For the past decade, city planners and stakeholders in downtown Los Angeles have been crafting a plan that would set the area’s development priorities for the area for the next 20 years.
The Fashion District’s network of sewers, designers, dyers and small manufacturing facilities form a human supply chain that has powered Los Angeles’ fashion and creative industry for nearly a century. The industry is important not just to Southern California’s economy, but also to the fashion industry nationwide.
The pandemic caused painful disruptions in overseas supply chains. Afterward, large fashion brands sought to “nearshore” their supply chains, consolidating their production process to reduce travel time and cost. Overproduction and waste are a huge environmental issue in the clothing industry, which accounts for about 10% percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and consumes more energy than the aviation and shipping industries combined, according to a United Nations report.
Displacing the garment industry would force its workers, many of whom cannot afford a car, to move or face impractically long bus commutes.