Elisa New brings Robert Pinsky’s poem to New York Fashion Week, where she meets up with designer Johnson Hartig, stylist Betty Halbreich, shoe designer Stuart Weitzman, and students from the New School.
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The back, the yoke, the yardage. Lapped seams,
The nearly invisible stitches along the collar
Turned in a sweatshop by Koreans or Malaysians
Gossiping over tea and noodles on their break
Or talking money or politics while one fitted
This armpiece with its overseam to the band
[…]
“Shirt” from SELECTED POEMS by Robert Pinsky. Copyright © 2011 by Robert Pinsky.
Used by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Former US Poet Laureate
Shoe Designer
Bergdorf Goodman Personal Shopper
Fashion Designer
Child laborer in South Carolina cotton mill, 1908. Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Rows of garment workers (circa 1910). Courtesy of the Kheel Center, Cornell University
Detail of shirt cuff
Detail of plaid shirt
Mourners picket after the Triangle Fire (1911). Courtesy of the Kheel Center, Cornell University
