In our age of mechanical and A.I. reproduction, even something sold as “limited edition” can be easily acquired. That’s one reason Emily Simpson believes her chain-stitching operation, Chain Smoke, has been successful.
“Without sounding woo-woo about it, there’s a spiritual connection between physical human hands being in the process that makes it more special,” she said.
The chain-stitching technique, which has roots in ancient China, gets its name from the way the thread loops to look like a chain, and has been used for everything from tapestry in the Middle East to the lettering on midcentury bowling shirts. Ms. Simpson, who has a Masters of Fine Arts degree in fiction from Columbia University, where she studied with such writers as Heidi Julavits and Gary Shteyngart, “grew up around sewing machines.” She uses a 1966 Singer 114K103 — a chain-stitch embroidery machine — to sew art and lettering into old army jackets and vintage work wear.
Recently, Ms. Simpson was commissioned by Josh Safdie, the filmmaker, to stitch his surname onto a shirt he wore while directing “Marty Supreme,” and she embroidered several costumes for the table tennis players in the Oscar-nominated movie. Ms. Simpson has also done work for musicians like Stevie Wonder and the band the Walkmen, and she stitched matching bowling shirts for the comedians Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers for a live episode of their podcast, “Las Culturistas.”
The Unspooling Industry
In 1972, 90 percent of the embroidery machines in the country could be found along six miles of road spanning Hudson and Bergen Counties in New Jersey, in what was called the “schiffli area,” named for the Swiss-designed embroidery machines that were popular at the time. The industry supported 9,400 jobs, and 2,400 of those workers lived within walking distance of the companies.
By the 1990s, the industry started to wane because it was cheaper to send the work overseas or to produce it digitally. Today, its only remnants in North Jersey are a sign reading “Embroidery Capital of the World Since 1872” on an overpass near Union City and an apartment building in Weehawken that adopted this history into its name, the “Embroidery Lofts,” where a 900-square-foot studio apartment currently fetches $2,100 a month.
But there are several embroidery companies making a comeback. Arena Embroidery, a small, Los Angeles-based company founded by Rocco Arena, customized a black Carhartt canvas jacket for Zohran Mamdani during his first snowstorm as New York City’s mayor. Mr. Arena said the typeface and logo were designed by Noah Neary, the senior adviser to New York City’s first lady, Rama Duwaji.
Though he considers himself an artisan, Mr. Arena explained that his job was more like that of a translator’s. “It’s converting or translating artwork into these simple machines to read,” Mr. Arena said, adding that this was what distinguished one embroiderer from another. “There’s so many different ways you could construct the blueprint of this file.”
Keeping Things Small
Mr. Arena said that bigger brands were looking for ways to stand out by offering something truly unique, like having their hats or sweatshirts hand-stitched by a small, independent company like his or Ms. Simpson’s. That way, he said, they’re selling a piece more than a product. “The analog nature of the chain-stitching process results in a piece that feels like a true keepsake,” said Meg Moorhouse, owner of the Brooklyn-based design firm Love & Victory.
Ms. Moorhouse has recommended Chain Smoke to clients looking to give enduring gifts, especially those in the hospitality industry, where mass-produced swag is often thrown away almost as fast as it is given out. “In an increasingly digital age, it’s so nice to receive something with true craftsmanship,” Ms. Moorhouse said.
That can be especially true when it’s by an artisan like Ms. Simpson, who keeps her operations small because she is the one doing the stitching, and she wants to keep it that way as much as possible. “I will absolutely accommodate if I have clients who really want to do something that requires a couple of stitchers,” said Ms. Simpson. But clients choose to come to Chain Smoke for her work, she said.
Brian Blakely, who stitches custom varsity jackets out of a studio in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, has worked with brands like Calvin Klein and the rapper ASAP Rocky. His work straddles the line between 1960s Los Angeles rodeo tailors like Nudie Cohn and sports iconography from the 1950s to ’90s. Like Ms. Simpson, he keeps things small and stresses the importance of working with local suppliers and creators.
On a recent trip to Japan for New Balance, a client, Mr. Blakely noticed that people there admired the craftsmanship of the products. “They were all impressed about the garments, but they were more impressed about the fact of what the hand-done aspect of it was,” he said.
Sometimes, customers, and even professional teams, will ask him to make a custom jacket for their favorite team; he has made them for World Series, Super Bowl, N.B.A. and W.N.B.A. championship teams with the sports merchandise group Fanatics. Last spring, Sophia Cohen, the arts editor-at-large for Cultured magazine and a daughter of Steve Cohen, the owner of the Mets, could have worn any piece of team merchandise when she attended the team’s home opener at Citi Field. Instead, she sought out Mr. Blakely for a one-of-a-kind white leather jacket with blue pinstripes and the team’s classic script across the chest.
“I wanted something unique, and I love Brian’s work so much,” said Ms. Cohen, who has a background in art. She had a few thoughts on what would “resonate with not only myself, but the fans as well,” but she decided to let Mr. Blakely take the reins. “What he created was beyond what I could have imagined. It felt personalized yet universal, and the craftsmanship was undeniable.”
It sounds quaint in these days of fast fashion, but Mr. Blakely believes that if you purchase well-made clothing, you’ll be able to get more out of it — and buy less. And, he contends, that mentality is coming back into fashion. This might explain why people are spending upward of $700 for one of his custom jackets, which Mr. Blakely embroiders after they’re stitched together by a local garment production team.
Ms. Simpson sees her career as something that’s sustainable — even amid the fearful talk of A.I. replacing human jobs. After all, the work she produces with her Singer 114K103, a machine built well before the age of planned obsolescence, reminds us that there will always be those who yearn for quality merchandise made by real hands.
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