Most of Manhattan is edging into summer this week, but along Seventh Avenue it is already autumn. Buyers from all over the U.S. are making their seasonal march into garment-district showrooms to rummage through, inspect and buy fall fashions. In a $13 billion industry that survives and thrives on change, the biggest change of all is in the corporate shape of the industry itself. Women's wear, a business of some 4,700 firms in which the mean has always been two or three partners with a $25,000 bankroll, is busy styling a whole new rackful of corporate giants.
No apparel giant...
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