The Garment District, once a landmark for American fashion and style, is in jeopardy of vanishing due to increased rent prices and cheaper, foreign labor. Compounding the problem is that zoning laws meant to protect the region, which stretches from 34th to 40nd streets and Broadway to Ninth Avenue, have done little to stymie decline. The city’s manufacturing future, as well as its reputation as a fashion destination, are at stake, according to Barbara Blair Randall, executive director of the Fashion Center Business Improvement District. “If you don’t have production in the garment center, there would be no reason for designers and suppliers to cluster in the district,” Randall said. “We’re down to 9,000 jobs.” [more]

Save Fashion at the Port Authority

An empty ground-floor space in the Port Authority Bus Terminal has been
transformed into a pop-up shop filled with young designers’ clothes at
discount prices. For the past five years the space, which on Eighth Avenue between 41st
and 42nd streets, has been unoccupied. Vornado Realty Trust is planning
to build an office tower on top of the retail space, although there is
no time line for the project yet. “It was so horrible looking,” Barbara Blair Randall, president of the
Fashion Center Business Improvement District, said at a launch party
for the pop-up shop last night. “All the windows were covered in brown
paper. It wasn’t a nice sight for pedestrians.” To spruce up Eighth Avenue, the BID and the Times Square Alliance –
which promotes economic development and public improvements in Times
Square –  approached the Port Authority to turn the space into a
temporary place to support young designers and artists, combining the spirits of the Garment District south of the Port Authority and theater scene to the north.
[more]