Scalamandre Silk Moving To South Carolina
By John Toscano

Gazette photo Scalamandré silk factory , established in 1929 by Franco Scalamandré, will leave this Long Island City factory and move to South Carolina.

The two buildings in Long Island City which house the huge mill where the world renowned Scalamandré silk products have been manufactured since 1929 have been sold. The mill will be relocated to South Carolina.

The buildings at 37-24 24th St. were sold to an unnamed party, the present owners of the Scalamandré business said. However, the structures will continue to house the firm’s trim manufacturing division, archives and studio offices after the mill relocation is completed in June. The firm’s showrooms, in Manhattan and throughout the United States, will also remain.

Some of the 90 employees in the mill will move to Gaffney, South Carolina. Others will continue in their jobs in Long Island City, according to Mark Bitter, the company chief executive.

But some 50 workers will lose their jobs here, Bitter said. They will be given severance benefits and will be assisted in finding new jobs.

Bitter and his brother, Robert, assumed control of the company several years ago, succeeding their parents as owners. They have entered into a joint manufacturing venture in South Carolina with the owner of a 115,000-square-foot, high tech-facility.

Mark Bitter stated, "My desire is to preserve the manufacturing legacy of Scalamandré, which could not have been guaranteed given the high cost of manufacturing in Long Island City.

"This move will enable us to produce three times more product at 40 percent less cost without compromising on quality of attention to detail."

Bitter’s goal was to keep the firm’s operation in America to help save the nation’s textile industry, rather than move the factory offshore. The move will enable the firm to compete favorably with foreign concerns and to maintain the high standards of quality on which Scalamandré built its reputation.

Bitter said Scalamandré silks sell to interior designers for $2,000 a yard. The fabrics are used mostly for expensive draperies, wall coverings, upholstery and other furnishings. Company officials boast that Scalamandré fabrics have been used in every time the White House was redecorated since the administration of Herbert Hoover from 1929 to 1933. They also grace the interiors of the Metropolitan Opera and virtually every major hotel and restaurant in New York City and around the country.

The business was established in 1929, six years after Franco Scalamandré emigrated to the United States from Caserta, a long-established silk center near Naples, Italy.

Scalamandré discovered the mill in Long Island City and purchased it with a $5,000 down payment and a $95,000 mortgage, according to a company spokesperson. He came from generations of textile weavers and designers who had emigrated to Italy from France and Spain during the reign of Don Carlos in Sicily and Naples in the 18th century.

Scalamandré’s first commission was to reproduce seven yards of silk Brocatelle for famed newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. Weaving small amounts of custom designed and colored, high-quality fabrics became a hallmark of the firm and attracted many designers, architects and preservationists to the business over the years.

When Franco Scalamandré died in 1988, the reins of the business were turned over to his daughter, Adriana Bitter, who had learned the business at her father’s knee. She, her husband Erwin and their four children continued to run the operation with great success. Mark and Robert eventually succeeded their parents in operating the firm.

The 75-year-old mill on 24th Street contains 200 specialty looms and other machinery, including four narrow 55-yard-long tables on which wallpaper is made by hand. In another room, with 65-foot-long tables, fabric is [hand] painted.

Raw silk is imported from Brazilian and Chinese silkworm farms and converted into refined fabrics in vibrant colors. Huge skeins of raw silk are boiled, cleaned and dyed in the basement of the mill and converted into thread which is then woven into fabric

Through the years, the firm had hired Italian immigrants living in the neighborhood and in other parts of Queens. Now it employs many Hispanic immigrants who brought with them skills developed working in mills in their home countries.

Bitter said 13 tall jacquard looms, which can weave 10,000 silk strands at one time into silk, are being moved to the new facility to continue manufacturing the fabrics which allowed the company to grow and prosper.