The American Fashion Industry New York Garment Area Is Facing A Change Of Fate.

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4 years later, the first lady chose the dress designed by Jason Wu, but the latter had no idea whether he could still stay in the place where the dress was born: No. 240 west of 35 street, Manhattan, New York.

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< p > here is the Garment District (clothing area) of New York, covering the whole area of the north of 34 street, the south of 42 street, and the extension of Fifth Avenue from west to Ninth Avenue.

A few kilometers away, the Lincoln center is ushering in the annual New York autumn and winter fashion week.

The real headquarters of the red carpet and T station are hidden here.

Garment District's craftsmen and < a href= "http://www.91se91.com/" target= "_blank" > designer "/a" are busy for this reason, suppliers and buyers intercourse.

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People who are familiar with Garment District will call it "the epitome of changes in the American fashion industry". This is the only area in the world that contains the entire fashion industry chain including design, plate making, dyeing, tailoring, decoration, sales and so on, and it is also the natural hall for designers. P

The two best fashion schools in New York are Parsons Institute of design and FIT.

Here is the collision between "charm" and "factory". You can see a Broadway star sneaking out like a spy, and the first lady just walked in.

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< p > but brilliance and labor pains always accompany.

Manhattan has always been playing a game of old bottles and new wine.

The atrophy of Garment District has become an indisputable fact. Now it is faced with the fate of changing direction and changing direction.

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< p > Garment District has always been the hotbed of the American dream of the outsiders.

Unlike the windows of other office buildings in Manhattan, the pre - war buildings with a full body of coffee are clearly marked by the industrial age, and the old, slow fan fans hang slowly with dim lights, like matchboxes filled with shops and workers working all day.

That's the unique lighting of the factory.

There are no smooth tables and rude assistants. It is actually producing a href= "http://www.91se91.com/" target= "_blank" > clothing < /a >, and in the central area of Manhattan.

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< p > at present, the space of Garment District is about 883 thousand square meters, only 139 thousand square meters are used for production.

The rise of factories from China and Southeast Asia is no less than the impact of Garment District on the invention of sewing machines for handicraftsmen.

Although there are still people who are sewing jeans all the time, studios and workshops can send more than a href= "http://www.91se91.com/" target= "_blank" > cloth < /a > and blueprints to China. One or two important processes are returned with giant containers.

Artisans are always at risk of losing their jobs.

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< p > over the past few years, many high-rise buildings have been sold, and developers and landlords have been waiting to complete the upgrading of the property brought about by the pformation.

Some NGO and technology companies have also entered the Garment District as "clothing area".

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< p > "most of the contractors in the building will be renewing their lease, but I will not rent the house to those small clothing stores."

Tony Malkin, the largest landlord in the region, said, "the location is so excellent that people only think of needles, lines and buttons. It's crazy."

But the designers, factory owners and small businesses who are in it naturally want to keep low rent, and the regional functions will not change.

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< p > the government is trying to redesign everything here, including moving it to New Jersey.

The removal of dangerous signals has made designers feel unprecedented pressure and they have gathered together.

Like any traditional street block, how do we define its future role for the shrinking Garment District? < /p >

The long debate and confrontation weakened the charm of P, and the streets were filled with old and dreary breath.

But for young designers, it has an unusual meaning.

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< p > Jason Wu is the best example.

After graduating from Parsons, he decided to take root in Garment District.

Factories, schools, good craftsmen, and large department store buyers from time to time, everything is here.

Jason Wu takes full advantage of all this.

When he graduated, he was an excellent designer, but here he explored the whole production process.

"I can only find a suitable manual sewing machine in a few hours, which can't be done anywhere else."

He even wrote on his own "a href=" http://www.91se91.com/ "target=" _blank "> clothing < /a > tag," this dress is hand spliced in New York, using advanced material. "

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< p > Parsons Design Institute attracts pilgrimages from young designers all over the world like Jason Wu.

Dean Simon Collinsd said, "we all advise students not to start their own businesses after graduation, but they will do so".

Entrepreneurship may be the tradition of Parsons, and those graduates who are self serving are now declaring "Marc Jacobs", "Donna Karan", "Michael Kors", "Anna Sui" and "Jason Wu".

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< p > "if a young designer wants to develop his career, New York is a good choice, not Paris or London."

Fern Mallis, founder of New York fashion week, told reporters.

For those designers who have just graduated from 10 design works and do not have much money, they will not be able to bear the cost of outsourcing to emerging markets.

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The story of < p > also belongs to the young age of Malaysia designer Yeohlee Teng.

When she graduated from high school, he did not choose London or Paris, and came to Parsons Design College in New York. In second years, he decided to drop out of school. "I wanted to have my own career."

On the first floor of her studio is a store. As the entrance to the two floor of the studio and reception area, a Chinese plate maker is busy cutting and making plates, and the corner is filled with colorful cloth.

On the other side of the street for five minutes, there are Stanley Pleating & Stitching Co, Inc and Regal Originals, Inc, which have been familiar with her for many years.

All this is her creation ecosystem.

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< p > "you never know where you are passing by."

Speaking of this, Yeohlee Teng was standing before a 17 story building on 36 street. It did not seem strange. But in the early twentieth Century, nearly 95% of the clothes in the United States were produced here.

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< p > 1920s is the real golden age of the whole Garment District. Workers from China, Mexico, Guatemala and Ecuador are working day and night to meet orders from all over the United States.

For half a century, these early emigrants have been robbed of their jobs.

Designers have sent design concepts to factories around the world, using cheap labor there to make ready-made garments.

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< p >, so the factories in these match boxes moved out, and the new migrant workers coming from far away had to find another way out.

According to the data provided by MadeinMidtown.org, the job opportunities of New York's garment manufacturing industry have dropped by 81.5% since 1980s.

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< p > change is always the theme of the city.

The earliest studio of Yeohlee Teng is located at the intersection of 20 streets and Fifth Avenue in the south of Garment District, where it was once called "Photography District" (photo area), and now it has become a forgotten corner, and there is also "Flower District" (flower area).

As for the "Meatpacking District" (meat reservoir area), it is not difficult to guess the way it used to be, but now who would think that it is a slaughterhouse? You may only remember Samantha in "sex and the city" once said, "I want to move to the meat reservoir area".

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< p > they all originate from the "Zoning" in the history of New York.

In 1987, the government stipulated that more than half of the land in Garment District would be used in garment factories to provide more employment opportunities for the city.

The function of Garment District has been disappearing more slowly.

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P, but Yeohlee Teng has always been worried about this. "If Grament District is not pformed, it will probably be the same fate as these neighborhoods."

This worry is not without reason.

Today, the rectangular phalanx has been surrounded by expensive office buildings, high-end hotels such as Hilton and Wenstin, new residential buildings and fashionable restaurants.

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"P" has always been the focus of discussion for property developers, owners and designers in the blocks.

It needs to successfully maintain communication with history and face the future.

It is bound to face a compromise between different interest groups, which is destined to be a difficult dialogue.

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< p > as the spokesperson of fashion designers, CEO Steven Kolb of Council of Fashion Designers of America (referred to as CFDA) has been involved in the project of "Zhongcheng manufacturing" from the very beginning.

Desigh Trust for Public Space (DTPS), a non-governmental organization, completed a joint report with it.

The report raises and answers a question, "do fashion industry really need Garment District?" < /p >

< p > for DTPS, the answer is surely yes.

"If the city still owns fashion manufacturing, designers of the creative class will stay in Garment District, where the creative cycle is short, the quality is controllable, and the cost is sometimes lower than that of outsourcing," said Caroline Bauer, the production and project assistant of the organization.

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< p > this report is more like a collective self-help.

When it was published in October 2012, the proposal to move Garment District to New Jersey was suspended.

The editor of the report Jerome Chou told the first financial weekly that "relocation is obviously very unreasonable.

After destroying the ecological texture of this area, it takes generations to rebuild.

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< p > blocking the relocation plan, it not only points out the value of fashion industry to the city, but at least 28% of the manufacturing industry is provided by the fashion industry, and the four pformation plans also describe the possible future of the region, and they are not replacing each other.

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< p > plan 1: because the total number of factories that are now in production in the building is less than 20%, it may be possible to produce more specialized works in the factory, but the scheme has obvious defects. The same building, the value of the factory will obviously be low.

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< p > programme two: like the movie industry, tax cuts are made for those who produce or sell locally made designers and shops.

Allow landlords to develop new space for commercial or residential use, three times the existing area.

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< p > programme three: similar to the first plan, all manufacturing industries will be moved to new skyscrapers, and a special fund and non-profit organization will be set up to manage, maintain and rebuild these properties, and keep the rent low.

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Plan four: by 2022, the "fashion street" will be built between the buildings, and there will be fashion shops at the bottom of high-rise buildings, and fashion shows on the streets. It sounds like P's idea.

Most importantly, this block should be expanded rather than shrunk.

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< p > another NGO Fashion Center Business Improvement District (BID) is more representative of the aspirations of developers and landlords. They chose Brand Union of advertising agencies to reconstruct the image of Garment District.

Nowadays, they are keen to call it "Fashion District" (Fashion District).

Their specific proposals will not be announced until the end of the year.

This company has successfully promoted the "Brand USA" project to attract more outsiders to travel, shop and do business in the United States.

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"You can't just consider the interests of the designers, there are many residents and owners around. The new restaurants and cafes have been here. Even the shops on the first floor of the factory building have been changed. Do you think the past concept can be carried," said Rupal Gadhia, P Brand Union executive director of strategy and research.

The effort to rename has naturally been criticized by some fashion people. "There is nothing wrong with the fashion district, but it seems to have written off history."

Fern Mallis says.

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Shi Jing, the brand manager of the P > American Apparel, said that Garment District would be frowning.

He has lived in New York for 3 years since 2009, and has been there 4 times. Every time he eats with a friend who watches the goods, he usually does not come.

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< p > "how to say that place..."

It's very complicated. "

In his impression, the buildings were divided into rooms of about 100 square meters, which were loosely seated by sewing workers, or covered with cloth, zippers and other accessories.

The toilet is very bad in this rare tea room, not to mention a doorman checking your identity.

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Eric Gural, chief executive officer of Newmark Knight Frank, a large commercial real estate company in management Garment District, said P, "if there are factories in the building, we really do not have the power to carefully maintain or replace new elevators".

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< p > Shi Jing, an outsider in the industry, will not think of history, nor will he have expectations of the environment.

The clothing wholesale store in Garment District looks like Cheap Road in Shanghai. You may find 50 dollars a foot of cloth and 10 dollars a zipper, you can also find many cheap goods.

In the eyes of laymen, this is chaos.

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< p > those reformed schemes continue to collide without conclusion and full of uncertainties.

At the same time, big brands like Vera Wang, Oscar de la Renta, which have grown from Garment District, can not wait for all the dust to settle, and have moved away from here.

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The adherence of P, such as Jason Wu and Yeohlee Teng, is more convinced of the enduring value here.

Fashion design is not a single game. From a creative idea to a complete production, a series of highly skilled professionals are needed. These small manufacturers, called "honeycomb" by CFDA chairman Diane von Furstenberg, are still in the whole Garment District.

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< p > Sunny Chung, wearing a lotus root blouse, is one of the stars.

She is engaged in the last part of clothing, embroidery, craffing, rivets, sequins or any nuances.

This shop, located at 256 street, 38 Avenue, eighth, is so popular that there will be a long queue outside the fashion week.

She has used her craft to decorate some big brands such as Marc Jacobs, Coach and Ralph Lauren. "I like the challenge of changing at the last moment. For this kind of customer, you want to do the best, you have to do the best."

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< p > from the existence of some old artists such as Sunny Chung, the Rag Bone Bone, the American brand Theory and Ralph Lauren also choose to make most of the costumes here.

Andrew Rosen, President of Theory, describes that when she first started her own brand, she spent as much time in the factory as she did in the studio. "I have to promise to produce what I want."

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< p > "it is difficult to explain what is called design. The more links we have, the better the standard.

There will always be mistakes in design. If you don't know how to fix it, no one will help you finish it, and the result will be totally different.

Yeohlee Teng said, "New York has always been a city full of opportunities".

In her view, the "Garment District" in Paris, Milan and London has long disappeared, and many of the newly graduated designers have to go to big brands to internship.

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"Charlie Lebess," P Brand Union's customer director, said that when you stay in the city for a long time, people can judge which area they live in through people's dressing style and behavior, and SOHO is a typical example.

The collection of the most famous artists in New York has now become the fastest place for housing prices in Manhattan. Although the government proposes that all the occupants should get the "artist certification" issued by the government, the high rent has long been completed, and some artists can only move the studio to Chelsea.

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Prior to "P", Germany's famous "a href=" http://www.91se91.com/ "target=" _blank "textile" /a "machine manufacturer Stoll GmbH & Co opened the" fashion and technology center "on 250 west side of 39 street.

"Yes, we sell machines," said Beth Hofer, a senior manager here. "But it also wants to be a bridge between designers and manufacturers. I don't want to see" made in America "as a by-product, but I hope it is a necessity.

Today's young designers are proud that their products can be produced in the United States. "

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< p > the new way of life is also emerging.

"Just as eating local food is becoming popular now, wearing locally made clothes will also become a trend.

Everything can be changed. "

Yeohlee Teng said, "when people come to the store and see my designs, they know that they are doing it in another street. It feels good.

I regard my shop as a door for people to understand Garment District. "

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