Garment Industry Oral History Collection

Title: SC229 Garment Industry Oral History Collection Finding Aid
Description: This collection contains DVDs and transcripts that were created as part of a Kansas City Garment Industry History Project. The collection consists of oral history interviews and supplemental audiovisual materials related to the Garment Industry.
Date: 1938/2020
Object Type: Finding Aid

Title: Interview with Hal Hardin
Description: Interview with Hal Hardin about his history working in Kansas City's garment industry. He discusses the origin of the Donnelly Garment Company, his experience serving in the Mediterranean during World War II, his early life and work, and his start with the Donnelly company in 1952. He describes his beginning in advertising and his later work in sales, ultimately becoming their national sales manager. He also discusses his work with stores across the country; their plants in North Kansas City, St. Joseph, and Nevada, Missouri; their clothing lines and sales territories; and staying with the company until it shut down in 1978. He then opened a new manufacturing company which he operated until selling in 1990.
Date: 2005-02-14
Object Type: Video Recording

Title: Interview with Bob Slegman
Description: Interview with Bob Slegman about his life and his family's company Stern-Slegman-Prins. He recounts his family history and their start manufacturing silk blouses, and his paternal Slegman family and maternal Stern family partnering up as "jobbers" who distributed wholesale garments to retailers, later manufacturing ladies' coats and suits, and notes that many other prominent garment industry companies had their roots in Stern-Slegman-Prins. He discusses the high quality of local manufacturing, and the operations, financing, and demographics of the work force, as well as his entry into the family business and his service as an Army Air Corps meteorologist during World War II. He shares photographs and other stories about the company, including their inability to have a company outing at Fairyland Park due to having black employees, and discusses the decline of the local garment industry and changes in fashion and retail in the 1970s. Anne Brownfield appears to show off details of a Stern-Slegman-Prins manufactured "Betty Rose" coat.
Date: 2007-10-23
Object Type: Video Recording

Title: Interview with Mary Agnes Alderman
Description: Interview with Mary Agnes Alderman in which she discusses her career in the garment industry, including working as a buyer for a department store in Springfield, Missouri in the 1950s. She recalls modeling and managing fashion shows, traveling to New York to buy women's sportwear, and her knowledge of Kansas City garment manufacturers and stores. She discusses the changes in shopping habits and department stores, working as a teacher after moving to Kansas City, and serving Ramfis Trujillo, son of president of the Dominican Republic Rafael Trujillo, while working at Swanson's clothing store on the Plaza. She also discusses the change in fashion to more casual dress, and expresses support and enthusiasm for the preservation of Kansas City's garment industry history.
Date: 2011-05-03
Object Type: Video Recording

Title: Interview with Sally Schwenk
Description: Interview with historic preservationist Sally Schwenk about the importance, and difficulty, of preserving and sharing the history of Kansas City's garment industry. She discusses the importance of Kansas City's location as a railroad hub to its early industry, the boom in the industry following World War I, the impact of unionization, and changes in the location and design of facilities, and the later decline of the local industry. She also describes the Garment District surrounding 8th and Broadway, the loss of buildings and connectivity to other neighborhoods due to post-war freeway construction and demolition, and the challenges of running the Historic Garment District Museum.
Date: 2010-04-26
Object Type: Video Recording

Title: Interview with Mary Lou Chalmers
Description: Interview with Mary Lou Chalmers about her experience working in Kansas City's garment industry from the late 1950s through late 1970s.. She discusses enrolling in the fashion design program at Kansas City Art Institute, as well as taking courses at Fanny Fern Fitzwater School of Fashion Illustration and the Isabelle Boldin School of Fashion, and then working in design and pattern-making at area garment companies such as Nelly Don and Gay Gibson. She describes the process of designing and making clothing, her experiences at numerous companies, the perks of working at Nelly Don, and times that her designs were featured in national magazines. She also discusses the decline of the garment fashion industry in the 1970s, the homogenization of shopping, and the shift to manufacturing in Asia.
Date: 2010-05-07
Object Type: Video Recording

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