: 1256310316

On Monday evening, Woodhaven resident Joe Raico sat in his living room with his wife and neighbors and saw his own personal story play out on his television set.

“I watched my whole life pass by me in a 75-minute movie” Raico said. “I was overwhelmed.”

Raico was the “thread that pulled together” a documentary that premiered on HBO called “Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags.” The film, which was created by Mark Levin, is about the downfall of the American garment industry, which manufactured 95 percent of American clothing in 1965 and now only creates 5 percent of the clothes we wear. The film chronicled Raico’s 40-year journey as a garment cutter in the industry and also featured the end of his career after being bought out from his job at Liz Claiborne.

“It just was a tapestry that he put together and I think he put it together brilliantly,” Raico said. “He hit every rung of the ladder.”

The film depicted the garment industry as a microcosm of the entire American economy – where many jobs that once allowed immigrants to rise to the middle class have now been sent overseas - eliminating the middle class and dividing the United States into haves and have-nots.

Raico, 64, the son of an Italian father and a Jewish mother, hailed from a long line of garment workers and started as an apprentice in 1964. Throughout the course of his career, he worked for a number of designers including Russ Togs, Ellen Tracy, Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren. Raico fondly recalled the putting his “heart and soul” into each garment; the way members of the garment industry gathered together as a community on 39th street in Manhattan each day; and the struggles and triumphs of raising oneself into the middle class through the garment industry, what he said served as “a doorway to a decent living.”

“It’s a different world and I don’t think it’s all that better to be honest with you,” Raico said. “They always say that about older people, that they say ‘the past was always better.’ But it was.”

Raico was forced into early retirement in 2008 and maintains, “I had a good couple of years in me.” He would have continued working if he had the chance. Raico and his wife have three grown children and two grandchildren. Although retired, Raico serves as a passionate union activist and the president of Local 10 of Workers United. He said he hopes the film will raise awareness about the direction in which the country is heading.

“It’s about working people and as long as you keep eliminating jobs and don’t manufacture anything we’re going to end up a third world country,” he said. “I hope we can plug the dike with Schmatta.”

Reach Reporter Kaitlyn Kilmetis at kkilmetis@queenstribune.com, or (718) 357-7400, Ext. 128.