Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Save The Garment Center Rally
More than 500 people attended.
“The heart and soul of New York city.” “The key to a diversified economy,” “an education, nurturing young designers,” “the hub of my fashion life,” Whatever words they chose, each impassioned speaker at today’s Save The Garment Center rally took the same message to the microphone. The garment industry is an essential part of New York’s history, and may hold the answer for saving New York’s economy.
Stan Herman, former president of CFDA and Fern Mallice, Senior VP of IMG Fashion
A crowd gathered in Manhattan at 39th street and 7th Avenue. “It’s so nice to see real people on these streets for what they believe in, and not just clicking a protest box on the computer,” said Fern Mallis, senior vice president of IMG fashion. What Ms. Mallis termed “a good old-fashioned rally” featured speakers such as factory owners, union representatives, designer Nanette Lepore, and mayoral hopeful Bill Thompson.
A densely packed crowd, including students and industry professionals like Paul Cavazza, owner of Create-A-Marker, waved signs reading “It’s Sew N.Y.” and “Save the Fashion District.”
“What do we want to do?” artist Robert Savage, Nanette Lepore’s husband, exhorted the crowd.
“Save the garment center!” they shouted, waving their signs.
On stage from left: Michael Kors, Ellie Tahari, former CFDA president Stan Herman
Stan Herman, former president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) evoked the garment industry’s past, when a piece of clothing could be made, start to finish in one afternoon. He celebrated designers like Anna Sui and Nanette Lepore, who are committed to keeping local business a part of their design. “Protecting and modernizing zoning is the key,” he said. “It’s time to take pride in ‘Made In New York!’”
“The world is watching to see what New York is wearing,” said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. “Everybody needs to work together to save the industry and create jobs.” He called stricter zoning laws “an economic engine, to bring creativity here, and preserve New York’s history.
“Vote and organize,” he implored the crowd. “as if your life depended on it.”
No matter how bad the economy is, said almost every speaker “everybody wears clothes!” The rally was a call to action, to spur government to pass zoning laws that would preserve and develop fashion industry space in the city, which is vital for the economy.
“We’ve seen what happens when New York bases its economy on finance and real estate,” proclaimed Bruce Raynor, the President of Workers United, SEIU ( the union representing garment workers at the rally,) getting a somewhat bitter laugh from the assembled crowd. Calling the fashion industry’s woes “a solveable problem,” Christine Quinn spoke of a need for commitment to an industry that could provide diverse jobs at all skill levels.”
Fern Mallis declared that the fashion industry holds at least part of the solution. “We need to use our brilliant marketing skills, which the HBO movie Schmatta says we do better than anybody in America, to really sell that story.”
PinkyShears publisher Brandon Graham and designer Nanette Lepore
“Twenty years ago, I came to New York city as a fashion student,” said designer Nanette Lepore. “I could not have built my business without the small businesses of the garment center. They were my teachers. They were patient and helped me succeed. It takes a village, a city, to make a dress. It is socially and morally wrong to let the garment center die.”
–article by Elizabeth Willse
Tags: CFDA, Elizabeth Willse, event pics, fashion industry, garment district, IMG Fashion, Michael Kors, nannete lepore, Paul Cavazza, Regal Originals, save the garment center, Scott Stringer, UNITE HERE
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October 22nd, 2009 at 9:20 AM
Great story but Bruce Raynor is the President of Workers United, SEIU which is the union representing garment workers at the rally.