This once-popular Big Apple industry may be wilting, but one business is still blooming.
Over a century ago, a bustling Midtown neighborhood was home to an abundance of textile manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers — including dozens of artificial flower makers.
“The Garment District was thriving, it was alive — hundreds of thousands of people here manufacturing things,” Adam Brand, owner of fabric floral brand M&S Schmalberg, told The Post.
Now, in the heart of New York’s fashion industry, Brand’s is the only artificial blossom producer left.
“Today, I know one feather guy, and we’re the last flower guys,” he said.
The fourth-generation, family-owned and -operated business creates custom fabric blooms by hand in its West 36th Street workshop, where florals seen on red carpets, runways and the big screen have been crafted for 109 years.
M&S Schmalberg has created faux flowers for some of the biggest names in fashion — Tory Burch, Hermès, Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera, to name a few — and worn by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Gwen Stefani, Paris Hilton, Uma Thurman and Selena Gomez.
The company even worked with Vera Wang to create what the brand calls the “Frankenstein Flower,” a blossom comprised of various die-cut petals, fastened to dresses worn by Gwen Stefani and Emily Ratajkowski.
The family’s florals can also be spotted on the screen; in “And Just Like That,” Sarah Jessica Parker donned M&S Schmalberg flowers, and the company produced an estimated 1,500 fabric blossoms for Season 2 of Netflix’s “Bridgerton.”
But Brand, who inherited the company from his father, didn’t always appreciate the budding business.
“My dad was the flower man, and it’s all he talked about: flowers, flowers,” Brand, 41, said.
After surviving the Holocaust, Brand’s grandfather, Harold, moved to New York City and lived with his family members, Sam and Morris Schmalberg, while working at the flower factory. Harold eventually purchased the operation, passing it down to his son, Warren, who bestowed the family institution on Brand.
“There’s three people that have been working here over 35 years, one of which has been here longer than I’ve been alive,” Brand said.
To craft the artificial flowers, the fabric of choice is starched and stretched out to dry, then die cut and embossed to create shape and body using one of the hundreds of vintage molds, many of which are more than 100 years old.
To make the final product, the team nimbly applies a dot of glue with their pinkies and either folds the petals to create a three-dimensional blossom or pulls a plastic stamen through the center of the flower.
While a simple custom blossom starts at $36, the more elaborate the creation, the pricier it is — with some costing hundreds of dollars for one.
Brand’s most expensive to date was for Marc Jacobs, who dressed Paris Hilton for the 2023 Met Gala. He requested a black leather camellia adorned with 1,000 hand-placed Swarovski crystals, which Hilton wore on her neck.
“I don’t remember how much it was, but I remember it being a lot,” Brand said.
But M&S Schmalberg also takes one-off walk-in requests. Swedish textile designer Anneli Berntsson said she made it a point to visit the workshop to buy a few flowers while visiting the city, telling The Post she bought “more than I thought I would buy, but probably less, much less, than I wanted.”
Customers like Berntsson are common nowadays, as walk-in requests have become “a big part of the evolution of the business,” said Brand, who also offers around 20 workshop tours per week.
They also sell fabric flowers through online sources like Amazon or Etsy.
“If you told my grandpa we were selling a thousand flowers a year to strangers on the internet for $10, $20, $30, $40 each, he would think that’s pretty cool,” Brand said.
Brand’s trick to keeping afloat for more than a century is never turning away customers — and a bit of “magic juju,” he said.
“Right now, we have work, we’re in a good place, it’s all right. [But] I’ve seen plenty of years where we had no work and it was really concerning,” he added.
“And there would always be something that would show up: Disney would order 5,000 flowers right at that dire moment, or Vera Wang would reach out.”
Sometimes, Brand only receives requests mere weeks in advance, recalling the 2023 Met Gala honoring Karl Lagerfeld when, just a month ahead of fashion’s biggest night, M&S Schmalberg had yet to craft any fabric florals for the event.
“When it was all said and done, 17 different celebrities [were] wearing our stuff,” he said.
As to whether his two young daughters — and his third on the way — will have any desire to take over the family business, Brand isn’t sure. He’d be happy if M&S Schmalberg were still around by then.
“Us existing in five, 10, 20 years would be an accomplishment in this world of AI and tech,” he said. “And here we are, die cutting and pressing flower petals.”
