The reality television show "Project Runway" this season is putting the spotlight on Los Angeles, where designers toil in a loft downtown, competing to win $100,000 to start their own clothing line.
The local industry could use the boost. L.A.'s once-flourishing garment design and manufacturing industry is shedding jobs as quickly as a mohair sweater loses its fur.
Weak U.S. consumer spending is generating less demand for the services of the people who stitch, cut and sew clothing in Los Angeles County. Garment manufacturers are finding it tough to get credit. Some, like American Apparel Inc., are dismissing employees whose papers aren't in order as the government keeps a closer eye on workers' immigration status. New environmental regulations are requiring textile mills to reduce their emissions, while makers of children's clothing are finding it costlier to comply with federal consumer safety requirements.
"It's a pretty lengthy list of headaches out there for apparel companies," said Jack Kyser, founding economist of the Kyser Center for Economic Research at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. "These are several bottles of aspirin-worthy problems."
As recently as a decade ago, downtown L.A.'s apparel industry was thriving. At the peak in 1996, more than 119,000 textile and apparel workers toiled in the Los Angeles County industry, the nation's largest.
But trade agreements that lifted tariffs on foreign-made apparel encouraged U.S. manufacturers to shift production to Mexico and Central America, where wages are significantly cheaper. Meanwhile, China has become a low-cost, mass-production juggernaut, with industrial cities dedicated to a single product such as socks.
Textile and apparel employment in Los Angeles County has slipped to about 58,000 workers currently, according to the California Employment Development Department. The industry has lost 6,000 jobs in the last three years.
Garment contractor Luis Diaz, owner of Luis Diaz Designs, has operated in the Merchant's Exchange Building in downtown Los Angeles since 2004. On a recent morning, in an airy room where spools of brightly colored fabric line the walls, a few workers sat stitching lace bathing suits and leather bracelets. The workroom is less crowded than it was a year ago, when Diaz employed a dozen workers.
"Now, it's really tough," said Diaz, who also designs his own lines of silk-and-leather suits and pink polka-dot purses. "I do the jobs of four people -- I answer the phone, I train the workers, I supervise."
