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After 70 years, there's not a stitch left to sew By Yigal Hai Tags: Tel Aviv Last week another symbol of old Tel Aviv disappeared from the landscape: the first button and sewing goods store in Tel Aviv, run for 73 years by the Berlinsky family at 4 Shlomo Hamelech Street, at the corner of King George, has closed its doors. The contents of the shop were removed, and construction workers are renovating it and turning it into an ordinary apartment. Berlinsky's little button shop suffered the same fate as the small grocery stores which are gradually disappearing from the big cities, as well as the watch repair shops, the upholsterers, and the shoemakers. Advertisement Moshe Berlinsky, 87, ran the shop for 70 years. Berlinsky, then a boy of 12, immigrated to Israel from Poland with his parents and his sister in 1933. The family initially lived in Haifa, but two years later they moved to Florentine Street in Tel Aviv. The father, David Berlinsky, opened the shop and at first specialized in the sale of hooks and eyes. "I helped out here and there, and when I turned 17 I took over the business," says Moshe. The son was knowledgeable about fashion, and involved in the city's social and cultural life. Under his administration the shop expanded, and one could also find on the shelves "various types of ribbons and threads, special pins, all kinds of decorations, zippers and mainly buttons of all sorts, all from Europe," he says. The seamstresses and tailors of the period, like the major fashion salons - including that of top fashion designer Lola Beer, who dressed the wives of prime ministers and presidents - discovered the enchanting shop and became customers. "The business became better known," says Berlinsky. "The customers simply relied on me. A person would enter the shop and I would suit the accessories to his personality, based on my impression from his appearance. I didn't give him just any old thing that I wanted to get rid of. There were also cases when I said honestly to customers 'You don't have to replace this button.' I didn't sell accessories to the major customers before I saw the fabric from which the item of clothing would be made." The shop operated from 8 AM to 7 PM, but Berlinsky says that during its good days he worked until morning preparing orders. Regarding the area where the shop is located, which is now the center of the bustling city, he says: "The area was full of vineyards. During those days not a single car passed, and we would play soccer here. At 3 AM caravans of camels belonging to the residents of the Arab village Somail would pass through here, bringing fruits and vegetables to the Carmel market." 'People don't go to a seamstress anymore' Activity in the shop declined during the past decade. "They started to sell cheap ready-to-wear clothes," explains Berlinsky. "People no longer go to a seamstress, and there are not many professional tailors any more, nor does anyone study tailoring. Why should a person pay NIS 3,000 for a suit made by a tailor when he can buy a ready-to-wear suit for NIS 150?" The maintenance expenses of the shop, mainly the arnona (property tax), also increased steadily. "For a month or two in the winter income covered expenses," says Berlinsky. "But in the summer in Tel Aviv people wear a tank top and shorts, and therefore there wasn't much income. They collect the same arnona here as from a shop on Allenby Street. At City Hall they told me 'You're not doing well? Close up.'" Berlinsky reduced the store hours. In recent months he opened at 11 AM and closed at 3 PM, until he decided that the time had come to end this chapter of Tel Aviv fashion history. "There was no traffic, and I'm beginning to feel my age," he points out. His 70-year-old wife, Hannah, recalls nostalgically the days of yore. "There were times when the shop was famous, thanks to Moshe's talent for finding the right button for each item of clothing," she says. "Today people no longer sew clothes, so there's no demand. I know that during the past year another three button stores closed in Tel Aviv. In Bnei Brak, on the other hand, button stores are still doing well, because there they still sew clothes." Berlinsky, father of two daughters and grandfather of four, lives right opposite his shop. Now he observes the renovations, and mainly rests from decades of hard work. He still smokes several Europa cigarettes a day, but makes sure to walk to maintain his health. He gave the equipment and the merchandise that still remained in the shop to the owner of a warehouse for second-hand items. "I wanted to close already, and I gave him all the buttons for a few pennies," he says. "Of the button shops that opened before the establishment of the state, my shop is the last one to close. I really loved this work," sums up Berlinsky. "He didn't love the work," says his wife, correcting him. "He was addicted to it." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Sex, lies and videotape 3 kibbutz residents suspected of filming themselves sexually assaulting Danish tourists. Big brother is watching An IDF soldier has been jailed for posting sensitive photos on Facebook.

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