Fashion Avenue: New York, Fashion & the Garment District

About This Tour

New York has dressed much of America for more than a century. This walking tour follows that story through the places where clothes were made, sold and fought over. It begins in the cast-iron loft buildings where wholesale dry-goods and textile firms once did business, and passes the corner where a mass meeting in 1909 sent thousands of shirtwaist workers out on strike. It continues past the building where a fire in 1911 killed 146 garment workers, along the old shopping district where department stores replaced brownstones, and into the Midtown blocks where the garment trade was concentrated. You will see the sculptures, synagogues and school that grew up around that trade, the department stores that sold its products, and the park where Fashion Week was staged for nearly two decades. The tour ends on the East Side, where the shopping streets moved as the city grew north. Each stop gives dates, addresses and sources, and where the record is thin, the narration says so plainly.

Tour Highlights

Tour Route & Stops