Custom Fabric Flowers
Enter the wonderful world of custom-made flowers with New York fashion designer Kathlin Argiro as your tour guide. Kathlin shares a 100 year-old treasure trove of inspiration right in the heart of the garment center at M & S Schmalberg.
Watch the process of how these wonderful flowers are made, learn about who in the fashion industry uses them and why designers from all over the world use this valuable Made in America resource.
Interviewer: I’d like to introduce you to Debra, a partner in M & S Schmalberg. She’s going to take us on a tour of her flower factory and showroom. I am so excited.
Debra:Welcome to our flower garden, and let’s go.
Interviewer: I’m so excited, let’s go! So, Debra, we are in the amazing silk flower garden at M & S Schmalberg. I’m a New York designer, I’ve been inspired by Schmalberg for many years. I know it’s fourth generation business, can you tell us who founded the company?
Debra:The company was founded by Morris and Sam Schmalberg in about 1902, so we’ve been in business almost a hundred years. My father came into the business, Harold Brand. He survived the Holocaust and my uncle brought him over here when he found out he was alive and he came into the business. Years later, my brother started working here, Warren, then unfortunately my father was shot in 1981 and he’s okay, he’s alright, there was some damage done, but I came up to New York to join my brother in the business.