New York City is arguably the fashion capital of the world and has at its center the world-famous Garment District, a downtown neighborhood encompassing a square mile of densely concentrated fashion design and manufacturing businesses, including some of the most recognized brands in the world. Read on to learn more about this vibrant historical landmark.
- The New York Garment District, named for its dense concentration of fashion design and manufacturing businesses, is also known as the New York Garment Center, New York Fashion District, or New York Fashion Center.
- New York’s Garment District is located on the west side of downtown Manhattan, between Fifth and Ninth Avenues and between 34th and 42nd.North Dakota Streets and houses most of the city’s showrooms and the main fashion venues.
- The New York Garment District is globally recognized as the center of fashion design and manufacturing, within the city that is lauded as the fashion capital of the world with a revenue stream of $ 15 billion per year. New York’s Garment District boasts countless top designer houses and fashion brands within a one-square-mile radius.
- New York’s Garment District covers all aspects of the fashion process, from design and production to wholesaling, and has the densest concentration of fashion businesses in a single district in the world.
- Over the past 50 years, New York’s apparel manufacturing sector has experienced a decline within the Fashion District due to the increased use of less expensive foreign labor that has taken a dominant role in manufacturing in the district. .
- New York first assumed its role as the center of the nation’s garment industry by producing clothing for slaves working on southern plantations. It seems that plantation owners found it more efficient to buy clothes from New York producers than to have slaves spend time and work making the clothes themselves.
- The need for thousands of soldiers’ uniforms made during the American Civil War helped the garment industry expand even further. The fact that more and more Americans were buying their clothes rather than making them also helped the garment industry, and by the late 1860s most Americans were buying their clothes rather than making it themselves.
- By 1880, New York was producing more clothing than the next four competitive cities combined, and by 1910, 70% of the nation’s women’s clothing and 40% of men’s was produced in New York.
- Members of the New York fashion industry, including designers Nanette Lapore and Anna Sui, created Save the Garment Center to preserve the concentration of businesses related to the fashion industry in the district. They say housing pressures are driving clothing companies out of their homes in the district where they have been established for more than a century. They also oppose the easing of New York’s zoning laws that will allow more offices in the area.
- The New York Garment District is home to the Fashion Walk of Fame, the only permanent monument dedicated to American fashion. Modeled after the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, the Fashion Walk of Fame celebrates excellence in design by honoring New York designers who have made a significant and lasting impact on the way they are you saw the world. Members of the Walk of Fame, located on 7th Avenue, include designers Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, Halston, Calvin Klein, Oscar de la Renta, Betsey Johnson and Diane von Furstenberg.