In New York’s Garment District, you can finish a product from start to finish within a few-block radius. Designer Cindy Castro has her own atelier where her team sews in-house, and works with surrounding manufacturers (one pattern-maker is two blocks away; another is in the same building). “You’re able to make things within days because you have everything here,” she says.
Patricia Voto, founder of New York-based One/Of, can attest. “The Garment District is still one of the few places where you can find a pattern-maker, a pleater and a button supplier all in the same elevator ride,” she says. Voto’s own atelier is in the Upper East Side, but most of the pattern-makers, graders and sample rooms she relies on are in the Garment District (which runs for about 25 blocks, from Midtown’s 35th to 41st streets). “It’s practically our second home.”
Now, this fashion manufacturing hub — home to many New York brands, and one of the country’s last manufacturing districts — is under threat.
The latest threat comes from a new zoning bill that brands, factories and garment workers are pushing back against as it progresses through approvals. The Midtown South Mixed-Use Plan (MSMX) proposes an updated zoning framework for 42 blocks of Midtown South — where many fashion and manufacturing businesses currently operate — that will allow housing where it is currently prohibited due to industrial zoning. The proposal states that “by allowing housing alongside businesses, the plan will help Midtown thrive and give New Yorkers more opportunities to live near everything it has to offer”.
Industry workers and organisations are concerned that the plan will result in the displacement of production and manufacturing businesses, as well as brands that are headquartered in the area. “We feel it’s a direct attack on a community of artisans,” Castro says. Many of the Garment District’s employees are immigrants from everywhere from South America to Southeast Asia to China, making the impacted workers all the more vulnerable. “It feels like a direct target to the Latino community and to immigrants.”
The MSMX guide states that “the plan wouldn’t drive out garment and fashion businesses. They are allowed today and will continue to be allowed with MSMX.” But the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, which outlines the potential environmental and social impact of the proposed action, estimates that 114 garment industry businesses may be displaced thanks to rising rents. The proposal also removes the Special Garment Center District (A‑1) and its manufacturing preservation rules, which requires landlords to allocate a portion of their buildings to garment manufacturing. Without this, landlords may be incentivised to push existing tenants out for more lucrative ventures.
On 18 June, the city planning commission voted in favour of the bill. The same day, Garment District workers and advocates came together for a rally at 512 7th Avenue to advocate for reforms in the MSMX bill, to ensure that Garment District jobs are protected. The New York City Department of City Planning (DCP) did not respond to a request for comment.
Stephanie Suberville, founder and creative director of Heirlome, sees both sides. She lives in Manhattan; her kids attend public school; New York needs more housing, she says. But Suberville’s concerned that this will come at the expense of the city’s garment industry. “We all depend on each other — brands, fabric and trims stores, sample rooms and factories,” she says.
The reforms, as outlined in a letter from the The New York Fashion Workforce Development Coalition (NYFWDC), which includes organisations such as the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), Made in NYC and Closely Crafted, are designed to reframe the plan as an opportunity to strengthen the industry, instead of harming it.
The NYFWDC asks that the MSMX bill includes safeguards, such as: prioritising adaptive reuse over demolition; restoring and expanding workforce programmes; offering targeted tax relief for fashion-related businesses; and establishing a displacement relief fund for those still unable to stay in the area due to redevelopment.
Gigi Burris, founder of Gigi Burris Millinery and non-profit Closely Crafted, which advocates for preserving and sustaining craft in the American fashion industry, has seen it happen already. A multi-generational blocking factory she partners with used to be located in the Garment District, but was forced out during an earlier rezoning in 2018. They’re now in Bushwick, Brooklyn. “It’s challenging, because all of their clients have to transport all the way out to Bushwick,” says Burris.
Designers are speaking out online, too. On the Diotima Instagram account, designer Rachel Scott wrote: “The Garment District isn’t just part of our past but also the key to fashion’s future. Zoning changes could erase this hub of artistry and industry,” while advocating for viewers to sign the petition and contact local council members to ensure NYC fashion jobs, artisans and factories are protected in the bill. “Let’s keep craft at the heart of the city,” she added.
This call speaks to the wider threats to New York’s Garment District. Earlier this month, immigration raids in Los Angeles targeted the city’s garment workers. As raids ramp up in New York, the city’s manufacturers are concerned about their own safety. Workers are ageing, and rents are skyrocketing so high that businesses are struggling to stay put. Burris worries that the MSMX zoning plan will be the nail in the coffin for New York production. “If we lose the garment centre, we could lose New York as the epicentre of US luxury fashion,” she says. Suberville agrees: “Breaking it apart will destroy ‘Made in NYC’.”
Beyond zoning
The zoning regulation amplifies the struggles those operating in the Garment District are already facing: immigrant jobs are precarious, the workforce is ageing and rents are steeper than ever. All in all, businesses are struggling.
The potential rental price hikes as a result of MSMX mean businesses are now having to halt any plans for growth or expansion. Voto is waiting on any indication of tax breaks or financial guarantees before making any moves. “Small studios like ours need that certainty before we invest in new equipment or staff,” she says.
Rising rents have been pushing workers out for years, Voto continues, as businesses have struggled to recuperate post-pandemic. “In 12 years, I’ve seen the district shrink in real time,” she says, noting that the neighbourhood is running at a capacity far lower than pre-pandemic, when many businesses were forced to shutter. “The talent is still here; the question is whether we can keep enough affordable space so that talent has somewhere to plug in a sewing machine and get to work.”
Only now, talent is at risk as well. Following the news of immigration raids in LA targeting factories and garment workers in the city and reports of increased ICE presence in New York, workers and business owners are fearful. “A lot of people are afraid,” Castro says. “People are afraid of going to work.”
All the while, brands are trying their best to stay afloat, as workers stay home and consumers spend less. “The lack of funding, not having access to loans. I don’t have any generational wealth — I’m the only one in my family here,” Castro, who immigrated from Ecuador, says. In 2024, New York’s Garment District received $4.5 million in funding from the NY Forward programme, designed to boost the city’s fashion industry. But this one-off grant pales in comparison to more robust support businesses in cities like Paris and Milan receive in the form of tax credits, grants and educational programmes.
“It’s really hard, but at the same time we’re not going to stay quiet because we feel that our community is being targeted,” Castro says. Burris agrees. “We all are in the midst of running our own businesses, of running our own factories, of trying in a very volatile fashion climate to simply stay open,” she says. “To have to leave work and participate in something like this [protest] or to be concerned about having a roof to continue what we’re doing… it’s already hard enough, and then they’re going to make it harder.”
A rock and a hard place
Like the Los Angeles brands caught in the crosshairs of the administration’s immigration stance, New York designers and brands are now left in an evermore precarious position: high levies on international imports and shrinking possibilities for local manufacturing.
Suberville currently produces half of her collections in New York, with plans to ramp this up over the next year due to tariffs. She’s also in conversation with factories in LA. “The tariffs are bringing manufacturing jobs back to the city and this [bill] will cause many factories to close,” she says. “Where are we supposed to produce now?”
Local designers are choosing to remain hopeful. Voto is cautiously optimistic about the Garment District’s future. Over half of One/Of’s machinists and finishers are under 35, many from the city’s Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and Parsons. “We make a point of pairing them with our senior artisans at the workbench. Those seasoned hands pass on the couture-level techniques we expect, and the younger team get genuinely excited about the craft, not just the end product,” Voto says. But the district demands affordable spaces to maintain this incubation. “As always, it circles back to real estate: if affordable workshop space holds out, the talent pipeline will, too.”
Without this, though, there’s little incentive for younger people to want to enter the field, Burris concedes. “Without clear incentives, younger generations are not entering the trade, as it’s seen as somewhat volatile,” she explains. Suberville agrees, adding that, though she hasn’t felt the impact of ICE raids in New York on the Garment District as of yet, she expects this will make it harder for factories to hire young workers, as more people move away from manufacturing to ‘safer’ bets.
It’s also contingent on those with the know-how being allowed to remain and continue working in — and passing along — their craft. Alongside her brand, Castro is building out a training facility for women of colour and immigrants, to equip them with the knowledge and skills for the industry. But it’s a tough time to onboard talent.
Castro will keep organising and speaking up for those who can’t. She’ll keep sewing ‘Made by Immigrants’ garment tags onto her clothes. On Thursday, she’s hosting a ‘Made by Immigrants’ experience at her Garment District atelier, offering a glimpse into how her products are made. “We’re trying to show who makes your clothes, what’s in your clothes — there is a whole process and I’m glad that that process happens here in the Garment District.”
To keep this going, governance is needed. “I wish federal government and local government laws would work together to make this make sense,” Suberville says. “Are we trying to produce more in America or not? And if we are, why has the local government in New York City not supported us? And supported this?”
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