The Future of Fashion

How fashion students envision their futures as entrepreneurs and use the Garment Center to launch their careers

The fashion industry is one of New York City’s largest business sectors, generating 165,000 jobs, $9 billion in total wages and tax revenues of $1.7 billion. This economic activity is partially fueled by the artistic talent and entrepreneurial energy of the 5,000 fashion students who attend one of the four nationally renowned fashion design schools located in New York City. The extraordinary synergy between Pratt Institute, the Fashion Institute of Technology, Parsons the New School and Kent State University and the hundreds of apparel companies clustered in the Garment Center creates not only a unique hands-on learning experience but a tremendous “naturally occurring” incubator to help students launch dozens of new businesses every year.

 The Pratt Center’s issue brief, The Future of Fashion, examines the entrepreneurial potential created by the four local schools and the Garment Center in Manhattan – one of the largest fashion design and production districts in the world. It explores how the city’s fashion students use Garment Center resources, including sewing shops, textile suppliers, and the network of experienced entrepreneurs, to start and lead their own fashion enterprises locally. The issue brief exposes the critical role of garment production in the development of local fashion entrepreneurs and identifies how the industry and city government can further capitalize on local fashion students’ talent and solidify New York City’s place as a world-renowned fashion capital. The report is based on analysis from the Pratt Center’s comprehensive survey of over 200 local fashion design students, approximately one third of whom wanted to start their own businesses.