We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Piece​-​dye

by Cal Folger Day

/
  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    12" vinyl in a chipboard jacket affixed with limited risograph print of album artwork by Alanna Blake

    Includes unlimited streaming of Piece-dye via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days

      €25 EUR or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    compact disc with a kraft jacket affixed with risograph portion print of album artwork by Alanna Blake

    Includes unlimited streaming of Piece-dye via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days

      €15 EUR or more 

     

  • Cassette + Digital Album

    opaque orange tape cassette with a kraft jacket affixed with risograph portion print of album artwork by Alanna Blake

    Includes unlimited streaming of Piece-dye via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days

      €15 EUR or more 

     

  • 19x19" 2-color screenprint of original album artwork by Alanna Blake on a 22x22" 100% cotton bandana
    ships out within 7 days

      €20 EUR or more 

     

  • Other Apparel + Digital Album

    Distressed (haha) 100% cotton visor with adjustable velcro strap, neutral tone. Embroidered patch with "Piece-dye Tour 2022" against a backdrop of Sligo's Ben Bulben, designed by Cillian Finnerty, is hand-sewn onto the middle front.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Piece-dye via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days

      €20 EUR or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      €10 EUR  or more

     

1.
Act 1 05:00
And even tho you’re young enough to have a good memory Doesn’t work that way Yeah but anyway No I mean when I was babbling away I know that you know you’re trying to do this project I quite honestly don’t think my story kind of merits You know what I’m saying I mean you’ll have to do a whole lot of embellishing or something Because I this what what you probably have a completely Different peg that you’re hanging things on So you can direct your you know what I’m saying I mean I didn’t have to cross any mountains to get into the States My story would be multiplied by millions probably you know it’s this Why I say it’s your own creation which you can If this gives you a starting off point So be it Initially so um I was sort of living in you know we were kind of a bedsit situation and um I found there was nobody kind of around during the daytime So my only cousin just a I’ve forgotten what degree of cousin My father’s first cousin was a gentleman who lived in New York in New Jersey So he had a connection to somebody who ran an employment agency And set me up to meet her and so on So she sent me on an interview to this textile company That were looking for somebody in their weaving department You know they asked did I know how to weave Well having been through home economics we had had one project for weaving So I said yes But it didn’t matter because in the ‘50s large companies really trained their employees To whatever they wanted So you know I blended You know I was asked if I would get along with people You know or words to that effect I’d never been asked that question before So I said yes yeah I mean meekly I would’ve agreed Are you an axe murderer Possibly but Then they started me off in that department And what they would do is make small samples on a You know a handloom nothing like a large industrial type Uh to show customers what their design would look like Garment manufacturers The buyers would come in and look at our designs Cos we had a book of possibilities And they might want their own variation on one of them Or they might have brought in something entirely different that they wanted to interpret We had color books showing all the available colors All the whites browns blues you know et cetera et cetera They’d say well I like this but I need it closer to what I have here So that’s where our mills down south You know they could adapt our stuff to continue matching And when I um eventually was moved in that department Into the design area Well again it was a beginning step You know you were mentored throughout
2.
Act 2 03:48
I wasn’t even looking for a career The career happened And then I obviously found myself dealing with some of the I mean it was Mad Men time Eh so you eh you were dealing with a huge amount of sexism and whatnot Ehm on this but because of my background I was able to deal with it in my way Now it wasn’t necessarily the right way But I would say my line was I was brought up in a convent You know I’d stonewall You know I played the convent card til it was threadbare ha And then I played the I am married card until it was threadbare And I remember once in a place down south Eh they brought us to a disco or something I remember somebody dancing with me And asking to escort me to my room And I said I’m married So am I what difference does it make So I mean you’re dealing with a raft of this But fortunately I you know feet on the ground kind of person And I was able to deal with it from my point of view But it wasn’t probably Now I could never understand How some of the girls in my department Would complain to me about so and so Cos we had some of the worst male chauvinist you know In the sales force and management to some extent And couldn’t understand how they weren’t able To put these people down But some people evidently they would get offended To the point of tears and evidently didn’t know how to stop it you know So they would in latter years complain to management Have somebody up on the carpet about it But it hadn’t come to that really in my era But you know I’m delighted that women don’t have to deal with that now but I dealt with it and didn’t come up badly out of it I think the fact that I was uh um a woman from an unknown culture if you will From a different culture And I was treated with a lot of kid gloves you know what I mean And I think it A lot has to do with the person themselves As to who would try what on I remember once in a meeting a guy would’ve been senior to me Made some kind of personal remark And I said knock it off Chuck or I’ll start on you and he knocked it off And that would’ve been with me that kind of um behavior Would’ve only been a learning curve Cos I came up out here yes sir no sir haha should I jump sir
3.
Act 3 04:47
But eventually I would have to get on an aircraft Fly south look at all these designs and colors Uh to see how well they matched under different We had a light box there which showed daylight It’s ah fluorescent you all different possibilities of lighting So you’d have to make your best judgment As to the closest one for the customer Yeah so uh you I’d fly back and show it to the customer And they’d either say yes or no and then you’d get on the phone and say He wants it a little greyer or a little blue-er or a little redder Or whatever you know So it was required a good and a and an understanding Of what the customer is getting at Initially when I was with the company for the first few years We were in a ehm what I would call a shirting and dress Lightweight cotton blends type business You know and we’d make what they call plaids and checks and so on and so forth It wasn’t florals or prints or anything like that That was because Burlington was such a diversified company They had different divisions for all of these other aspects of textiles When a number of years had passed Ehm because of market conditions This division was merged into another division They had a more diversified range so I had to learn you know They had to teach what you call piece-dye Which would be plain dyes just a range of colors on different fabrics They would’ve had a print division as well Eh but the one I was in because of my background see don’t forget I went into This without a formal college degree in textiles I was just there hoping to get you know say a year or two out of this particular thing I wasn’t looking for a career But in the latter part of my um years with the initial company They sent me to FIT for and I went to night school So I did some study on the more technical aspects but This new division I went into had different requirements also I really just fit into the niche they had for me And ehm it was still classified as design that kind of thing So ehm then I’ve forgotten quite the sequence of years With that particular oh I know before I went to that other The piece-dye division Ehm we had merged with the denim division Because they just ehm you know they were cotton oriented See our mix would be cotton blends and eh they would’ve been Levi would’ve been and HD Lee would’ve been customers of ours for certain things Shirtings and you know all different things So when ehm we merged with the denim division They were you know bigger customers of ours
4.
Act 4 05:41
Once a month they’d have a fashion show In the Hilton or one of these hotels and so on So all the industry people came up And I remember laughing um well I didn’t but I wanted to One of the women who was addressing this Eh you know after-lunch crowd said And we have who have dedicated our lives to fashion I mean I mean if I have felt I felt a curse coming up If that’s all you had to say for yourself We who have dedicated our lives to fashion I’ve dedicated my life to earning a salary from fashion And some of them knew the women who went onto be Magazine editors and that kind of thing Truly those women did devote their entire being They became the persona who represented that Thing at you see I couldn’t make the jump because I’d been brought up here sensibly With feet on the ground so you know there was no way I mean you couldn’t ask me to pledge allegiance to something else Thank you very much I actually saw Helen Gurley Brown on the street once Talk about she was the woman who started Cosmopolitan And she was always preaching to women to Well her idea was that we had to be more womanly by catering to the men Anyway but I saw her on the street and she looked like a skeleton These women the tradition is they didn’t eat they’d eat a leaf of lettuce for lunch No woman can be too rich or too thin You know it’s amazing how gullible people in the fashion world are If somebody preaches the gospel kind of with Conviction so many people will buy it well people want to be told And they want to be told with authority But of course there also has to be a certain amount of solid base because People will find you out eventually If there isn’t but I mean you can get by with an awful lot of you know Hogwash too
5.
Act 5 02:38
So then Levi and HD Lee would’ve been the two biggest And so we spent a lot of time working You know I’d be flown out to see their Or they would come to New York to Seasonally to see the new range and so on and so forth They were San Francisco and HD Lee would be Kansas City Depending on the time of year there’s the Because it was a seasonal There’s a spring collection you know an autumn collection Whatever it is you call them The fashion business is cyclical you know And some of them do more ranges for certain seasons the month But we our design department worked a year ahead on developing color ranges Yeah so that’s why they would send us to Europe to see what was happening You know if you it was my career just happened Because if you know if I’d had a family I’d have been at home rearing my children Or maybe dipping a toe in the water as a part-time whatever But I was there longer than most people would be And with each time we merged with somebody Fingers crossed you know I was picked up you know in the next wave
6.
Act 6 03:31
We had a fashion lady over there Nicole She had been countess before they abolished titles in France But I mean you know things got slightly more ordinary as time went on You know as margins narrowed Sometimes I traveled with ehm she was a designer for H.D. Lee Cathy and um we had good we had good trips you know because You know obviously if you’ve got somebody you can share your perspective of And so on and so forth and wind up the boss between us Very naughty But then when times got tough then I was sent by myself And that became seriously hard work because you were you know We were supposed to buy samples and everything So here you were managing big luggage You know I mean it wasn’t it wasn’t the fun part No the early years I mean I paid in spades for any enjoyment I squeezed out of the early trips You know we stayed at five-star hotels I mean I would never have The Hassler in Rome you know And the Via Veneto you know we had ah you know We were living Thank you thank you thank you I had experience of things that never would have come my way You know um well I remember staying at the one at the Via Veneto oh Having your breakfast brought with a rose on the tray And when you step out on, the Of bed, ’twas on a white linen runner so it wouldn’t be Cos I mean the carpet could be centuries old you know Who knows It it I mean what I’d have never found out about it Had it not been
7.
Act 7 03:10
So I mean you might be back and forth Five or six times in a season Yeah my poor husband was abandoned And that’s why I went we retired I had such a guilt thing built up That I was you know here to cater You know so I didn’t join the golf club until he was gone You know that kind of thing You know because I felt I had so much to make up for If we had children it’d be different You know we probably would’ve stayed in the States But ehm in our case there was more of a draw Family reasons to come back here So ehm but it was the right decision certainly for me You know cos I found my roots which I never knew about Yeah I found and I play there’s a golf and gardening and yoga And all these things that I never had time for in my other life Well see this is me wherever you put me down I did what was required of me Whether I did the job or I did anything else You know when you leave a life One portion of your You know I’ve lived three segments of a life My life here growing up Life there as a married working woman And I’ve the retirement segment here And I thought I’d lose a grip on everything If I didn’t bring some material mm proof of what I’d done I’m serious it was I it seemed like a dream Yeah because everything here Your present life always takes over

about

“ You’re trying to do this project…
you’ll have to do a whole lot
of embellishing or something…
it’s your own creation ”

I met Irene (she pronounced it I-REE-nee) at a brunch – she was my husband’s mother’s second husband’s aunt, or my step great aunt-in-law. She was in her 80s and it turned out that when she’d moved to NYC from Sligo in 1958 and started temp work, she’d see a guy outside the office in a viking hat on 6th Avenue – “You’d see one of everything” she said. And I said “Oh wow that was Moondog” and she asked who he was and I played some of his music from my laptop and that’s how we became friendly.

I asked to interview her, and a few visits later we sat down in her kitchen and I recorded a conversation about her career as a textile designer with Burlington Industries. She had retired in 1991 as the vice president of the cotton blends division and returned to live in Ireland. Eventually I transcribed it and set most of that transcription to music.

Irene and I had very different temperaments, and opposite trajectories (she left Ireland for NYC, I left NYC for Ireland), but we were somehow on a mutual quest to see ourselves more clearly through our friendship. Some parts of her story fit into what I imagine as “the past” – the midcentury corporate ladder. But she also had a very brave embrace of abstraction and chaos that still comforts me. I like how surprised she was by how her own life had turned out.

credits

released June 3, 2022

An interview with Irene Nally of Sligo
set to music by Cal Folger Day

produced by Phil Christie
recorded by Stephen Dunne

recorded mostly live to cassette tape at Sonic Studios, Stoneybatter, Dublin in October 2019

Nick Boon: guitar
Phil Christie: keys, guitar, vocals
Cal Folger Day: keys, vocals
Daniel Fox: bass
Solamh Kelly: percussion
Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh: viola

Track 4 vocalists: Sorcha Jordan (featured), Lucy Bowen, Aoibhinn O'Dea, Orlagh Rynne

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Cal Folger Day Baltimore, Maryland

contact / help

Contact Cal Folger Day

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

Cal Folger Day recommends:

If you like Cal Folger Day, you may also like: