Don’t miss today’s New York Times Style section. Cathy Horyn takes a Tennessee road trip to apparel manufacturer L.C. King, and blows the cover off a great opportunity for designers to work with a domestic factory with a heritage pedigree. (Low minimums!) The company’s current president, Jack King, reluctantly left his dream job in Atlanta to take the helm in 1999, when his father’s health failed. It sounds like King, 50, has since warmed up to the job, thanks to a forward-thinking social media guy and faithful employees, who were initially skeptical of his city slicker ways. (It also kind of sounds like the plot for a musical.) In any case, I love this story and it must have been so fun to report. Kudos to Cathy Horyn for calling up the factory and hitting the road after King smartly sent her an email. And kudos to King and crew for keeping up the good work for a century!
It’s going to be fun to watch more fashion designers manufacture with the factory and follow in Junya Watanabe’s footsteps, modifying L.C. King’s own Pointer Brand pieces for the high-end market. Steven Alan could do a bang-up job, and transparency-touters like Of-a-Kind, Everlane, and Zady would probably do great work with King too. Although for my money, these Hickory Stripe overalls look pretty sweet just the way they are.
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