The Fashion District

I just last week finished a three month stint working a temp job in the Fashion District, and I thought that I would share some of my photos of it. It interesting to work in the shadow of the Empire State Building, where the seedy edges of midtown mix with the yuppie boom of Chelsea. Each street was this great mix of wholesale places, massage parlors, African immigrants, fashion students, and daddy's girls. Way back in the day, there were lots of sweatshops in New York, if you can imagine textiles actually being made in the North East, never mind Manhattan, but this was a while ago. Most of that stuff is gone now, but some small shops remain if only because of the influence of FIT (The Fashion Institute of Technology), a New York State run school. But most of these older buildings and shops are being pushed aside as luxury high rises try to take advantage of high rental rates. I really enjoyed working in this area, as it had a real gritty feel of old New York that will soon be totally paved over.