shmatte

plural shmattes · alternative schmatte · alternative schmata · alternative schmatta · alternative schmate · alternative schmutter · alternative shmatta

1. A rag.
2. An old or dirty article of clothing.
3. slangfashion industrybusinessAny item of clothing.

   I said, Why am I in the shmatte business? Mr. Kimmel said of his beginners luck.

   2007 December 12, David M. Halbfinger, “A Film Producer Guided More by His Heart Than by His Calculator”, in New York Times

   2 more examples

   She skipped onto a minimally decorated stage in a pale salmon pink schmate covered in bows, loose-fitting and obviously filled with surprises.

   1983 April 9, Walta Borawski, “Midler in Boston”, in Gay Community News, page 12

   In addition to having the barely perceptible but definitely present scummy vibe of an early 20th-century schmatte business, it was like the ultimate perversion of the male literary impulse.

   2020, Emily Segal, Mercury Retrograde, New York: Deluge Books, →ISBN