The number of people employed in fashion-related jobs in New York City has plunged from 182,000 in 2014 to an estimated 129,000 this year — a decline of almost 30%.
Students receiving fashion degrees at the Fashion Institute of Technology, the Pratt Institute and the Parsons School of Design have also dropped by almost a third from 3,826 in 2016 to 2,668 in 2022.
And young designers who do try to make it in New York are finding it increasingly difficult because of the city’s high cost of doing business and failed efforts to create incubators and accelerators to help fashion ventures get established, among other factors.
On top of it all, the industry showcase known as New York Fashion Week has lost much of its juice as a place for emerging designers to get noticed.
New York City’s role as the capital of fashion is fraying, according to an in-depth study released Wednesday by the Partnership for New York City and timed for the start of Fashion Week on Friday. The report outlines the problems afflicting the industry and offers recommendations that could re-establish fashion’s importance to the city and provide help for young designers, focusing on encouraging private sector commitments rather than government initiatives.
“Most of the people from industry still believe in New York and believe that we are the center of innovation in fashion,” said Kathryn Wylde, President and CEO of the Partnership. “The question is how do we keep it that way.”
Of course, crucial will be whether the report leads industry leaders to action.
“These ideas can further enhance the industry but they are only as good as the people or resources that can make them happen. The real test is who is stepping up,” said Steven Kolb, CEO of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
Not Made in NYC
The report lays out the global economic trends that have made New York less important.
“New York City is not going to be able to fix the fact the fashion industry writ large has been completely disrupted over the past decade especially by the low cost of labor in the Far East and the emergence of fast fashion,” said Alicia Glen, deputy mayor for economic development under former Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The migration of virtually all manufacturing abroad lessened the importance of companies and designers being based in New York.
Social media influencers, who can gain a following from virtually anywhere in the world, have also created a rival to New York City-based tastemakers including the famous fashion magazines.
The rise of e-commerce eroded the importance of both New York’s big department stores and cutting edge specialty retailers. Now-shuttered stores like Henri Bendel and especially Barney’s, which closed in 2020, served as launching pads for emerging designers and attracted buyers from all over the country who needed to keep up with the latest trends.
“Who knew Barney’s was so important,” said Wylde.
As the decline in fashion degrees shows, fewer people see New York as the best way into the industry.
Immigration restrictions imposed in the Trump Administration have made it hard for international students to get a visa to study in the U.S. and then stay here for jobs. In addition, opportunities for those who graduate have diminished as well. Once-dominant companies like Liz Claiborne, which practically dictated what women wore to work, no longer exist.
Tapestry, the city’s largest fashion company with $6.6 billion in sales, is trying to merge with rival Capri, owner of the Michael Kors brand, to become big enough to compete with the giant fashion conglomerates like LVMH. The Federal Trade Commission, however, sued to block the deal on grounds it would hurt employees of both companies.
Talent Exodus
Meanwhile, young designers here have not been able to scale up their companies. Since 2013, the only fashion entrants to reach $250 million in sales are located in either Los Angeles or San Francisco.
Changes to New York Fashion Week, which left Bryant Park in 2009 and is now spread out in various Manhattan locations, has created logistical difficulties that result in less media coverage and fewer people seeking out young talent. The report notes that in the past famed American brands such as Oscar de La Renta, Ralph Lauren, Diane von Furstenberg and Donna Karan launched during Fashion Week.
Maybe most important, high-profile efforts to help young designers have failed.
An incubator established by the Council of Fashion Designers in 2009, set up to help 10 businesses at a time, closed in 2018 because it didn’t have enough funds to pay the rent. Pratt Institute’s Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator, originally funded by Mayor Eric Adams when he was Brooklyn borough president, New York State, and Pratt, lasted only five years and closed when it couldn’t develop a sustainable business model or attract private-sector funding.
The administrations of former mayors Mike Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio had a major focus on the industry. Bloomberg focused on trying to strengthen industry partnerships, said Eric Gertler, who worked in economic development in both city and state government and is now a media executive.
The de Blasio administration worked to move what was left of manufacturing in Manhattan’s Garment Center to Sunset Park, Brooklyn, a plan disrupted by COVID. It also tried to use city money to leverage private funds to provide capital for emerging designers, said Glen.
Curated Storefronts
The report offers five major recommendations, some of which are likely to see pushback from key industry players.
The most important step, the report argues, is to create a coalition of fashion leaders that could build consensus behind a plan to restore the industry’s prominence. The Council of Fashion Designers earlier this year approached the administration of Mayor Eric Adams to create some sort of industry advisory group to advise the administration.
The coalition would then establish an accelerator, where businesses are provided mentoring and cheap space, to help young designers expand their business that has the support of fashion companies and others in the industry that other attempts at incubators did not.
It also calls for creating a designer campus in a central location to provide space for young fashion industry creators. To avoid the missteps of previous ventures, it would be run by an experienced incubator operator and start with strong industry support.
“A central design campus could be huge because so many emerging designers who need a place to work and need to be provided resources to support them, said Deirdre Quinn, founder and CEO of the women-focused clothing company Lafayette 148, which launched in SoHo in 1996 and is now based at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
She moved to Brooklyn because it is less costly than Manhattan, and wonders whether Manhattan is necessarily the right place.
To fill the gap created by the loss of retailers like Barneys, the coalition would spur the creation of curated storefronts where designers could show off their work and supplement that with a virtual storefront.
The report recommends the design schools strengthen their ties to industry.
And it puts a major emphasis on overhauling New York Fashion Week and reducing its cost for new designers, which is estimated at $125,000 to $300,000. Drawing on the models provided by South by Southwest and the Sundance Festival, the report recommends key events held at a single location, offering special hotel rates and other discounts to bring back European media representatives and creating special events that would attract attention, as a 2024 Dior Fashion Show at the Brooklyn Museum did.
Kolb of the Council of Fashion Designers, which owns Fashion Week, rejects the idea that its impact has been diminished.
“We just struck a partnership with Rockefeller Center to stream parts of Fashion Week,” he said. “The show has changed as have shows in other cities. People sometimes get nostalgic for the 1980s.”
Glen would add to that list efforts to continue to support small scale modern manufacturing so that new companies could have places to both test out their designs and be able to produce limited-edition runs. There are only 6,700 apparel manufacturing jobs in the city now compared with 200,000 in the 1970s, when the industry was at its peak here. Even in 1990 the industry had 95,000 manufacturing jobs.
The mayor needs to step up as well, she added.
“Fashion is not front and center as it is in Paris and Milan, and that’s why you need to have the mayor say fashion really matters,” she said. The office of Mayor Eric Adams did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.
The stakes for the city are high.
“The fashion industry has been declining for years but it is an important industry to maintain in New York City,” said Gertler. “It’s not just about nostalgia. It’s part of the fabric of the city, pun intended, and adds to the dynamism of New York.
