Oh Sew Cheap : Levine Bros. offers the public fine woolen fabrics and supplies at prices often hundreds of dollars less than retail.
For upscale fashion plates or accomplished seamstresses and tailors, Levine Bros. Woolens & Tailoring Supplies is a treasure.
These are the same Levine Bros. that had been in Downtown Los Angeles for more than 50 years, relocating last year to North Hollywood.
The inventory consists of everything the advanced sewer who wants the best might need to make a suit--and fabric at wholesale prices.
“This fabric has a real good hand,” said Allan Franklin, Levine Bros. vice president, as he ran his hand down the material. This is the professional’s way of saying that the fabric is exceptionally soft.
This blend of wool and cashmere from England in a small black and white shepherd’s check would retail for about $200 a yard but wholesales here for $95 a yard.
Some of the best men’s custom tailors in town purchase their fabrics from Levine Bros., and to save yourself some money, try buying your fabric here and taking it to your tailor.
If you figure from $350 to $500 for labor on a custom suit, add $700 retail for 3 1/2 yards of the shepherd’s check fabric (the amount needed for the average man’s suit), a custom suit might cost as much as $1,200. If you purchase the shepherd’s check yourself, for instance, you’d save $367.50, or half the retail cost of the fabric.
There were beautiful corduroys from France, tweeds from Scotland, gabardines from England and a luscious bolt of cashmere that retails for $350 to $400 a yard but is $175 a yard here.
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To the right as you enter is a selection of cuts from the end of the bolt, where the prices are terrific.
A 1 5/8-yard piece of fine wool from England, which wholesales for $75 a yard, is $65 for the cut. A fine glen plaid 100% wool that sells for $25 a yard on the bolt is $16 for a 1 3/4-yard cut.
If you figure 1 1/2 yards for a skirt or pair of pants, picking up a remnant can save considerably on some elegant woolens.
The customer is free to roam the rear of this establishment, where the perfectly organized shelves hold the necessities of fine tailoring. This is a whole new world of mending tape, shoulder pads (in 50 different styles), belt backs, elbow patches, zippers, tailor chalk, pocketing material, gimp, sleeve boards and, of course, thread.
One of the finest threads made, according to Franklin, is Gutermann from Germany. The thread retails for $2 for 300 yards, but here it’s $3 for 1,100 yards.
And did you know there is a special silk thread just for buttonholes? “A dying art,” says Franklin, but if you practice it, you can buy the hard-to-find thread here.
In the Button Room are all manner of buttons for suits that make up what may be the greatest selection in town. Buttons made of buffalo horn, which retail for $5 each, are $2 apiece here.
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A deep inventory of scissors offers some unusual styles. Brazilian-made tailoring shears in a 12-inch version by Mundial were $38.35, compared to $53 at a local cutlery shop.
The fabrics are for everyone but the supplies are geared toward the experts. The entire store, however, is a revelation to the non-professional sewer.
Geri Cook’s Bargains column runs every Friday in Valley Life! Questions about shopping may be sent to her, in care of Valley Life!, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, CA 91311. Letters will not be answered individually, but topics of general interest will be discussed in future columns. Geri Cook can be heard from 9 to 10 a.m. on Saturdays on KIEV 870-AM.
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WHERE TO SHOP
What: Levine Bros. Woolens & Tailoring Supplies.
Location: 4907 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood.
Hours: 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.
Cards: American Express, Discover, MasterCard, Visa.
Call: (818) 980-3666.
