Garment District Rally

Great Signage

Even Better...

Some jobs are never leaving

Save the Fashion District

New York Elegant Fabrics

Hertling - Made in NYC

Garment District?

I do have a thing about "Made in the USA." I'm not crazy about Thom Browne's fashion sense but his quality is beyond question . I've been told my Thom Browne shirt was not only made in the USA but made in NYC. There's been a push to have labels reflect New York origins. It can't come fast enough.

The HBO film, Schmatta, Yiddish for rags, airs tomorrow night and reports that today 5% of American clothing is made in the United States. In 1965, 95% of American clothing was made in the US. The motivation for this statistic is greed. A 100% mark up, once thought outrageous by Leon L. Bean, who kept the lid on his profit at 37 1/2% -- is now chump change. A shirt purchased at retail for $60 cost $1 or less to manufacture in Macao, Hong Kong, China or Honduras. Look, I'm not naive. I get over head and operating costs. Hell, I even understand EBITDA. But these numbers are obscene...not to mention those profiting from them.

One vulture begets another - - The real estate owners in the Garment District want the rent protected fashion tenant o -u -t. So does the mayor. You know, that guy Bloomberg who wants to protect city jobs? True to a politician's nature - - he's worked out a compromise. I learned in Chicago that political 'compromise' means, "Bend Over Here It Comes Again" or BOHICA which is a phrase I learned in the Army. Big institutions have always contributed colorful phrases to my vocabulary.

So, Mayor Bloomberg's compromise is to give the Garment District 280,000 square feet of consolidated warehouse space...for 250 apparel factories. Not a lot of room to sew much less grow. In the mean time, the real estate owners in that nine block area defined as 34th to 40th streets between Broadway and 9th Avenue, will be free to lock and load with as many Starbucks, Red Lobsters, CVS drug stores and Walgreen's as they like, all while madly humping the very industry that helps to make this city the fashion center it is. It won't be long before living in NYC will be no different than living in Des Moines. Except Des Moines will have a lot more diversity.

Many in the industry see this consolidation as laying the corpse in the coffin. They believe it won't take long before the lid on that coffin is nailed shut and the garment industry in NYC is buried. Designer, Nanette Lepore has called for some big names in the industry to take a stand. So far, Ralph Lauren has ignored her calls along with the other usual suspects. The mayor has refused her request for sit time for over a year. I see the guy on the subway all the time. He's hard to miss with the 12 man security entourage. Can't he meet Nanette on the Lex line for five lousy minutes?

There will be a rally this Wednesday the 21st at 39th St and 7th Avenue to save the Fashion District. No one seems to know when it starts and I can't find a time anywhere. I guess that's what happens with creative types. You can bet your trim and buttons I'll be there. I'm not in the business but 10 years ago I had a client who was a shirt manufacturer in North Carolina and another client who manufactured children's clothing in Georgia. They're gone now and I wonder how many of their service providers like me went with them.

You may not be able to make the rally but you can always shop for a Made in the USA label. You might even save your own job. As they say in the Schmatta trade, "It couldn't hurt."