New York’s famed Garment District, also known as the city's Fashion Center, houses more fashion brand headquarters than London, Milan and Paris combined. 850, to be exact.
All that’s in peril, however, as Manhattan rents soar and developers gobble up midtown real estate for more hotels and condos. NYC landlords are limiting rental leases to one year in anticipation of moving in as the city contemplates rezoning.
A group of high-profile designers including Michael Kors, Anna Sui, Narcisco Rodriguez, Nicole Miller, Nanette Lepore, and Diane von Furstenberg, are lending their clout to support the “Save the Garment Center” movement to keep the fashion industry alive and thriving in New York.
They're banding together to promote the campaign's new website, MadeInMidtown.org (which includes a map of brands in the district), and a temporary pop-up store that just opened at the Port Authority terminal, both designed to show why the industry's health is vital to New York.
“While the garment industry has been intrinsically linked to the cultural identity of the city, its inner workings have never been transparent. This is an opportunity for the public to understand and appreciate the process of how clothes are created and how they end up on our backs,” says designer Yeohlee Teng.
The Port Authority exhibition, sponsored by the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) and the Design Trust for Public Space, combines photos, 3D images, and interviews with fashion icons to illustrate the history and the impending extinction of the famed district.
“Examining the fashion industry through an urban design lens will reveal the network of people and places — trim and button stores, pattern makers, elite design ateliers — that support innovation and enable our city to retain its identity as the fashion capital of the world,” said Deborah Marton, executive director of the Design Trust.
During the 20th century, about 95% of all garments sold in the United States were locally made. That percent has fallen to 5% today. “
We won’t be able to have start-up fashion businesses without the Garment District,” comments Lepore’s husband and company president, Robert Savage. “Young designers and the future of the city as a fashion capital are at stake here.”
Fashion designer Anna Sui, a Parsons School of Design graduate renowned worldwide for her signature bohemian designs, has lived and worked in the Garment District for more than 30 years. “This garment was sewn on 39th Street and buttons were applied around the corner on 38th Street," she tells Metro. "The Garment District is where I built my business.”
Although no longer the hub of mass manufacturing, the Garment District has evolved, according to Marton: “Its primary product is innovation now. The role has changed, but it’s still crucial. It’s a research and development hub, a silicon valley for clothes.”
Nanette Lepore’s personal blog, “Save the Garment Center,” takes the issue up a notch – beyond zoning and real estate – to the irreplaceable connection between our past and the future.
“I often think about the impact my family craftsmanship had on me," she blogged. "It gave me the tools I need to create and be fearless without limitations. Knowing that one has the potential to build something from a pile of raw materials is empowering. It's a gift that our children might not receive.”
It's not just fashion brands that are affected, but global media brands.
Conde Nast, home to fashion bible Vogue, is close by in Times Square, while HBO is headquartered on the border of the Garment District and Times Square. That may explain while it helped fund a 2009 must-see documentary on the subject, Shmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags.
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