[Nfb-krafters-korner] Tish Cox creations

[Maria Chapman]

amazing.

Maria

> On 15 Jun 2017, at 2:16 am, Becky Frankeberger via Nfb-krafters-korner <nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> <https://mandrillapp.com/track/click/30489975/www.fastcompany.com?p=eyJzIjoi
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> W1wiNDliN2U4YjZhN2MwN2ViMTg4YTA2NDFjYjEwNmQyYTMxOGZjNTM2ZFwiXX0ifQ> These
> Gorgeous Designer Gowns Are Made By Blind Dressmakers
> 
> Article Link:
> https://www.fastcompany.com/40426236/the-blind-seamstresses-who-make-designe
> r-gowns
> <https://mandrillapp.com/track/click/30489975/www.fastcompany.com?p=eyJzIjoi
> SWRfR21pSkh3aVl1a1IzZTB5V1RYYy1RenBFIiwidiI6MSwicCI6IntcInVcIjozMDQ4OTk3NSxc
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> W1wiNDliN2U4YjZhN2MwN2ViMTg4YTA2NDFjYjEwNmQyYTMxOGZjNTM2ZFwiXX0ifQ>  
> 
> 
> When fashion designer Tish Cox decided to grow her business, she found a
> factory where blind sewers create garments with impeccable craftsmanship.
> 
> 
> Elaina Tillinghast, a 54-year-old seamstress, spends her days in a Dallas
> clothing factory sewing blouses and gowns for
> <https://mandrillapp.com/track/click/30489975/shopthesil.com?p=eyJzIjoiV0I4e
> XZWYmptS2tud2dnTVBYSTF0dnZhemlNIiwidiI6MSwicCI6IntcInVcIjozMDQ4OTk3NSxcInZcI
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> FxcL3Rpc2gtY294XCIsXCJpZFwiOlwiNzJhYzEyN2Y0NTRiNGZjNThiYTYxZmM3Y2FlMDNkYWRcI
> ixcInVybF9pZHNcIjpbXCJiYzQwMDU2MDBmOWFmZjNhYjI1ODNjODk3OTE5NzY2OTc0MTYwYjBmX
> CJdfSJ9> Tish Cox, an up-and-coming American designer who counts Zac Posen
> and André Leon Talley among her fans. The clothes are made from luxurious,
> brightly colored silks and are full of unexpected flourishes, like billowy
> sleeves and ruffles. Tillinghast’s sense of the Cox aesthetic comes entirely
> through touch: She’s been blind since birth.
> 
> When Tillinghast was a child, her parents worried whether she would be able
> to make her own way in the world when she grew up.
> 
> “Mother thought it was her duty to make sure that I could fend for myself
> should I ever need to,” she tells me. “She taught me sewing, cooking,
> budgeting, and nearly everything else she could think of.”
> 
> Tillinghast emerged a woman with the determination to live life to the
> fullest. And she has. After getting a degree in computer science, she worked
> in the call centers of telecom and internet service provider companies. She
> then had a stint as a massage therapist, helping people with serious
> physical ailments.
> 
> Eight years ago, she landed at the
> <https://mandrillapp.com/track/click/30489975/www.dallaslighthouse.org?p=eyJ
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> sX2lkc1wiOltcIjNhMWUzZmQ5YWMzNjQxMTQ1OGIwNjVhOGEzMWVjMWY2YTI0NThlYTRcIl19In0
>> Dallas Lighthouse for the Blind, an 85-year-old nonprofit devoted to
> training the visually impaired and getting them jobs. Its cavernous North
> Texas facility is a hive of activity, where blind workers keep busy
> labeling, welding, filling bottles with liquid, and answering customer
> service questions on the phone, among other things.
> 
> “With the right amount of education, training, and assistive technology, a
> blind person can do just about anything a sighted person can,” Lighthouse
> CEO Hugh McElroy says. “Once you wrap your head around that, things suddenly
> become possible.”
> 
> Of the 7 million Americans that are blind, 30% live below the poverty line,
> largely because they struggle to find jobs. Most blind people don’t know
> what they are capable of, so the organization does a lot of outreach, trying
> to connect them with opportunities to earn money. In the sewing department,
> workers make between $9 and $20 an hour.
> 
> At the Lighthouse, Tillinghast’s creative juices flowed when given a chance
> to do the detailed stitching for the Tish Cox collection. “It requires a
> little more mental work,” she says. “You’re not doing the same thing for the
> next three hours.”
> 
> Tillinghast is intimately familiar with each design. Before she starts on a
> new style, she feels it out with her hands. Then she strategizes about all
> the steps it will take to create it. “You have to juggle shapes in your
> mind,” she says. “You work in stages, turning sections inside out to sew,
> leaving spots open so you can sew them up later. It’s jigsaw puzzle work.”
> 
> Tillinghast uses her fingers to measure exactly how wide a hem might need to
> be: Does it need to be a quarter or half of a finger nail wide? It has taken
> years for her to fine-tune these skills, starting from her childhood when
> her mother taught her how to sew by hand. Over time, however, sewing has
> become second nature.
> 
> Tish Cox started working with the Lighthouse a year ago. She was looking for
> a new factory so she could expand her production. After seven years of
> growing her business in Texas and building a strong following in the South,
> she decided it was time to expand nationally. She wanted to keep all her
> production in Dallas to stay on top of the manufacturing. Her husband
> encouraged her to check out Lighthouse.
> 
> The idea of a blind dressmaker seemed like an impossible concept. Sight
> seemed crucial to the process of sewing clothing, especially complicated
> designer pieces that sell for $500 or more. But Cox saw the light—so to
> speak—when she visited Lighthouse’s facility.
> 
> “As you walk into this automation area with all of these crazy sewing
> machines, you think, surely most of these workers can see,” Cox says. “Then
> you quickly realize that most of them can’t.”
> 
> It was an elaborate military belt created for soldiers to carry around tools
> on projects that convinced Tish Cox to make her clothes at the Lighthouse.
> “Every single piece was perfect,” she says. “The belts had a lot of parts to
> them and involved a lot of detail, but they were sewed perfectly.”
> 
> Cox asked McElroy if the Lighthouse was equipped to sew designer fashion
> garments. He noted that they had never attempted anything like that. “But
> just because it’s never been done before doesn’t mean we can’t do it,”
> McElroy tells me. “Let’s just sit down and figure it out.”
> 
> He brought on a team of experts and designers who were able to figure out
> how blind people could sew these garments. He also brought in a team of
> sighted employees who work alongside the blind, doing tasks that require
> vision. Then, they were off and sewing.
> 
> Cox was surprised by how quickly the Lighthouse could start the project. “In
> six days, the Dallas Lighthouse figured out how to source the fabrics and
> make 4,000 pieces for me,” she explains. “The beauty of this is that if I
> need to scale up production, the Lighthouse will be able to accommodate me.”
> 
> McElroy purchased sewing machines for the Lighthouse and brought in
> engineers who know how to adapt equipment for the blind and visually
> impaired. Safety, he says, is key. There are several guards in place to
> protect the sewers’ fingers from the needles. There are other adaptations
> that are specific to sewing Tish Cox garments: Markers help the user gauge
> distances and know which part they are working on. Employees go through
> extensive training before they start working on the machines.
> 
> “It’s not uncommon to go years without even a small injury,” McElroy says.
> “Once a person has gotten these skills down, we begin to find ways to
> improve on the process to make it quicker and more efficient.”
> 
> Tillinghast was there from day one. After a three-month course sponsored by
> the Lighthouse, her days have been filled with making Tish Cox dresses.
> Right at the start, there were hiccups, as the team struggled to understand
> how to use the brand-new technology. But after a few weeks, they were
> churning out beautifully crafted, impeccable garments that would appear in
> high-end stores and be worn by women attending fancy events.
> 
> Tillinghast feels some ownership over the final product. “Tish Cox does not
> do things that look like they’re off the rack,” she says. “She tries for a
> more open and freeing shape to her garments.”
> 
> For Cox, it was vitally important for her clothes to be well-made. The first
> surprise, when working with the Lighthouse, was seeing how impeccable the
> craftsmanship of the products was. But the second surprise was seeing how
> content the workers at the factory appear to be whenever she’s stopping by
> for a visit.
> 
> “Walking through the Lighthouse is a really moving experience,” Cox says.
> “These are Americans who want to work, have a real career, and be able to
> grow. It is the happiest workplace I’ve ever been to in my life.”
> 
> 
> 
> 
> <https://mandrillapp.com/track/open.php?u=30489975&id=72ac127f454b4fc58ba61f
> c7cae03dad> 
> 
> 
> 
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