Wednesday, March 16, 6:30 p.m.
Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Ave, at 103rd St.
"The Fabric of the Garment District"
The history of New York’s garment industry is as much a history of the built environment as it is a history of labor, regulation, and fashion. From the piecework of Lower East Side tenements to early purpose-built lofts such as the Asch Building, home of the Triangle Waist Company, to the first garment district on the streets flanking Broadway, north and south of 23rd street, and finally to the Seventh Avenue garment district that New Yorkers know today, the garment industry has produced and been a product of its unique and changing built environment.
Spectacular events like the Triangle factory fire played an important role in this industrial geography. How did this and other factors lead to the creation of the Garment District? Why were garment lofts built where they were? How did this affect workers, manufacturers, and consumers? What is the legacy of the garment district today?
Andrew Dolkart, Director of the Historic Preservation Program at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, historian of the Garment District, discusses the changing history and geography of the garment industry 100 years after the tragic Triangle factory fire.
Co-sponsored by the Municipal Art Society of New York.
$6 Museum members; $8 seniors and students; $12 non-members;
$6 each when you mention "Shop the Garment District"
