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Family keeps church leaders in stitches
BRUGES, Belgium (CNN) -- When Pope Paul II and other religious leaders need new wardrobes, Dirk Slabbinck's family often gets the calling.
For nearly a century, the Slabbinck workshop in Bruges has turned out elaborately embroidered clothing, tapestries and other ceremonial hangings for every Christian denomination, surviving war, depression and other worldly plagues.
The family also restores fabrics, often using real gold threads for priceless pieces that are hundreds of years old.
"We have to clean everything, and then we lay some paper on it," seamstress Myriam De Bracker says. "The pattern is traced onto new fabric, although as much of the old embroidery as possible is preserved."
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CNN's Patricia Kelly reports on a small family business that produces handmade clothes for the pope and Christian churches of every denomination worldwide.Mathias Slabbinck, sales manager, points proudly to an antique embroidery, a copy of a religious painting.
"We've calculated it cost about 4,800 man hours just to embroider this," he says. Such embroidery is still possible to do today, he adds, but labor costs would make cloth "painting" extremely expensive.
The company, which employs more than 60 people, was founded by Hendrik Slabbinck, an astute businessman who kept the business operating through World War II. Slabbinck asked several bishops to place fake orders so his employees could avoid working in German armaments factories, as so many of their countrymen were forced to do, says his grandson, Sales Manager Viktor Slabbinck.
The Slabbincks say business is booming, especially in orders from the United States and France, and wonder: Could a renewed interest in religion be behind the company's growing success?
Brussels Bureau Chief Patricia Kelley contributed to this report.
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