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October 17, 2003
Thrift Shop Suits Destined for Africa Diverted to Gen-Xers Lack of Sartorial Taste Driving Bernie's Emporium Frenzy The National Business Suit Recovery Act, signed into law in July by President Bush, was supposed to revive the sagging men's business suit industry, ravaged by a decade of casual dress in the nation's offices. It might still accomplish that goal. But in the meantime, it appears to have become a windfall for Bernie Glaberson, the controversial and self-styled "King of Used Clothes to Africa." He buys the castoff clothing inventories of thrift shops nationwide and ships them by freighter to Africa, where they have become a staple in local commerce across the continent. Now Glaberson is diverting the used Armani, Brooks Brothers and Men's Warehouse suits destined for bureaucrats in Pretoria and businessmen in Mombassa and selling them instead to young American office workers. These customers, who have known nothing but casual dress since entering the workforce during the last decade, are being told my their supervisors that they must dress more formally. They are loathe to buy new suits, fearing a future reversal of the office dress code will leave them with a closet full of expensive, unused suits. "Look at this," crowed Thomas Westford, 28, who identified himself as a Wall Street stock analyst. "Four suits for less than $200. Once I get them cleaned, nobody at the office will know." Westford had just emerged from Bernie's Emporium, a warehouse near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx where Glaberson has established his New York City retail presence. Westford's gleeful shopping spree is further evidence of the erosion of the casual office dress code. Office workers in urban centers across the country have been rushing to adopt more formal office wear in response to new mandates from employers. Some fashion experts have called the move "a tectonic shift" in American office couture. "It's something, isn't it," said Glaberson, reached by telephone at his Bayonne, N.J. office. "You wouldn't believe the demand." He said he had just ordered a freighter in the mid-Atlantic to turn around and return so that he can retrieve the discarded men's suits onboard and channel them instead to the American market. The National Business Suit Recovery Act was a bi-partisan effort to aid both manufacturers and retailers of business suits. It was rushed into law and President Bush signed it after a coalition of southern lawmakers from textile states and lawmakers from urban areas banded together. One provision of the law is a payment of $20 for each man's business suit sold at retail. In an oversight, the law failed to specify that the suit had to be new. In addition, it also prohibited non-profit groups selling clothing from receiving the $20 bonus. As a result, a reseller of suits like Glaberson gets the payment, while a Sisters of Charity thrift shop does not. I"m dismayed. I'm disheartened," said Irma Baumstein, an opponent of the global free trade movement. "I know it must sound like I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth," she said. "But it's despicable what Glaberson has done to the African textile and clothing industry because it can't compete with his shipments of castoff American clothes." She continued: "Now he's taking away the most profitable item for those Africans who sell his products. Finding a man's business suit in one of Glaberson's bales of clothes is like hitting the lottery for the poor Africans who resell his castoffs." Glaberson bristles at such criticisms. "I'm just a businessman trying to make a buck here, " he said. "Thousands of Africans make a good living selling my clothes. Then along comes Washington with what struck me as a wacko rush program of pure pork barrel. But my lawyers said, 'Yo! Bernie, look at this. Twenty bucks lying in the street.' I said, 'Go for it." Glaberson said his next Bernie's Emporium stores will open at the end of the month in Santa Fe and Minneapolis. Besides the New York flagship store, Glaberson has retail outlets in Los Angeles, Miami, Seattle, Boston and Washington. "You have a whole generation between the ages of 20 and 35 who don't have suits, and even less sartorial taste. Now they've been told to wear suits and don't want to spend anything," he exulted. Separately, the gossip columnist at The Washington Post reported in today's edition that Attorney General John Ashcroft had been spotted browsing the racks of men's suits at the Bernie's Emporium in Bethesda, a Washington suburb. Copyright William Stockton & Smithtown Creek Productions |
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