• The Garment District began in the Lower East Side (now in Midtown Manhattan) when Eastern European immigrants came to New York. They were skilled in cloth and dress making.

• Many people started as peddlers – pushing carts around selling fabrics and garments. Then they opened shops. Only a few still remain. 

• By 1910, the garment industry incorporated around 46% of the industrial labor force in the city. And 80% of commercial real estate was related to fashion.

• Now less than 4% of clothing sold in the US is made domestically. This is due to outsourcing fabrics and clothing mostly from Asian countries such as China and Vietnam.

• Those that remain face difficulties competing in the current market and worry for their future in the Garment District. 

For a more in depth history click here. 

19/11/2025. 

I attended a walking tour of The Garment District today. The remnants of it were incredible to see. A man waiting for traffic to pass while holding a roll of fabric. A Bangladeshi man hauling a suitcase into 1407 Broadway full of Bangladeshi fabrics ready for presentation to buyers and designers. The much reduced however still prevalent sight of excess steam from irons exiting the classic New York style windows. The UPS men unloading box after box of presumably fabrics and trimmings to stock the varying sized stores that still remain. 

Our tour guide, Mike, was full of character and lived the history of The Garment District. He eagerly showed off his vast collection of business cards from the many designers and businesses he had worked for. He proudly showed us images of his Grandma wearing a cardigan held together by safety pins, outside of her shmatte shop. His great uncle had come over to NYC and started as a peddler selling fur before opening a shop where 10 year old Mike worked sweeping the floor and delivering coats throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn. He spent most of his later career working in The Garment District before starting his tour guiding business in the 90s. I can tell he had been doing it for a while… he kept telling me to stop interrupting him in his thick New York accent. 

After walking in the footsteps of those families and individuals responsible for the rise of The Garment District as well as some prolific designs such as Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, we headed to one of the remaining family businesses named M&S Schmalberg. They hand make, and have been for four generations, fabric flowers. They have worked to create outfits for Carrie Bradshaw, Beyonce, Sabrina Carpenter, Vera Wang and more. Adam, the current owner, showed us around his factory and talked us through the process of creating such flowers. I asked him if he had a successor and he replied with a rumination of whether they would still be here when the time came. Many family run businesses face grave risk of shutting down due to the current economic climate and inability to compete with fast fashion and machine made textiles. As a result of this, traditional craft dies. We lose creativity and the speciality of handmade garments and accessories. We must be conscious of our choices and their consequences when shopping.