A Life in Zippers

Eddie Feibusch sells zippers at his New York store ZipperStop. He's been in business since 1941. There were once a lot of zipper shops in the garment district, but gradually they relocated overseas, leaving ZipperStop as one of the few remaining specialty shop where you can get a zipper in any size for any purpose.
So when a recalcitrant zipper threatened to be, or not to be, Queen Gertrude’s undoing in a Metropolitan Opera production of “Hamlet” last month, the Met dispatched a costumer, Michael Zacker, to Mr. Feibusch for a new zipper for Jennifer Larmore’s gown. “He really has great products,” Mr. Zacker said.

Retail, they go from 50 cents for a nylon dress zipper to $100 for a No. 10 brass zipper, 350 inches long, to wrap your hot-air balloon.

How great are zippers? Don’t even get Mr. Feibusch started. They are watertight for deep-sea divers, airtight for NASA. “Nothing replaces a zipper,” he said. Buttons? He made a face. “A button is unpleasant,” he said.

Link -via Jason Kottke

(image credit: Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times)

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i used to work for a clothing designer. this place was on our "do not shop here" list and i yet went there regularly. so weird to read this!! sad to see how the city is neglecting the Garment District considering how many millions of dollars in tax revenue alone it brings in each year.

p.s. the world of NYC wholesalers if one freaky place. being largely family run businesses, imagine the kind of compound and generational genetic and social drift that can occur when people are locked up for years with stacks of dusty accoutrement and pushy, mostly clueless and often cheap customers. it's a game with some of them to try and trip you up as someone not "in the trade."

like a small piece of what new york used to be like. old, weird buildings and old weird people, kind of sketchy and intimidating.
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