The New York Times Magazine - USA (2020-08-23)

Illustrations by Giacomo Gambineri 5

Photograph by Stephanie Gonot

The Thread

‘What

an incredible

feat, to turn

the depths of

suffering

into a force

for change

through words.’

THE COVER,

ON INSTAGRAM

If there’s a way

I can print this and

have it on my wall,

I would do it.

@stevesweatpants

wall. Supplying the stores with new

designs four to six times a year became

a fi nancial shell game. I cannot thank

Aleksander and the other contributors

enough for this most comprehensive and

factually honest article about an industry

built on illusion.

Denise Adamany

This is an excellent piece on the fast and

furious slow death of the fashion industry.

I worked in retail marketing throughout

the ’90s and was witness to much of what

you discuss. I hope that the outcome of

the fashion pandemic is a return to quality

over quantity and a respect for design,

purpose and trade.

Lucy, Moraga, Calif.

RE: BEHROUZ BOOCHANI

Megan K. Stack wrote about the writer and

former detainee on Australia’s Manus Island.

This is why we read newspapers. A wel-

come yet somber reminder that Covid-

is not our only pathogen. I will be reading

Boochani’s book and wishing him the best.

May he fi nd some peace in New Zealand.

S. M. Joseph, Philadelphia

This is a beautifully written piece; I could

glimpse the horror and desolation of

being locked up without an end in sight

and the complexity of the emotions driv-

ing Boochani onward. As an Australian, I

feel sad that I have never heard of Boo-

chani’s story, though I read the papers

daily. What an incredible feat, to turn the

depths of suff ering into a force for change

through words. I can only hope the path

ahead is a lot smoother for Boochani and

that he fi nds peace within.

Jin, Sydney, Australia

Readers respond to the 8.9.2020 issue.

RE: SWEATPANTS FOREVER

Irina Aleksander wrote about the collapse of

the fashion industry.

Reading Irina Aleksander’s terrifi cally

accurate article was a walk through my

experience as a fashion-jewelry designer

featured ‘‘exclusively’’ at Saks Fifth Ave-

nue in the mid-1990s and early 2000s.

Saks picked up our line very early on,

during which we received incredible

exposure not only at the store level but

in its catalogs and New York Times ads

regularly over the years. Beginning as

a tiny company with no real capital to

speak of, we struggled but fi lled orders

for full-page pieces in the Saks catalog

and for 16 Saks stores nationwide. Sea-

son after season, orders were placed,

fi lled, delivered. There were Times ads,

store catalogs, personal appearances in

the stores, etc. Then came the ‘‘stock

adjustments’’ — a euphemistic term for

the Return to Vendor. Ad contributions.

Markdown money — even though we

did not allow our product to be marked

down as we felt it ‘‘trained’’ the customer

to wait for sales — which as Aleksander

so brilliantly demonstrated, proved dead-

ly for the industry, not to mention the

designer-manufacturer. We were ‘‘eat-

ing’’ tens of thousands of dollars’ worth

of merchandise before the buyer would

place the next season’s order. Even back

in the ’90s, I could see that the industry

needed to change its way of measuring

sales at the mid-to-higher end. In meet-

ing after meeting with the buyers, I would

suggest they ‘‘slow the turn’’ — meaning

the ratio of sales to number of days or

weeks the product was on the shelf. I

could, even then, see the writing on the

Thank you, Ms. Stack, for this vivid and

gorgeously written account of abject cru-

elty and unfathomable perseverance.

Boochani’s nobility, pain and courage

speak to the experience of many thou-

sands of others like him. But what a sin-

gular and incandescent spirit he is. How

telling it is that, after years of imprison-

ment and abuse, when asylum in the U.S.

became a real possibility, he responded:

‘‘I don’t feel safe in America now.... I

don’t trust the American system. It’s like

chaos there now.’’ His survival instincts

have served him well yet again. How I

admire him, and how ashamed I am of

my country.

JR, Providence, R.I.

Elegantly told and moving beyond

words. This individual tale of infi nite suf-

fering displays what we don’t know about

the tens of thousands, God knows how

many, in similar straits, without resources

such as Behrouz’s command of his emo-

tions, pride and language skills.

Sherri, Toronto

We toured Australia in 2018 and were

told various stories about the asylum

seekers on Manus Island. I had no idea

what was really happening there, but it

was obvious our guide only scratched

the surface. Now that I’ve read about

Boochani and the harsh treatment these

refugees were put through, I have a new

understanding of the Australian people

and their government. I’m so relieved

that he was able to seek citizenship in

New Zealand and make a new life for him-

self, while many in this detention center

didn’t make it out alive.

Marsha Johansen, Albuquerque

Send your thoughts to [email protected].