Oct. 28, 2013 10:14 p.m. ET
As Manhattan's Garment District shrinks, thousands of burgeoning fashion designers instead flock to Brooklyn each year, attracted to the borough's entrepreneurial energy. In a nod to the barriers to entry that still exist, Pratt Institute on Tuesday is announcing an initiative offering low-cost studio space, mentoring and production facilities to 30 design businesses.
The initiative, which Pratt calls the Brooklyn Fashion and Design Accelerator, will be housed at 630 Flushing Ave. in Williamsburg in a former Pfizer building, with rent ranging from between $300 and $1,200 a month.
It is one of a handful of design-related "incubators" in New York City, including Manufacture New York and LaGuardia Community College's NYDesigns. Over the weekend, the New Museum announced plans for an art, technology and design incubator that will open next year at 231 Bowery.
"I think there's a growing trend right now amongst many people in the industry to bring back manufacturing jobs to New York and America," Fern Mallis, the creator of New York Fashion Week, said. "This is a very exciting development in the fashion industry. It has traction and is beginning to make a difference."
Selected entrepreneurs for the accelerator initiative, who aren't limited to Pratt students, will be able to move in in early 2014. Some designers, like Nina Zilka, co-owner of Alder New York, have already been selected to work in the space.
Its production facilities will be designed for runs of up to 50 units, a middle ground between shoestring operations with just a handful of orders and more established businesses that can place orders of 500 or more units with mainstream manufacturers.
"Programs like this are trying to help people, and actually give them that nurturing environment that allows them to experience successes and failures and get them to the next level," Jonathan Bowles, executive director of the think tank Center for an Urban Future, said. "It really seems right for the moment, this entrepreneurial moment in New York."
Designer Jasmine Aarons plans to run her clothing brand, VOZ, from the new facility. She cited the tools and service offered as a draw—"for design, prototyping, printmaking, weaving, knitting and materials inspiration," she said. "This will greatly expand the horizons of our creative process."
Debera Johnson, executive director of Pratt's Center for Sustainable Design Strategies and the initiative's founder, said the on-site resources will also include laser cutters, 3-D printers, sub-dye printers and organic dye stations.
"Imagine coming into an environment where you can see every part of the system in action, where you are surrounded by creative people with shared values, working together to innovate a new normal for fashion and design," she said.
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