The NYC Garment District seen by Walter Sanders

Photos: Walter Sanders [LIFE collection]

These incredible photos by Walter Sanders show the bustling NYC Garment District — Seventh Avenue in 1960 (LIFE Collection). FM 669’s garments are still made here, though the industry is a fraction of what it once was.


At the time of these images, Life reported that three out of every four dresses sold in the U.S. were made on Seventh Avenue. Over the following three decades, the district’s manufacturing value would fall by 75%, and 225,000 jobs would disappear.


This 1967 quote from The New York Times remains relevant:
 “Seemingly, these small suppliers, who generally service the small and medium-size apparel producers, rather than the large ones, have been forgotten amid all the talk of the growing gigantism and the advent of sophisticated management in the apparel industry.”

Much has shifted offshore — but a smaller industry full of gold folk still remains.