Is NYC’s Garment District Unraveling?

New York City is one of the world’s great fashion capitals, and its Manhattan-focused Garment District has long been the axis upon which that reputation turned. The area, which roughly encompasses the streets between 35th Street and 40th Street, and the avenues between Broadway and Ninth, has been protected by strict zoning laws since 1987. But times have changed. New York City has lost 95% of its manufacturing workforce since its heyday in the 1950s, and a 2011 report from the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), a non-profit centered on economic growth in New York City, indicated that fashion manufacturing jobs in NYC had further declined 61% since 2001. Recently, the Garment District Alliance reported that “from March 2017 to March 2018, New York City’s apparel manufacturing industry shrunk by an additional 7.7%, a loss of approximately 1,000 jobs.” And as of August 2018, the AP estimated that only 5,000 garment manufacturing workers remained. Read more at Retail Dive.