Los Angeles Initiative Targets Local Apparel Companies
About 35 members and supporters of Fashion Business Inc. turned out for a roundtable discussion between city officials and apparel manufacturers on Feb. 11 at FBI’s headquarters in The New Mart building in downtown Los Angeles.
Attendees included John Chen of the Department of Water and Power, Laura Sherman of Frankie B., Tukatech’s Sonia Chhabra, Churchgirl’s Lorraine Foxworth and Kent Smith of the Fashion District Business Improvement District.
Frankie B.’s Laura Sherman was one of several apparel manufacturers who discussed the challenges business owners in Los Angeles face.
“My competitors are producing overseas,” Sherman said. “We produce here to help domestic workers, but my margins don’t show it.”
Mayor James Hahn’s newly appointed deputy mayor for economic development, Renata Simril, told attendees the city is planning to introduce an initiative that will focus on three sectors: biomedical technology, furniture and apparel. The Job Growth Fund is a $5 million initiative that city officials hope will improve economic development. The program is designed to “carve out an allocation for job training” and assist apparel manufacturers with subsidized employment for training, Simril said. “The city lost 33,000 jobs in 2002, but it regained 21,000 of them back,” she added.
Gruber & Pereira Associates LLC, a workplace and economic development consulting firm in San Francisco, will assist the city of Los Angeles in its efforts to connect apparel manufacturers to new resources and funding. The program will focus on recruitment, training and wage subsidy for apparel manufacturers, said partner David Gruber. “Our goal is to help expand job opportunities for the city’s workers that not only help pay wage subsidies but come out with the ability to support families,” he said.
The city plans to roll out the new program next month, dividing the $5 million among the three sectors, Simril said.
—Claudia Figueroa
