Dreams

“Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you…”, Frank Sinatra.

I digress this week. Instead of fashion, this week it’s about 1600 girls.

Girls who dream of going to their high school prom, parents out of work and money problems.

No, this is not going in that direction.This is not about negativity.

This is a thank you.

A thank you to Megan Kerrigan and Rashia Bell for their tireless efforts to make dreams come true. Their organization, Operation Fairy Dust, along with many volunteers made it all possible.

3600 dresses were collected, a high-school cafeteria transformed into a boutique and 1600 girls shopped and smiled.

Smiles of gratitude and empowerment. Girls able to pick, try on, and model. Beaming moms with tear’s streaming. Dreams realized. Problems forgotten even if just for a day.

Do watch this short video, it will make you smile. ( Operation Fairy Dust Video)

Fairy tales do come true. Kudos to Megan and Rashia, true angels.

Thanks for listening. Jerry Pozniak

Pleats

“Clothes make the man”, or so I was told some time ago by my father, and more than likely ignored by myself.

After my firm acquired Jeeves of Belgravia I went to visit Elisa Niemtzow of Taste Generation to better understand how to dress and look my best. The first thing Elisa commented on was my pleated pants. “Pleats make your profile too wide, you need to wear flat front pants”, Elisa said.

Elisa said wide, I think “fat”.

I digress, Jeeves of Belgravia is the only world-wide garment care firm, with branches in New York, London, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Jakarta and soon in Bahrain as I must “toot” my own horn.

From a fashion perspective most style mavens suggest not wear pleated pants, they are dated and make most of us look heavy. Imagine that, heavy Americans.

In my opinion there is nothing worse than pleated pants that are tight and pull across the waist area.

Please wear pants that fit.

When you have your flat front pants cleaned you should let the person at the counter know if you would like them “creased” or not. The rule-of-thumb that we use at Jeeves of Belgravia is that flat front pants are not creased (they are rolled) and pleated pants get creased, but we always do as our clients ask.

By the way Elisa was right, now almost all of my pants are flat front and I wear a suit every day to work.

Pleats for women are another subject and I’ll talk about them next time.

Thanks for listening.

White

“Pure as the driven snow.”

“So white it almost glows.”

Owning white in your wardrobe can sometimes be a challenge. White does not hide stains and sometimes does not stay that way forever.

In nature the thread given from the silk worm is not florescent nor is the off-white cotton puff which becomes a crisp cotton top.

Garment makers coax, tease and eventually dye these fibers to become brilliantly white.  Dye, just like the indigo which makes blue jeans blue is used to make off white fibers white.

At the counter clients holding garments cleaned by lesser dry cleaning shops all complain of whites that are now gray. But how?

Other cleaners don’t keep their cleaning solution clean, it is reused until it as dark as a Cuba Libre. Imagine taking a bath in water that ten people have used before you. It’s an easy way to save money.

There is a reason why better quality dry cleaning costs more, your whites should stay, well, white.

Over time as your white garment reaches middle-age, you may notice that the brilliance has faded. The natural break down of the dyes used to make white, brilliant white is starting to occur.

Your white garment is just trying to go back to how it started, not brilliant any more, but older and maybe just a bit wiser. Like the person who wears it so well.

If your whites are coming back from your cleaner less than white, bring them to me. I will be able to help.

My shops are Jeeves of Belgravia and Cameo Cleaners in NYC and Arthur Copeland on LI.

Thanks for listening.