The Fabric That Binds

In this time of reflection and grief, Americans are finding a sense of comfort and pride by wrapping themselves in the American flag. At a Los Angeles memorial service for victims of the New York tragedy, young women covered their heads with sequined flag scarves. On the streets of Manhattan, the fashion-conscious are wearing flag-emblazoned clothing from past collections of Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren, while others don Old Navy T-shirts last worn at Fourth of July parades.

The renewed vigor with which Americans are embracing stars and stripes in their wardrobes is making patriotism freshly fashionable. Swarovski is rushing out a new Brave Heart crystal pin that will sell for $35. Tiffany has received orders for a $60,000 flag pin from customers who wanted the antique piece featured in the jeweler’s ad expressing sympathy. Los Angeles handbag designer Timmy Woods is promoting her American flag and White House bags and donating the proceeds to disaster relief.

In a fad reminiscent of one during the Gulf War, the Paint Shop, a Beverly Hills nail salon, is now offering patriotic pedicures and manicures--nine red nails and one blue with a white star. Meanwhile, stylists at the Planet Salon in Beverly Hills, who are donating their tips ($1,000 so far) to relief funds, are putting free red, white and blue ribbons in hairdos.

By chance, one of this fall’s print trends includes odes to Old Glory, which has saved some designers from looking as if they are cashing in on the crisis. The fashion industry’s embrace this season of the symbol on the runway had more to do with the graphic appeal of the tricolor motif. It is the latest chapter in flag wearing, which at times has been symbol of protest and counterculture as in the 1960s and controversial for those who believe the banner belongs only on a flagpole, not a T-shirt.

Lauren, who has called the flag “the symbol of the American dream,” has carried a flag sweater in his collections since 1986. But the company isn’t filling requests for more of them. “We don’t want to look like we are out to benefit from a national tragedy,” said a company spokesman. “We want to be very cautious of that.” Instead, the New York-based company is donating nearly 34,000 pieces of clothing to the Salvation Army and has created a fund to raise money for victims and the relief effort.

Since last Friday, many retailers have pushed patriotic wares into flag-bedecked store windows. A starry-print children’s dress stood proudly in the Flicka boutique window on Larchmont Boulevard in Hancock Park while flags decorated storefronts up and down the block. The scene has been the same in virtually every shopping district in the city.

From the downtown garment district to the tony Sunset Plaza, patriotic merchandise can be had at all prices. Roving vendors hawk $3 flags and $5 rhinestone Stars and Stripes headbands to downtown passersby, while nearby store owners have moved Yankees caps, flag-emblazoned bags and more front and center of their racks.

Several large retailers have been overwhelmed by the demand for apparel emblematic of our star-spangled banner. In less than a week, Kmart’s online venture, at https://www.bluelight.com, sold 11,600 of its $7.99 T-shirts emblazoned with American flags or a bald eagle. Proceeds from the shirts will benefit the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.

Old Navy this week began reprinting a special edition of its popular flag shirt, said spokesman Jonathan Finn. For five years, the moderate-price clothing chain has printed a summer-season T-shirt featuring the company logo, the year and the American flag. Customers last week flooded Old Navy’s toll-free customer service line with requests for flag shirts.

“The company was trying to figure out what to do [to pay its respects],” Finn said. “We are printing as we speak a limited run of our flag tees that will have nothing on it but the American flag.”

Old Navy was able to produce just enough new shirts to supply less than half of its 700 stores this week and will concentrate on stores near New York and Washington, D.C., he said.

For citizens elsewhere, the company plans to offer its remaining 2001 flag T-shirts on its Web site, at https://www.oldnavy.com. All proceeds from sales of the shirts will benefit the September 11th Fund, a partnership of the New York Community Trust and the United Way of New York City.

Other empathetic patriots have fashioned their own flag apparel. Not only is Lorraine Peary of Los Angeles wearing black to commemorate the victims, but she has also pinned a flag patch to her clothes every day since the disaster.

So far, a new sense of pride in flag and the fact that many retailers are donating proceeds to disaster relief have shielded the merchandising from criticism as crass commercialism. Few can discredit anyone who wants to sell T-shirts, which have become the main means of self-expression in the wake of the attacks. Discounters and upscale retailers alike are using T-shirts to raise money for disaster relief.

As it struggled to reopen for a full day of business in New York on Monday, upscale retailer Saks Fifth Avenue printed T-shirts that say “with sadness.” The $10 shirts match the store’s empty, blackened windows and recent advertisements, said spokesman Michael Macko.

The surge of unity and pride in America and New York has rehabilitated a long declasse symbol of New York, Macko observed. The I {heart}NY campaign had for decades fallen to an emblem of tacky souvenirs. Not this week.

“You see all kinds of people wearing the I-love-New-York buttons now,” he said. “That stuff is all over Times Square, but not where the hip, cool people shop.” The souvenir associations changed overnight. The new meaning is “we’re all in it together,” he said. “It’s supportive.”

Few can look at flag colors and symbols the same way anymore. Catherine Malandrino’s abstract Stars and Stripes-themed fall collection seems eerily prescient now. Earlier this year, Malandrino, a French designer with a boutique in Sunset Plaza, created an ode to America with $300 red-white-and-blue print dresses, $180 silk dresses and bags as a subtle thank-you to her many U.S. customers. Interest in the clothes was “really strong before all of this happened,” said store manager Tamila Beatty, who witnessed renewed demand late last week. Malandrino devoted several items to New York City, including an intarsia leather belt that read, “I {heart} NY.”

One item seems especially poignant now. It’s a $102 graffiti-print T-shirt that is covered with images of New York City. It prominently features the World Trade Center towers.