Out of style? City's fashion industry losing jobs

As designers debuted their spring-summer 2025 collections on the runways during New York Fashion Week, a recent report found that the city’s fashion industry has lost about 30 percent of its workforce over the last decade — and is projected to lose more in the coming years.

The report, by the Partnership for New York City, found that there were 182,000 people working in the city’s fashion industry in 2014. As of last year, the workforce has declined to 129,000, with much of the decrease taking place after the pandemic, when the number of workers dropped drastically from 162,000 to 120,000. Although the workforce has rebounded slightly, the researchers projected that the number of workers in the industry will decline to 126,000 by 2027. 

The report, “At a Crossroads: New York City’s Status as a Global Fashion Capital,” also found that the number of fashion degree and certificate programs awarded by schools such as the Parsons School of Design, the Fashion Institute of Technology and Pratt Institute declined 30 percent from 3,826 in 2016, when the number reached its peak, to 2,668 in 2022.

Although the city saw $96 billion in sales of clothing, jewelry, shoes and other accessories in 2022, with the fashion industry accounting for more than $20 billion in gross city product, the industry’s GCP has dropped by more than 13 percent over the course of a decade.

The decline in the fashion workforce and its diminishing financial contribution pose a threat to New York City’s status as a global fashion capital, according to the report, which cited data from managing firm McKinsey & Company.

“For decades, New York has been home to some of the world’s most talented designers and successful fashion businesses. But local and global shifts have disrupted how these creative individuals start, grow, and scale their businesses, and fashion’s role in our economy has significantly diminished,” Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, said in a statement. “This report provides a roadmap for both the public and private sectors to use our strengths, including our thriving tech industry, to regain lost ground and again become competitive on the global stage.”

Decline is 'palpable'

The report points to the decentralization of fashion production outside of the Garment District and towards cheaper overseas production, the consolidation of the luxury fashion companies, making it harder for smaller brands to compete, expensive rents, the rise of e-commerce and the emergence of fast fashion as some of the reasons why the industry has been struggling.

“Compared with other locations, up-and-coming designers have a harder time developing, launching, and growing new brands in New York City. This is due — in part — to high operating costs, diminishing shopping neighborhoods, and the loss of workshops and sample rooms,” Joanne Crevoiserat, the CEO of Coach’s parent company Tapestry, Inc., told the researchers.

Jason Maurer, the executive vice president for National Urban Retail at Brookfield Properties, noted that “Rather than coming to New York City and opening 12 stores, [brands] might only open three stores.”

Byron Lars, the Jane B. Nord. Professor of Fashion Design at Pratt Institute and the designer for the clothing brand In Earnest, which he co-founded, said that the industry’s decline was “palpable,” especially in the city, and that the reasons were multi-pronged. He cited the North American Free Trade Agreement as “the nail in the coffin to discourage manufacturing” in the country, including in the Garment District. “When I first started, we manufactured everything locally — there was a cutting room on 25th Street,” Lars, who launched his own label in 1991, said during a phone interview. 

But, he noted, “A lot of unhealthy practices became the status quo, such as pushing up delivery dates. [Customers] got used to not paying full price because of end-of-season sales. Problems have been brewing for the past 30 years or so, it didn’t just start overnight.”

Lars expressed surprise that the number of people working in the industry had dropped so significantly. He said he was also startled by the declining number of fashion degrees being awarded, noting that the number of fashion graduates was significantly smaller than when he was attending school.

Subsidies a solution?

The report makes several recommendations to revive the city’s fashion industry, including creating a designer accelerator that would help designers who are trying to scale up their businesses by providing studio space and mentors. The researchers pointed to a similar program that was run by the Council of Fashion Designers of America that ended because the designers couldn’t afford to rent the studios, even though the spaces were heavily subsidized. The report suggested that any new program should offer shared working spaces instead of individual studios and completely subsidized rent.

It also suggested creating a central designer campus, which would allow designers to pool resources and talent such as photographers, pop-ups that showcase new designers and expanding partnerships between fashion schools and the industry.

“New York produces great fashion design talent. But there is still a gap within the business side of fashion,” Ben Barry, the dean of Parsons School of Fashion, was quoted saying in the report. “We need to provide business professionals with opportunities to collaborate with fashion designers. The connections between designers and businesspeople are where we are lacking.”

The report’s authors called for “A targeted, collaborative strategy with embedded private and public sector support is required to ensure that New York City leverages its assets and preserves its prominence as a significant fashion capital of the world.” 

Lars, the designer and fashion professor at Pratt, believed the recommendations made in the report would positively impact the industry if they came to fruition. But, he asked “Where are the resources coming from?”

Any solution, he believed, would need to be subsidized by the government. “I love the idea but I don’t see the money coming from the industry itself, because it’s not there,” he said. “Even when the industry was very viable here, we’ve never had any government subsidy to sustain things.”

He pointed to the lack of government oversight resulting in the decline of the nation’s auto industry as an example. “How could you let Detroit fall to such a point? That was the fault of multiple administrations,” Lars said.

The report’s authors were hopeful that there is excitement about New York City’s fashion industry in relation to culture, diversity, tech and sustainability. “Just because the next chapter hasn’t been written,” Lars said, “we can’t lose hope.”

clewis@thechiefleader.com

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