In my novel Empire, I have drawn a character called Emma Macmillan. I have made her a liberated woman who is far away from the stereotype of the indolent memsahib. Emma establishes a school for native girls in Calcutta and then, after her marriage, takes to promoting Indian textiles to improve the lot of highly skilled Indian weavers, impoverished due to cheap Manchester piece goods.
I made Emma travel to different parts of northern and central India in search of special textiles and I have also shown that after a visit to England, Emma gets a brain wave of making standard readymade frocks and dresses for women who otherwise must stitch their garments on their own or get them made which was expensive. The year is 1886.
Emma's character is rooted in history so far as her school is concerned. After that, it was only my imagination.
Imagine my surprise when I came to read something similar that actually happened in 1889.
It is described in Outliers, the story of success by Malcolm Gladwell, Little, Brown and Company, 2008.
In chapter 5, lesson 3: The garment industry and meaningful work, Gladwell describes the journey of Louis and Regina Borgenicht, Polish immigrants to America in 1889. Louis has worked in a garment shop and Regina is a skilled seamstress. When they come to New York with one child and one more on its way, they have money to last for just a few weeks. Louis starts looking for work and notices that readymade garments of all types are available in abundance there. He realizes that they greatly add to the convenience of customers and are easy on their pockets. Readymade garments are the most important commodity he says to himself. He finds that readymade aprons are not available. So he and his wife start making them and selling them. One thing leads to another and both become manufacturers and suppliers of garments in due course of time.
Gladwell states that theirs was not an isolated story. There were many other Jewish immigrants who were similarly skilled and who became successful in American garment industry at around the turn of the 20th century. Being there at that time was the essential ingredient in their success.
What Gladwell has said about success and its prerequisites is riveting read of course.
Let me however, right now, gloat over how close my ideas about garments were to what actually happened. Of course, I had imagined India and Great Britain. Gladwell wrote about East Europe and USA. Still, the common thread made my day!
