Notes from LA

A Downtown News op-ed connects a few dots to paint a strong LA fashion market: a) retail expansion is forcing wholesale development beyond the District’s eastern boundary of San Pedro St., and b) the efforts underway to bring LA Fashion Week back downtown.

I would round it out with c) the news that American Apparel added 2,500 garment manufacturing jobs this year, and d) the gentrification of New York’s Fashion Center, which bodes well for growth in LA.

* See also: Commercial Real Estate Thrives in Downtown L.A.

The largest garment factory in the US – Photo by kodachrome kid

American Apparel is celebrating the milestone of 10,000 worldwide employees, half of whom work in the facility at 7th and Alameda — the largest garment factory in the US.

Since the beginning of the year, the company has hired approximately 3,500 employees worldwide, including over 2,500 manufacturing employees at its “sweatshop free” production facilities in Southern California. American Apparel now manufactures approximately 275,000 garments per day.

Mayor Villaraigosa praises:

Over the past number of years, American Apparel has played an important role in the revitalization of downtown Los Angeles and has created thousands of jobs in the process. With the jobs that American Apparel has created so far this year, we are well on our way towards meeting my goal of creating 100,000 living wage jobs in Los Angeles by 2010.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, as of 2007, the average American Apparel manufacturing employee earned $12 per hour — “$80-120 dollars per day, or roughly $500 per week compared to the $30-40 made daily at most other Los Angeles-based garment factories.”

Note to self: Buy more AA, less Gap.

A “major effort is underway” to wrest LA Fashion Week from Culver City and bring it back downtown, says the Downtown News. Potential venues include LA Live, a couple of rehabbed Broadway theaters, and the California Market Center.

Downtown’s play for Fashion Week might be bolstered by the efforts of a group of Downtown activists who last year launched a competing slate of runway shows, informally dubbed Downtown Fashion Week. Their events last year, held at the Los Angeles Theatre on Broadway and Vibiana on Main Street, attracted thousands.