The Garment District is a neighborhood located in the Midtown Manhattan. The dense concentration of fashion-related uses give the neighborhood—which is generally considered to lie between Fifth Avenue and Ninth Avenue, from 34th to 42nd Street—its name. The Garment District has been known since the early 20th century as the center for fashion manufacturing and fashion design. New York City is arguably the fashion capital of the United States and the entire world. The industry based there generates over $14 billion in annual sales, and sets design trends which are mirrored worldwide.
Less than one square mile in area, the neighborhood is home to the majority of New York’s showrooms and to numerous major fashion labels, their production facilities, warehouses, showrooms, and suppliers of fabric and materials. Many in the industry allege that this dense concentration of talent, entrepreneurship and supply stores functions like an ecosystem in which each of the parts help sustain the whole. No other city has a comparable concentration of fashion businesses and talent in a single district.
While historically known as the center of textile manufacturing, global trends have changed the way the fashion industry in the Garment District functions. Over the last 50 years, New York’s garment manufacturing sector has experienced a steady decline within the City overall and within the Fashion District specifically. This has occurred as a result of domestic manufacturers becoming less competitive in the global marketplace. Foreign labor pools have taken a dominant role in manufacturing due to their significantly lower costs. Advancements in technology will only make the world manufacturing arena more competitive. Additionally, barriers to domestic production continue to pressure the industry.
The decline of the manufacturing sector has proven to be a serious problem for the Garment District. In 1987, the Special Garment Center District zoning (SGCD) was enacted by the City to help preserve garment manufacturing. The zoning places manufacturing use restrictions on large portions of the district in an effort to keep manufacturing rents affordable. However, the City’s use of zoning as a job retention tool did not achieve its goal, and manufacturing has continued to decline at the same pace after the zoning was enacted as it did before the preservation measures were in place. This issue has been visited and revisited by policy makers, fashion industry representatives, manufacturing and union representatives and owners of property in the district, but the fate of the district remains uncertain.
