Houston fashion designer Christy Lynn in her Memorial Villages atelier and showroom.

A dress zipper seems like a small thing to stress over.

But if you are a Houston fashion designer and your shipment of sewing essentials, like zippers, thread, needles and buttons, is stuck off-coast somewhere outside China because of whiplash tariff policies, what do you do?

Danny Nguyen, who has designed men's suits, women's wear and bridal gowns locally since 2008, recently spent an entire day searching the city for a sturdy, invisible zipper to finish a client's custom dress.

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Without the correct zipper, there is no dress.

There's much talk about how tariffs will hit Houston's big industries, like oil and gas, but the city's cottage fashion industry cannot take another hard hit like this.

SEWING:

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