A Jasmine Blooms in Brooklyn

Melati Bath & Body is the outcome of
Indonesian-American, Leah Adhihusada's quest for a vegan alternative to commercial soap and skincare products. Unhappy to learn the unpleasant truth that many of these products are made with animal fat, Leah embarked on a journey of discovery that led her back to her homeland.

In Jakarta Leah's Grandpa Fa, an industry expert with firsthand experience in large scale soap manufacturing, was her guiding light. With his knowledge, her own painstaking research and the loving support of family and friends, Leah started production. Today, her line includes soaps, body butters, bath bombs, botanic perfumes and sachets. All Made in NYC with natural ingredients and without animal byproducts.

Earlier this year, Leah took the courageous step of opening a spot in Brooklyn's trendy neighborhood of DUMBO to showcase her full product line. Her eclectic shop is accentuated by uniquely Indonesian products together with other locally made giftware.

Dom Goes Shopping

I like to wear jeans and, honestly, hadn't put a lot of thought into it. Do they look good? Is the price right? This is as far as I'd take it. Despite European origins, blue jeans are as American† as apple pie - and, as I discovered, as precious today as gold was during the California Gold Rush. Shopping for Made in USA jeans would be easy peasy. After all, weren't my old Levi's made here?

Nope...

For starters, I searched online and was delighted to find several labels of casual affordable American made jeans. Diamond Gusset, Round House, Duluth Trading, Buddy's Jeans. Finally I ordered boot cut jeans from All American Clothing. These aren't designer jeans. They're made rivetless of raw denim, not stonewashed or ripped. And they are at least half the price of designer jeans. The material is heavy and the indigo dye luxurious. I'll take special care to break them in. Although I hesitate to buy apparel online, All American has a generous refund policy. Still I wanted to try on my jeans first.

On a trip to Texas, I learned about cotton at the Audie Murphy American Cotton Museum.  The United States is the third largest cotton producer in the world and Texas produces the most. So, I tried my luck shopping retail in Fort Worth. One shop owner on East Exchange Street by the historic stockyards asked if I needed help. Glumly thumbing through the stacks of foreign made Levi's jeans, I was certain that he couldn't. He insisted, I asked and, without blinking, he told me he couldn't. He explained that he would like to carry Texas Jeans, but the minimum order is 1000 pairs.

Sadly, in Fort Worth, the 16th largest city, I didn't find American jeans. But certainly I would in Brooklyn, which would be the 4th largest. After all, New York is the nation's fashion capital, the Garment District and Fashion Avenue are in Manhattan and there are many department stores that carry several brands of jeans. Surely, I'd find a pair of affordable jeans here!

Good thing I like to shop! I shopped at Men's Wearhouse, Burlington Coat Factory, Century 21, American Eagle, JCPenny, Brooklyn Industries and other smaller retail clothing stores too. I browsed countless brands and collections of jeans. I even asked a Levi's employee in one department store about their Made in USA collection (she had no idea). The overwhelming majority were foreign made. My heart was sinking.

At last I struck gold at the Nordstrom Rack Gateway Center in East New York. Someone at Nordstrom's has a soft heart for domestic jeans. They carry Lucky Brand's Made in USA line, sewn here with denim from North Carolina - the historic center for textile manufacturing. And they sell AG Adriano Goldschmied, DIESEL® (both from Koos Manufacturing) and J Brand. All cut and sewn in Los Angeles using imported material and hardware. Designer jeans, but on sale at affordable prices.

What about Made in Brooklyn jeans? Made In NYC, Save the Garment Center and my own Made in Brooklyn Tours do our best to promote local manufacturing. Loren Cronk and Williamsburg Garment Company are both Made in Brooklyn and I'd buy their jeans if I had the clams. I remain hopeful that American blue jeans will become more affordable as domestic manufacturing is restored after being devastated for decades. This is something I'll consider in this year's presidential election.

† In this post, American refers to jeans Made in USA.

Creating is Making

A few weeks ago, I came up out of the subway and looked towards the park. I loved to see the magnolia trees in bloom, knowing that any day now the little spring green buds on the trees will overnight burst into a beautiful carpet in an array of textured greenery. As I walk down the block my neighbors' yards are full of Spring flowers and I am living for the day. The field of bluebells comes to life at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and I can stand in the heart of it with the warm afternoon sun on my face and feel like I am in a Van Gogh painting.

This is why Brooklyn is filled with so many artists who love living and working here. It’s a place that just inspires creating and making things. This winter I was longing for Spring and the reawakening of colors after months of white and shades of grey. I guess it's why I spend the time making my little flower top cupcake stands...

I call them cupcake stands because that is how the idea first came to me, but they would make fun candle holders or soap dishes or be where your rings and things wait for you. For me I want to be able to devour something small and delicious and then have a feast for the eyes.  So I made mini cupcakes and that way I can have more than one. The turtle frogs or frog turtles also came from nature’s inspiration. They can appear to be slowly wandering around the dinner table or basking on the rocks in a clear dish of water while holding flowers in their openings.

I 'm spending my weekends in Red Hook working inside the BWAC gallery on the Red Hook piers across from Fairway. My landscapes, inspired by a community that reminds me of a pioneer town filled with possibilities, are on exhibit there along with the work of 200 other artists.


Judith Eloise Hooper "is an artist who just likes making things". Her art is on exhibit at BWAC and her functional works at NYCreates. Judith likes to create opportunity for other aspiring artists. To this end, she chairs the Art In Clay shows at BWAC and is Executive Director of NYCreates.

Color Me Brooklyn

Mercury Paint

Walk into any NYC food establishment and it's clear that New Yorkers truly care about what we consume. The locavore, slow, raw, and artisanal food movements run in parallel, intersect and zigzag through our universe. Magazines like Edible and shows like The Chew celebrate what we eat. Food is in the air. Literally. Roof gardens like the greenhouse on the roof of the new Whole Foods in Gowanus are the craze. The Canarasie Native Americans and Colonial Dutch farmers would be stunned.

Prospective buyers of condos in luxury high rises in, say, Williamsburg are drawn to aesthetics like counter tops, cabinet work, floors and, of course, the views. While attention may be paid to the color of the walls, buyers aren't concerned about paint quality and certainly not where it's produced. The roof garden may be a selling point, but not the paint.

Most locavores consume food grown or produced within a 100 mile radius and tout the benefits of their shrinking carbon footprint and keeping small local farms in business. Developers, contractors and building owners benefit similarly with green, energy efficient buildings. The nationally recognized Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system defines regional building materials as those manufactured within 500 miles. There's no requirement or reward for construction of properties with materials manufactured right in New York City. Ultimately, the driving force is cost - of building and maintaining. The story's the same for renters and buyers in Brooklyn. 

But I produce Made in Brooklyn Tours and after I moved back to Bensonhurst, I decided to color my new home with paint Made in Brooklyn. Color me Brooklyn.

Freddy Tichner

So, I made my way out to Flatlands to meet Freddy at Mercury Paint. Freddy was an executive in the garment district before marrying into Mercury - a family business now in its third generation. Over the course of nearly thirty years he's been instrumental in exponentially increasing sales. Today, Mercury remains competitive by focusing on producing high quality specialty paints for private label brands and, recently, by partnering with PPG (Pittsburgh Paint), a company that dwarfs other well known paint manufacturers.

Freddy gave me a fascinating tour of the factory bustling with activity despite the winter weather. High-lows buzzed about stacks of cans while paint in a variety of colors swirled in several five hundred and thousand gallon vats. When Mercury Paint started in 1947 there were about thirty other manufacturers of paint in New York City alone. Today the industry as a whole is dominated by five enormous players each with revenues well over $1B. In New York City, Mercury acquired the Amsterdam and Sapolin brands and is the last one standing.

At the start of the tour, I was introduced to the equivalent of a wine taster in the paint industry. A "shader" precisely mixes and matches colors. Freddy assured me that computers and other special instruments are no match for their human eyes. Next I met a chemist responsible for R&D and the formulation of entirely new paints for specific projects and private labels. Paint is tested for thickness, dry time and weight/gallon. I felt a little like James Bond visiting Q's lab when the chemist demonstrated a new fire retardant paint he's developing by taking a blowtorch to a piece of cardboard covered with it. Many Mercury employees came in through the Doe Fund - a nonprofit providing career assistance for those with histories of homelessness, incarceration, and substance abuse. Manufacturers tend to have less turnover and this seemed to be true at Mercury Paint. Everyone I met was local and employed there for several years.

Mercury Paint made a significant investment in making their facility EPA compliant, actively recycling and producing no waste. Mercury offers low and zero VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) paints and excels at producing high quality commercial paint rather than several lines of lesser quality like those offered by the much larger players. In fact, Feddy claims that Mercury has been producing high quality paint and primer in one (one coat coverage) well before it came into vogue. While water-based paint is exclusively embraced by larger manufacturers, Mercury is nimble enough to continue to produce oil paints too. 

Mercury does much of its business with municipalities, paint contractors and property managers mandated to use paint that meets higher standards for quality and other specifications. There's more value - meaning less labor - in a can of high quality paint. If the general public were made more aware of our local building materials manufacturers we may be willing to play a more active role in the institution of incentive programs that reward contractors that build with them. Terms like "farm-to-table" for food are part of our lexicon because we're concerned about employment, the environment and what we consume. We needn't be colorblind when it comes to the buildings where we actually live.