"On a quiet stretch of Park Slope's Fifth Avenue, designer Christine Alcalay 's atelier sits inviting, intimate and unmistakably Brooklyn. Racks of blouses, jackets and vintage-buttoned trousers line the space - proof of what locals already know: the woman behind the clothes runs her business the way she designs, slowly, deliberately and with a soulfulness that can't be mass-produced. But Alcalay's story begins long before her name appeared on a storefront."
""My story goes way back," Alcalay told Brooklyn Paper. "It goes back to when I first came to the country with my mom as a Vietnamese immigrant." Her mother, unsure how to navigate a new city and language, took a job in a Queens garment factory. Child care was not an option. "I actually started in Queens sweatshops because my mom couldn't afford childcare, so I would just go to the factory with her every single day.""
Christine Alcalay operates a small, intimate atelier in Park Slope producing blouses, jackets and vintage-buttoned trousers with a deliberate, soulful approach. She immigrated to the United States with her mother as a child and spent many days in Queens garment factories observing sewing, mending and cutting. Early exposure to long, difficult hours initially discouraged her from fashion, but the craft ultimately drew her in. She trained at the High School of Fashion Industries, then at Parsons School of Design and Parsons Paris, followed by internships and textile jobs that built extensive industry experience.
Read at Brooklyn Paper
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