Entrepreneur of the week

Monica Levy

Monday,  September 19, 2005

After her mother passed away, sixteen year old Monica Levy left Jamaica in 1973 and came to live here in the Cayman Islands with relatives.

And through those early years in Jamaica, the young Monica had watched her mother sew and earn a living from the skill, which was to have an impact on her own career.

“Actually, all my life I can remember wanting to be a Home Economics teacher,” she said. “I especially loved cookery, and because of that, I wanted to teach that subject.”

But it wasn’t cooking but the world of fabrics where Monica was to make her living and ironically enough, she revealed: “I cannot sew. I never learned to sew.”

Super Stitch – Never short of beautiful ideas

A wide range of fabrics to choose from.


Style books on location from which to make your
selections.


Professional tailors and seamstresses on location.


Attractive trimmings.


Shopping for men too.


Accessories of all kinds

Despite the fact that she cannot sew Ms Levy is the brains behind ‘Super Stitch.” It is probably the largest enterprise of its kind on the Island, specialising in designing and producing custom-made garments and selling a variety of fabrics, trimmings and accessories.

Very often we hear about people who turn their early skills into a source of income, we hear far less about those who see a demand in the market that is not being met and set out to meet that demand, when they themselves don’t have the skill – in short a real entrepreneur.

When Ms Levy tells her story, the phrase “necessity is the mother of invention” comes easily to mind.

“Even now I cannot really sew,” she said.

“Since the time I got the idea for the business and started it up, I have simply not found a moment to spare for anything else.

“I started Super Stitch about fifteen years ago in my garage. I decided to move ahead the idea to make clothes for persons who needed the service because I had always found myself needing to have clothes made or altered. As well, I knew of so many persons who needed clothes, particularly designed for special occasions and were not able to get it done on Island.”

Before establishing the business Ms Levy had worked for government in the tourist industry and when she started her company she started small.
“I started out with only one sewing machine, one serge machine, three rolls of fabric and a few zippers and threads. I hired one dressmaker,” she recalled.

“The business at home did very well. It grew to the point where the traffic through the house was too much. Consequently, I made the move to Eastern Avenue. After only two years, the business outgrew the space we had there.

“Around that time Pasadora Place was being built and I made the move to secure the shop, that was seven years ago.”

Now Super Stitch is an operation that occupies two levels across two Units at Pasadora Place. There are fabrics and trimmings of all kinds and on the ground floor shoppers can choose shoes, hats, handbags, fashion jewellery and other accessories to go with the creations they have in mind for Super Stich to produce.

“Upstairs is where we do the manufacturing of the items,” explained Ms Levy.

“Now we have many more machines, dressmakers and tailors. When Super Stitch started to hold its own many years ago my vision was for Super Stitch to become a factory and export items. However, that route is not worth pursuing here in Cayman. 

“This is because we are heavily dependent on foreign labour and input costs are higher. With Miami so close by, our prices would not be competitive.”

However, one block on the factory idea has not stopped Ms Levy from bringing other visions to reality.

The fact is she will go down in history as the first entrepreneur here to create a Cayman fabric. Ms Levy said the idea of having fabric that bears imprints of things Caymanian came to her about two years ago.

“I had been toying with the idea for about two years. Throughout many years I found that tourists would come into the store asking for a Caymanian fabric and they were always disappointed when told that there was no such fabric.

“I have travelled to other Caribbean islands and found that they have fabric specially designed with things for which their country is well known. Once, an entire tour bus of tourists came asking for this and I had to tell them Cayman did not have that.

With an idea in mind she approached artist, Maureen Lazarus and commissioned her to do layouts.

“Finally we settled on a design that included drawings of stingrays, turtles, parrots, conch shells, iguanas and other items,” said Ms Levy.

“The templates and set up costs for printing the fabric were where the bulk of the costs were. An overseas company produced the fabric exclusively for Super Stitch.

“The fabric comes in three colours, red, white and blue. It can be used for many things, from uniforms in the tourist industry, souvenir dolls, clothes and other items.”

Having to purchase her supplies overseas, Ms Levy needs to travel regularly and as she loves to travel that is a real bonus.

“I travel because I must but also because I love to travel,” she said.

“One of my favourite destinations is Las Vegas. I like it because the city never seems to come to a stop. I also like to travel to travel to Panama. With the fresh fruits everywhere, Panama reminds me of Jamaica.”

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