all Oral History
October 21, 1986

Rita Blasser

Rita's parents began in the millinery trade, running a millinery shop in New York both before and after they married. After the 1929 crash, her father went to work in women's clothing, deciding that wearable apparel offered a better living than hats, which he feared might fashionably fade. The family arrived in Dallas in 1939, prompted by her mother's sister and an uncle who had settled there and fallen in love with the city. Her father had never wanted to raise children in New York, and when the uncle fell ill and called for help, the family packed up their belongings and drove south to build a new life.

Rita's father launched what became the Sidran Company on very little money, starting with plain tailored blouses that he carried personally to Dallas department stores such as A. Harris, Sanger Brothers, Titche-Goettinger, and E.M. Kahn. The business grew quickly on a cash basis, adding pleated skirts, gored skirts, play clothes, and shirt styles, and pioneering fast delivery and the use of cotton in fashion. Ben Gold joined for a time as a partner before they parted, with Gold keeping the Nardis name. During the war the firm made army jackets and other government supply items, and opened factories in small Texas towns. At its height the company employed some 800 people across several factories.

Rita married and raised children before returning to the firm as a designer in the late 1940s, a role she held for about twelve years. She later studied fashion design at SMU and taught at North Texas. She recalled her father's unusual practice of guaranteeing workers a year of steady wages, and described the close, family-like community of early Dallas manufacturers who shared supplies and socialized together despite differences in wealth. She spoke of Dallas growing into one of the largest apparel markets in the nation, and reflected with pride on her family's part in that history, urging that this largely unstudied industry be researched and recorded.

This part of the story remains uncertain.