Spotlight Business: Bridge Cleaners and Tailors

Bridge Cleaners and Tailors motto is “Fit for Royalty” and the owners pride themselves on being the highest quality dry cleaner and tailor in the city, whether that be for high profile fashionista Anna Wintour or those less famous customers who visit their stores in Downtown Brooklyn and Soho.

The company is owned by Victoria Aviles, a Colombian immigrant in her 60s, who worked her way up from sweeping in a dry cleaners to becoming a couture tailor and then multimillion dollar business owner. She is now joined by her 29-year-old son Richard.

Creating a “family” environment to retain workers

In addition to the two stores, they run a production facility where the clothing is cleaned and tailored at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. They have 40+ workers and call the business a “family.”

“Every tailor here comes from a different country. Many of them have been offered to make more somewhere else, but they stay because they feel at home here. We’re running less of a business and more of a family. Everyday for lunch, someone cooks a large dish and they all share it for lunch. When one tailor’s house burnt down, everyone chipped in, clothes, food and money.” Richard said.

NYC’s Tailor Shortage

The business highly values its older workers, particularly its 15 tailors, who are all in their 60s and 70s, as there is a shortage of tailors citywide. They do not have a clear plan for how to replace these tailors if they decide to leave.

“There are skills not found or taught here in the U.S.,” said Richard. “Even at FIT, they are not teaching proper sewing techniques. It is more of an art. And then computers have also taken over. For example, if the business is looking for a seamstress and a pattern maker, someone from FIT might know how to make a pattern, but then can’t cut it. You can design suits, but you can’t tailor them.”

Richard says that tailors working by hand are still the only way to custom tailor clothing.

“A machine for the foreseeable future will not be able to remove certain stains or alter a garment to a person’s preferences,” he said.

“I don’t know what we’ll do,” he said. “Thankfully there are still people out there in other countries who know how to do this work.”
Value of Older Workers

Richard says that he values older workers for a list of reasons, in addition to needing them for their skills.

“I find that older workers take the job more seriously. People who have endured pain in the past feel they have to prove themselves and get validation from their job,” he said.

He shared a recent experience with a staff who all arrived by 8 am to work and a young intern who texted that it was “raining in my area” so he would be in later.

He also said that older workers also see the whole – the context of their work – because of their experience, instead of just the one piece they are working on.

For example, the company’s cleaning process is departmentalized – for each piece of clothing there is a person who serves as the spotter (looks for and cleans stains), an inspector, a presser, a finisher. Less experienced workers only understand their part of the process.

“If the presser is pressing something, like an elaborate gown with pleats and all the pleats are gone, the finisher doesn’t know or note that the pleats need to go back.”

The benefit to hiring workers with a history at other companies is that they each bring experience from their past workplace with them and the business encourages workers to learn from each other.

For example, Juliana, a tailor, was a production manager and seamstress at a major bridal company. All of the staff seek her advice and training when handling wedding dresses, evening wear or even a dress to hem.

Using Workers to Improve the Process

The owners recognize that one advantage that a small business carries is being able to regularly get feedback from workers and being able to offer workers the ability to improve processes.

When Hurricane Sandy flooded and ravaged their production facility, they asked each worker to share their thoughts for a dream workspace.

“90% of the changes we’ve made and ideas we’ve had have come from the ground floor,” said Richard.

The company began using different solvents at their workers’ recommendation and bought a $75,000 hyrdrocarbon dry cleaning machine. They were willing to place it in front of a doorway, despite the tight space, because their workers who had tested it out it at another company said it would improve their work.

The business also try to make the work place as comfortable as possible for all workers, who often work long hours. When one worker asks for a change to their work station – like fatigue mats or more comfortable chairs – they buy it for everyone. They have also moved clothing closer to people’s stations and structure the space so they do not have to go up and down the stairs.

Benefit of Mixed Age Teams

At their retail store in Downtown Brooklyn, there are two workers in their 50s and two workers in their 20s.

“Having that 30 year gap is very interesting and good for us as a business,” Richard said. “The younger ones look up to them as mentors. The older women look out for them. When they need to they get motherly and put them in their place. They teach them how to speak to customers. And then the younger ones show them technology.”

Richard and his mother are also an intergenerational team.

“She is qualitative. Anything quantitative, I deal with.”

“She’s mama. To me, to everyone,” he said. “Unless I figure out how to transfer her skills with people to someone else I’m going to find myself working in a different place.”

While his mother has an iPhone that she does not turn on, Richard brings technological expertise and a desire to streamline their process.

“We used to have post-its all over. It was the way we assigned tasks to everyone, to each other. They were everywhere. It was the worst thing ever. So I got everyone email addresses, we all got an app, and we now have a task management system. It’s not a choice.”

He says it is important to bring everyone along with the technology, so they don’t get left behind.

“If you do not change with the times, you’ll get swallowed up,” he said. “Companies and people become irrelevant. Those types of businesses are disrupted by smaller, leaner, lighter start ups.”