Article: French Rags make it to the White House - via new direct-sales route.

Did First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton really buy her clothes at a "trunk show?"

Well, not quite, but 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is ordering knitwear from French Rags, a custom-order garment maker based in West Los Angeles. And thereby, Ms. Clinton is helping a new type of clothing company emerge - one that bypasses retailers and sells to the public directly through a platoon of sales reps operating out of their homes.

"We are a vertically integrated company," said founder Brenda French, a British native who has spent most of her adult life in the American rag trade and launched French Rags in 1978. "Except for the rayon yarn we buy, we do everything else. ...

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