manufacturers everything but the fabric.

I first encountered Remco Button after being launched onto 28th street by my boss who demanded that I find a place that will cover buttons in a tricky alpaca fur fabric for production. There were not many places that offered this kind of service so I went to Botani Trimmings to ask if they knew. I did this because Botani was the only place that listed “self-covered buttons” in my google search results. So I ordered a test batch and they came out horrible– my boss told me to go back and get a refund, so I did but because my boss had a terrible relationship with the owner, they denied me a refund and sent me off on a mission to send her a strongly worded message. I was stuck in the middle of this shitshow and had to find a solution. Instead, I asked around and heard of a place called Remco. It was a place that was apparently blacklisted because of their reputation in the past? Something to do with Oscar de la Renta? I can’t remember and obviously didn’t care to investigate. In an obscure location, up some flights of stairs, and down a long and dingy hallway with flickering fluorescent lights, you will find a tiny closet-sized room with three people folded inside. An elderly man, woman, and younger daughter, all full of life and glistening with history. I told them all why I had come and they encouraged me to speak with them with the little bit of spanish I knew, and they offered to give me a free test-batch and 30%-off production order. My boss was very pleased I was able to pull together this deal and the buttons were beautifully made. To my knowledge, Remco Button is one of the only places in New York City that produces custom self-covered buttons for production. Each button is wrapped and hand-sewn by the family.