INTIMATE APPAREL - (Opening Night Gala)

New York circa 1905 is a time and place where rigid social divides along the lines of race, religion, and class exist alongside a burgeoning population of immigrants from abroad and people from all over the U.S., who have moved to the city to seek their fortunes, bringing diversity, excitement, and change. Esther Mills, a skilled African American seamstress, is able to navigate this changing, dangerous world with her needle and thread, as her talents are much in demand: she sews the finest and most decadent intimate apparel for customers who span the spectrum of social class, from refined Fifth Avenue wives to prostitutes in the racy Tenderloin district. A virtuous, hard-working woman, with a dream of saving enough money to open her own beauty parlor, Esther has kept her nose to the grindstone for eighteen years, but ends up feeling as if life is passing her by. Romance beckons…