In 2004, Cleveland sculptor Steven Tatar, snooping around the city's garment district, snuck into the defunct Ohio Knitting Mills factory looking for a 20-foot-long I-beam for a project. Instead, he found Gary Rand winding down what had been a thriving family business. For three generations, peaking between 1947 and 1974, OKM had produced mainstream American fashion for such merchants as Pendleton, Sears and Roebuck, Montgomery Ward, and Saks. But the longtime garment manufacturer had seen the writing on the wall: American textile production had been eclipsed by outsourcing long ago.

So what to do with 10,000 capes, sweaters, skirts, shirts, and pants--not to mention piles and piles of swatches--that had amassed over the company's history? Presciently, Rand's father and grandfather had preserved samples of every OKM garment, whether it went into production or not. This meant tons of vintage clothing that no one had ever worn, perfectly preserved. What's more, the designs were brave, from the symmetrically bold to the downright dadaist. So while Tatar never found his I-beam, he did find one of the most unique design archives in America.

In their patterns and colors, these clothes, which Tatar--who acquired the rights to Rand's stock--sells at his Ohio Knitting Mills store on Smith Street in Brooklyn, evoke postwar exuberance, when design blasted back the ration-minded anxiety of the war years. Granted, some OKM designs are a bit hyperactive, if not color-blind. But even the goofier pieces reveal tremendous care and craftsmanship. "They're playful," Tatar says. "They're even naive, to be honest. But the textiles themselves are extremely sophisticated." The cuts, too, are throwbacks: The sweater vests are short and snappy, since men used to dress in high-waisted pants. The shirts are tailored slim. We're reminded of an evolutionary fact--not so long ago, the American was, for the most part, smaller, thinner, perhaps fitter. "It's archaeological," Tatar says. "It's social history. And yes, it also happens to be cool." --PAUL REYES

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