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Monique and Jonathan Levy with their daughter, Rebecca.
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Monique Levy, Jewish head of the STL Fashion Fund talks about the economic impact of the fashion industry in the area
BY ELLEN FUTTERMAN
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Talking fashion with Monique Levy is far from frivolous. While she notes that everyone must get dressed before leaving the house each day, she also is quick to point out that fashion is much more than what we put on our bodies to wear.
According to the economic development group Alliance STL, the fashion industry contributes $3.3 billion a year to the St. Louis area economy. It employs tens of thousands of people and encompasses everything from textile and apparel brands to wholesalers, importers, designers, pattern cutters, sewers, manufacturers, retailers, marketers, and sales teams, among others.
In other words, it’s serious business.
In May, Levy, who is a member of Congregation B’nai Amoona, was named CEO of the Saint Louis Fashion Fund.
The nonprofit, which was founded in 2014, is committed to economic development by working in collaboration with local and regional civic leaders. As Levy explains, the Fund’s mission is to help attract, retain and facilitate the growth of businesses within the fashion, retail and manufacturing industry.
Levy’s 10-year goal as head of the Fashion Fund is to double the amount the fashion business contributes to the city coffers each year, boosting that number to more than $6 billion. And while that is certainly no small feat, she says she’s up to the task and is excited to bring new jobs and businesses here.
A native of Jacksonville, Fla., Levy moved from Baltimore to St. Louis over four years ago with her husband Jonathan, who grew up here, and their daughter Rebecca, now 4 ½. Before coming to the Fashion Fund, she was director of development and operations for Gateway to Hope, a nonprofit that supports individuals diagnosed with breast cancer. She also has a law degree from St. Thomas School of Law in Miami.
The Jewish Light recently caught up with Levy to talk about her new position, St. Louis as a fashion city, and why Judaism is meaningful to her.
You’ve been in the job for a little more than six months. What have been your top goals and priorities?
My top priority is to really focus the Fashion Fund on its stated mission and to be serious about this next endeavor. Economic development is business at its heart — it is networking, it is relationship building and it is doing both with the right people. The Fashion Fund needs to be strategic and demonstrate that we, as an organization, are more than capable of taking on this endeavor. To do that we have to get our ducks in order, we have to have our accounting squared up and we have to have policies and procedures in place. That is what I have been busy doing, and fundraising, of course.
Can you talk about the clothes part of fashion and the business side of it and where the Fashion Fund intersects with both?
Clothes are a commodity just like anything else we purchase. There is an industry-specific sector for each type of commodity, and ours is fashion. The difference with fashion is that most people assume it’s high-end, unattainable, and inaccessible and it only works in L.A. and New York.
At the Fashion Fund, we try to look at fashion in the same way St. Louis has looked at other emerging industries, we want to do the exact same thing with fashion. You have to look at fashion for the business that it is, which is retail and manufacturing at its core, but truly it is much more than that.
The second part is showing the community what we already have. It’s putting our businesses and entrepreneurs first, it’s shopping local, it’s highlighting what is happening in St. Louis currently, and how the fund helps connect those pieces. The fund is not the center point, the fund is the connector. It’s not about us but what we can do for the community.
The pandemic really affected fashion with regard to the supply chain. We’re feeling more of a trickle-down effect this year as opposed to last year. We are now seeing the backlog and it just bolsters the point that we need to reinvest in our communities and think about manufacturing domestically and what it means to buy local. As consumers, we have to be OK with a higher price point if we want things to be local.
What is the advantage of having the Fashion Fund?
It’s having that specific point of contact with someone who knows what you’re talking about and is willing to take your phone call and listen to you. The Fashion Fund serves as a trusted thought leader and as a conduit — in other words, we understand what you are going through. We understand you are serious about building your business.
It’s making those connections and opening the doors for businesses and manufacturers so that they are more inclined to stake roots here.
How would you describe your style and what makes good fashion?
I love a good capsule wardrobe. I’m a big proponent of Rent the Runway and sustainable consumer practices.
In terms of good fashion, I think it’s all about having confidence in wearing what you have on. I personally don’t do high-end labels. I’m much more about good fit than trends because in order to look good in your clothes, they must fit correctly!
How would you describe St. Louis’ fashion style?
I’d say St. Louis’ fashion style blends comfort and current trends.
Do your Jewish values inform what you are doing at the Fashion Fund?
One of the things I take to heart is not to embarrass or make people feel less than. I say this because with business and this particular industry, you can occasionally run into touchy situations. It can be competitive, and egos sometimes get the best of people.
THE ARTS IN ST. LOUIS
The artistry of metalsmiths
BY NANCY KRANZBERG
I had always thought of our friends Laurie and Kevin Van Mondfrans as jewelers who worked with semi-precious stones and metal. They invited us to see their latest creations recently at the Midwest Metalsmiths Art Show, which was held in Webster Groves (it takes place annually, usually in mid-October).
Oh, what a treat it was to start thinking and learning about metalsmiths and who they are and what they make. And what beautiful work we saw.
I also went to our wonderful Craft Alliance, a not-for profit art center in St. Louis working to reveal the power of craft through bold programming, which uncovers craft’s unique qualities, its evolving role and its full potential for innovation. Craft — the making of objects in woods, metals, fibers, glass and clay — is both an ancient tradition and a site for innovation, adjusting to new materials and responding to the ever-changing human experience. I talked to Stefanie Kirkland, deputy director of the organization, and she said that St. Louis has a robust community of metalsmiths.
“The term metalsmith often refers to artisans and craft persons who practice their craft in many different metals,” said Kirkland. “Jewelers often refer to their craft as metalsmithing, and many universities offer degrees in metalsmithing, jewelry, enameling and blacksmithing under the auspices of a fine arts program.”
Wikipedia says a metalsmith is one who works with or has the knowledge and capacity of working with all metals. There are blacksmiths, brownsmiths, coppersmiths, goldsmiths, gunsmiths, and more. There are metalsmith organizations all over the country, and there are metalsmith magazines and metalsmith guilds galore.
When I asked some of the folks participating in the metalsmith show about their work, I found that they all used the words artist and creativity.
“At the heart of metalsmithing is art, it’s creating. It’s taking an idea and turning it into something tangible and beautiful,” said Laurie Van Mondfrans.
Texturing the surface of the metal is often a part of the process for metalsmiths. This texturing is often used to embellish the work. Texturing can be achieved by hammering with special texturing hammers, hammering against a textured surface, engraving, etching and rolling metal sheets through rolling mills.
Patricia McCoy-Feldmanis featured her beautiful work of cuttlebone cast jewelry. Cuttlebone casting is an ancient technique that has been used for many years to create jewelry designs. This type of casting uses the bones of a cuttlefish to produce a mold in which one can pour in liquified material in the casting process.
Both McCoy-Feldmanis and Van Mondfrans were greatly influenced by teachers at Craft Alliance. Peggy Jacobsmeyer, whose work at the metalsmith show also caught my eye, explained: “I worked as an artist creating large-format framed wall pieces using glass and metal for decades before I started to make jewelry. Gradually, working on a smaller scale began to appeal to me. Creating jewelry is exactly the same as making art/sculpture as far as I’m concerned. It’s just smaller.”
Of course, this could lead into the usual question—what is fine art and what is craft? Don’t worry. I won’t go there today. I know most of the works I saw at the metalsmith show knocked my eyes out and were objects of beauty no matter what you call them.
For more of Nancy Kranzberg’s commentary, listen to KWMU (90.7) St. Louis on the Air the fi rst Friday of each month at approximately 12:50 p.m. She also hosts a weekly Arts Interview podcast for KDHX (88.1), available at artsinterview.kdhxtra.org.
Meet the new year, hopefully not like the old year
BY AMY FENSTER BROWN
Well, hello there, 2022! We are so happy to see you, but we need to welcome you at arm’s length.
You can understand that we are a little hesitant because last year we rolled out the red carpet for 2021, and it kind of did us wrong. It started off with promise, made a hard right turn Jan. 6, tricked us several times throughout the year, and then pulled a fast one at the very end with Betty White right before her 100th birthday. What a cruel finale. Zero out of 10 stars, 2021.
A new year brings fresh possibility. Starting the calendar year anew seems to put us in a mindset of beginning with a clean slate. Do you think making New Year’s resolutions is helpful to get you working toward your goals, or a trap to put pressure on yourself to do the things you “should” or “shouldn’t” be doing? I’d say both. We start with good intentions and end up “shoulding” all over ourselves when we fall off track.
Back to the shiny hopefulness of the New Year. I predict all sorts of great things over the next 12 months. I am not a psychic or scholar, so I have no basis or merit or special powers to know what I’m talking about. But I once accurately predicted that my then-toddler would have a vicious meltdown when he found out what was for dinner. So I can kind of see into the future.
I predict that this year, we will learn even more things we shouldn’t say at the risk of being offensive. I hear people lamenting about how they just can’t say certain words or phrases these days because someone will be offended. If only I could list them here. When you watch a blockbuster movie on a network or basic-cable station, off-color words are bleeped out and replaced with nicer words. It used to be pretty easy to figure out what the real words were, because most bad guys don’t yell, “Cut the sugar or I’ll forking kill you!” However, with so many more words and phrases being “canceled,” I’m having way more trouble figuring out what the actors originally said.
Recent reports say we should replace our cloth masks with more protective KN95 masks. This leads me to predict some more changes in masks for 2022. Be on the lookout for masks with bold printed messages to keep others from standing too close, things like, “I can see into your soul” or, “I’m naturally gassy.” That’ll keep others six feet away, at least.
We also will have masks with sensors so when people wear them improperly a warning will sound. In places where masks are encouraged or required, sirens will start blaring when one slips below a wearer’s nostrils. If it happens at the movies or synagogue, however, police lights will flash for a silent option to allow us to still hear the movie or the rabbi.
Being boring becomes the new lifestyle trend. We had a taste of it in the original COVID lockdown. Puzzles, baking bread and doing house projects were the norm to keep us from getting bored. But then we embraced the boredom, and I think many of us miss it. I see a trend on the horizon in which we embrace the boredom and we all just chill out. Relaxing is the new to-do list.
Peloton bikes will make a huge comeback. Not that they went that far away. The high-end exercise equipment had a blip in the stock market after (spoiler alert) “Sex and the City’s” Mr. Big met his demise on the “And Just Like That …” sequel. But now that the #MeToo movement has been revived after the actor was accused of forcing several women into nonconsensual sex in the city, a reboot for Peloton seems realistic.
The trend of famous people going into space will hit fever pitch. Lots of us non-Hollywood folks would like to be shot into the universe so we can be as far away from Earth as possible. Stars, they’re just like us. I predict the public will soon get to have a say in it. An observant TV producer will start a game show in which contestants get to choose which celebrities become makeshift astronauts. They’ll get to choose two actors who would be a buddy comedy dream team, or perhaps a romantic matchup of two celebrities set up on a date in orbit to bond without earthly distractions like paparazzi. Or gravity.
This year, vaccines and boosters will be available on fast food drive-thru menus and delivered via services like Door Dash to encourage even more people to take part.
Finally, scientists will discover what it is about “Saturday Night Live’s” Pete Davidson that allows him to bag some of Hollywood’s biggest babes. In a related story, this newspaper will receive several complaints about me using the word “bag” to describe Pete’s seemingly magical ability to date the most gorgeous women on the
Monthly columnist Amy Fenster Brown is married to Jeff and has two teenage sons, Davis and Leo. She volunteers for several Jewish not-for-profi t groups. Fenster Brown is an Emmy Award-winning TV news writer and counts time with family and friends, talking and eating peanut butter among her hobbies.
JEWISH CELEBRITIES
Jewish writer/director Aaron Sorkin takes too many liberties in ‘Being the Ricardos’
BY NATE BLOOM
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT
In 1951, “I Love Lucy” was the highest rated show on TV. It co-starred Lucille Ball and her real-life husband, Desi Arnaz, as her TV-husband. On Dec. 22, Amazon Prime began streaming a bio-pic about the couple, entitled “Being the Ricardos” (the couple’s characters’ last name). It was written and directed by AARON SORKIN, 60.
The film has “crammed” three major crises the real Lucy and Desi faced into one dramatic week in 1951 (Desi’s infidelity; allegations that Lucy was a Communist; and how they would handle Lucy’s real-life pregnancy on TV.) The latter two crises actually happened over three years and Desi’s infidelity only ended when the couple split in 1960.
Yes, this time frame takes liberties. But it ‘ain’t nothing’ compared with the way Sorkin depicts JESS OPPENHEIMER (1913-88), the only real-life Jewish character who is a big character in the film. You would think, from the film, that Oppenheimer was “just” the producer of “I Love Lucy.” You would never know that he was a top comedy writer before he (1948) was hired by a radio show starring Lucille Ball. Oppenheimer’s funny scripts and character development turned the show into a hit. That radio show led CBS to offer Ball a TV show.
Again, you’d never know, from the film, that Oppenheimer created the premise of “I Love Lucy” (band leader married to a funny housewife) and he gave the show its name. Oppenheimer never says anything funny in the film, so you never really “getit” that he was not just the show’s head producer—he was the show’s head comedy writer and he co-wrote all the scripts for years (with Bob Carroll, Jr. and Madelyn Pugh. These two writers are in the film, but they never say anything funny, either).
Years ago, I talked to Oppenheimer’s son, GREGG OPPENHEIMER, now 70, after reading a detailed and funny autobiography started by Jess and finished, after his death, by Gregg. The father Gregg loved and admired was not the dour Jess Oppenheimer that Sorkin created to fit his dramatic purposes.
Also made-up is Ball’s dislike of JUDY HOLLIDAY (1921-65) based, supposedly, on jealousy. There’s a flashback scene in which Ball says that Holliday can only play only one role (a dumb blonde). Ball says this as she is being fired (1942) by her movie studio. However, Holliday’s first dumb blonde roles were in two back-to-back hit movies made much later (“Adam’s Rib” in 1949 and “Born Yesterday.” The latter earned Holliday the 1950 best actress Oscar).
“The Ricardos” cast includes LINDA LAVIN, 84, as the “older” Madelyn Pugh and JOHN RUBENSTEIN, 75, the son of the great pianist ARTHUR RUBENSTEIN, as the older Oppenheimer.
See CELEBRITIES on page 22
Aaron Sorkin (shown in a 2016 photo) wrote and directed ‘Being the Ricardos.’
PHOTO: DOMINIC DUSSEAULT/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
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