Do you recognize this statue? Do you know where it is?
Or this one, The button and the needle?
If you have ever walked through the fashion district in New York you do.
Recently an article about saving the fashion district rolled across my desk. It was posted in The L Magazine this past week. I want to open this discussion up in our blog. I will tell you that I used to be very saddened about the fashion district disappearing. I arrived at FIT in 1985, and almost instantly the industry there started to disappear. This was heart breaking to me because I had waited my whole life to that point to get there, and it was leaving. Now, 20 years later, I’m not sure how I feel. Twenty years later finds me in a very different position. Today I am one of 450 designers on Smashing Darling (from all over the country). I don’t live in NYC anymore and very rarely do I find myself in the fashion district when I am in New York. I do get pangs in my heart brought on by nostalgia. If the industry loses the battle, those streets to me will always be the fashion district. Those memories will never be erased. The sounds of the rolling racks on the streets I will never forget and just the general vibration that only a sewing machine can produce will always be on those streets for me.That is why I would love to hear your thoughts about the subject.
In The L Magazine article, Laural Pinson writes about her confusion too:
I find it hard to know where to stand, having two contrasting sensibilities: One says, “It’s as New York as the Central Park Carousel!” while the other says, “This is a city born and bred on competition — we make it work, or we pack it up.” Much like the Flower Market below it, the Garment District sometimes seems like a shadow of its former self, one that begs less for preservation than rejuvenation. Well-respected designers like Sui and Narciso Rodriguez and Vera Wang rightly talk about its historic importance in the development of New York design, but it’s… I’ll say it… a shithole. And it’s kind of always been a shithole, right? Is the sentiment really, “But, it’s OUR shithole?”
So please write in and tell me what the district means to you and why you think it is or is not worth fighting for. Tell me where you are from, are you a designer yourself? Do you have a story about someone you know, a family member that was a part of the fashion industry in NYC? I need more facts and need to hear more history about the subject. So send anything you dig up my way.
