[superbeautiful]

cont

Designers hope to turn up the heat this week. Marc Jacobs, Vera Wang, Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, Narciso Rodriguez, Phillip Lim, Nicole Miller, Nanette Lepore and Maria Cornejo are among the 25 designers who have purchased Save the Garment Center T-shirts for themselves, their staffers and show guests. “Several thousand” have already been made, according to Anna Sui, who spearheaded the effort. And Bill Blass LLC has bought a bundle to give to students from the Fashion Institute of Technology, Pratt and Parsons The New School for Design to wear to the shows.

“So many designers are really on board with this and are so happy that somebody is trying to make a statement,” Sui said. “When I was reading the stories [about the issue], ‘Something needs to be done’ was always in the back of my mind. I finally put my foot down and said, ‘Let’s do something.’”

Lepore plans to take her final bow in a Save the Garment Center T-shirt, and show staffers will also wear them. Having turned a $5,000 loan into a $120 million business, she has arranged for Scott Stringer, Manhattan borough president, to tour the factories she uses and has been filmed for a forthcoming HBO documentary about the loss of manufacturing in America.

Lepore is proud of the fact she employs 120 people with health care, benefits, a 401(k) and annual raises, in addition to the 10 factories and four cutting rooms she uses. And all those workers spend money in the neighborhood, she said. But finances aside, there is something greater at risk. “I’ve never been a flag waver, but there doesn’t seem to be the respect for handmade products as a skill,” she said. “Being someone who started her company with nothing in my East Village apartment, if I had to get on the phone and find some factory in China, it wouldn’t have happened,” Lepore said.

While most agree the definition of fashion has evolved from one that was all about manufacturing to one that thrives on public relations and marketing, there is still a need to salvage some of the Garment Center. Diane von Furstenberg, president of the CFDA, said, “I think the best scenario is to protect and see what we can do short-term and long-term. The truth is, as the industry expands, it’s so important to work with the city and see what we can do for a five-year, 10-year plan. And if we really want to maintain manufacturing in New York, we should.”

Added Teng, who makes “virtually everything” for her collections in New York, “Fashion week is upon us and a lot of houses — high or low, big or small — depend on what is available locally to get their collections done. If they think of a color they need to inject into their collections at the last minute or they need another 20 samples, they can find it just in time.”

“Being able to do that helps them stay on top of their game. If we are touting ourselves as the fashion capital of the world, we need to be able to do that.

“I would hate for New York to become a one-note town — Wall Street. I don’t have anything against Wall Street, but I would miss the opportunity to see people at work, making things with their hands,” she said. “People need to get passionate and excited about having this dimension around and not just being shipped off now.”

Teng also voiced concern about how a stymied fashion district would affect the next generation of American designers, as did Rag & Bone co-founder Marcus Wainwright. “People need to realize that Parsons and FIT are funneling all these designers into New York,” he said. “And part of the reason they are staying is they can walk across the street to a button shop or to a pattern maker. They can start a business here. You can’t do that anywhere else in America except California and that is mostly T-shirts and jeans.”

Wainwright recalled trekking from one factory to the next looking for pattern makers, sample makers and all the rest in his company’s early days. “The long and short of it is, if I can’t make clothes here, all the jobs I currently support will go to China, which is the whole problem with the American economy. And I’m English,” he said. “All these women who have been sewing all their lives will have to go to work at Wal-Mart and that will be the end of that craftsmanship. It’s happened in all these places, with Scottish cashmere, Irish shirts and English shoes. You lose it forever. You get a better price for a cheaper product.”

But the industry is battling against the tide, as the number of jobs in New York’s garment industry continue to shrink. In 1987, to try to stem the number of production jobs heading overseas, Mayor Edward Koch’s administration approved the Special Garment Overlay, which effectively secured 10 million square feet of space as incentive for domestic apparel companies. There are about 1 million square feet being actually used for manufacturing, and preserving around 350,000 square feet has been discussed with city officials, according to FCBID.