![]() ![]() The mills come out with new weaves two to three times a year, and there’s no limit to the patterns, colors, and styles. Now China and Vietnam are paying pennies for wages, but domestic fabric is being revived. shut down and actually threw their looms into the ocean. Then competition from mills in Italy and France started producing competitive goods. “I remember when we used to visit the fabric mills in Maine and Pennsylvania. Some of our seamstresses have been with us for 45 years and really know their trade. We have a plant in Holyoke, another in Salem, and a drapery workroom in Stoughton and Watertown. We’ve also done benches and other projects for department stores, restaurants, and commercial installations, as we have 2,000 or 3,000 different types of vinyls and leathers. When the Kennedys lived in Brookline, we did some work for them as well - Ethel Kennedy sent us furniture from Virginia. ![]() Turns out it was Cardinal Cushing, as we were upholstering some pews and doing some draperies for the church. ![]() When I first joined the business, I picked up the phone and a gruff voice was on the other side. “My dad came from Europe in the 1920s and worked from dawn to late at night. He spoke with the Globe about keeping a brick-and-mortar store afloat when more and more online fabric retailers are emerging. Shapiro, 85, today buys bolts of fabric directly from mills domestically and overseas - he claims to have one million yards of home decorating cloth in stock. They cut, pinned, and stitched slipcovers and he grew the business to include designer fabrics and remnants. Shapiro has been in the industry for 70 years, starting out at a small storefront in Brighton, in his father’s upholstery shop. ![]()
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