Check out some our favorite resources the City has to offer for a career in Fashion.
Education Fashion and Business Education- FIT Design Entrepreneurs: A free, intensive “mini-MBA” program for New York City–based designers who have launched their own labels.
- FastTrac: A series of free entrepreneurship courses for aspiring and established entrepreneurs throughout New York City.
- NYC Online Business Education: Online business courses to guide NYC entrepreneurs through each step to start, operate, and grow a business.
- Business Outreach Centers: Individualized, comprehensive guidance in obtaining financial, marketing, management, technology, and legal services.
- 10,000 Small Businesses: Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses provides greater access to education, capital, and business support services.
- SCORE at SIBL: In-depth business counseling for business owners and small businesses, providing assistance with starting a business, writing a business plan, and helping successful firms in planning for expansion at the New York Public Library’s Science, Industry, and Business Library (SIBL) branch.
- NYC Resource Guide for Immigrant Entrepreneurs: This guide offers step-by-step advice for immigrant entrepreneurs planning, launching, or growing a small business.
- PowerUP! (Brooklyn): Turn your business idea into a reality with help from the library and you may win $20,000 in start-up capital. Entrepreneurs throughout Brooklyn are eligible to participate.
- StartUP! Business Plan Competition (Queens): The competition gives emerging entrepreneurs in Queens the opportunity to strengthen their business knowledge, learn about business trends, gain insights about starting and growing a business, and have a chance to win grants worth up to $10,000 in funding and services.
- New York StartUP! Business Plan Competition (Manhattan, The Bronx, Staten Island): Annual New York StartUP! Business Plan Competition for New York–based startup entrepreneurs. Entrants can win $15,000 to start their business, as well as gain practical insights about starting and growing a business.
- Grow with Google New York City Learning Center: The center offers free digital skills training to all New Yorkers, offering workshops, one-to-one coaching sessions, and community events.
- Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)
- Pratt School of Design
- Parsons School of Design
- LIM College
- New York School of Design
- School of Visual Arts
- NYU Fashion & Luxury MBA
- WE Connect Mentors: Successful women entrepreneurs share their expertise and answer your business questions during weekly in-person sessions.
- Elaine Gold Launch Pad: Supports early-emerging and young design talent and aspirational entrepreneurs, and encourages creativity within technology, sustainability, and innovation through six months of mentorship and milestone-based awards.
- Tory Burch Foundation Fellows Program: Designed for women entrepreneurs, the program provides education, connections, and community support to grow your business.
- Fashion Manufacturing Initiative: Matching grant fund to help New York City–based fashion manufacturing facilities grow and sustain their businesses.
- Futureworks Makerspace: Affordable access to a state-of-the-art prototyping facility, including a sewing area and jewelry corner.
- Futureworks Shops: A network of 11 fabrication studios across the city that provide affordable access to various types of equipment and coworking space.
- CFDA Production Directory: A comprehensive database of New York City production facilities for both sewn goods and jewelry.
- Garment District Fashion Directory: Find pattern makers, wholesalers, sales reps, and all the other fashion industry businesses in the Garment District.
- AboutSources: Industry information and services for apparel, accessory, home products designers, manufacturers, and buyers.
- New York State Database of Registered Apparel Contractors and Manufacturers: A statewide directory that includes any firm that produces garments or accessories for garments in New York State.
- WE Fund Crowd: Any woman in New York can apply for a zero-interest loan of up to $10,000 on Kiva’s crowdfunding platform, and the City will fund the first 10 percent of the money she needs—lending with no fees, no interest, and no minimum credit score.
- WE Fund Growth: Supports women who need capital to expand their businesses! The City is partnering with local lending institutions to increase the chance of getting financing.
- Venture Capital Investors in NYC: NYC’s extensive list of investors in New York City with investment focuses that include fashion, lifestyle, and retailing and distribution, among others.
- CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund: Awards help emerging American design talent further develop their business in addition to receiving mentorship from an esteemed group of industry professionals.
- Global NY Grant Fund: Open to New York State companies and nonprofit organizations seeking to create or expand direct exports.
- Global NY Loan Fund: Loans of up to $500,000 are available for companies to purchase equipment and inventory needed to deliver on export-related contracts and provide working capital to support foreign accounts receivable.
- State Trade Expansion Program: Grants for small and medium businesses to increase the number of businesses entering the export market, and to increase the value of exports for businesses that currently export.
- CFDA Scholarship Program: Provides two scholarships of $25,000 to exemplary student talent across diverse design specializations.
- Geoffrey Beene Design Scholarship Award: The award challenges students to look beyond conventional design and industry approaches in order to advance the art form of fashion by investigating experimentation of process, material, and form.
- The Liz Claiborne Design Scholarship Award: This $25,000 design award invites undergraduate fashion students to create a signature fashion collection.
- Kenneth Cole Footwear Innovation Award: A one-year design fellowship opportunity supported by an annual stipend of $50,000, offered to fashion graduates combining design with social consciousness.
- Eileen Fisher Social Innovator Award: Provides immersive access to specialized knowledge, skills, resources, and mentorship to three post-graduates through year-long rotational placements at Eileen Fisher. Each Innovator receives a stipend of $50,000.
- Export Marketing Assistance Service: Help for New York State companies to foster relationships and identify distributors and agents in foreign markets.
- ReFashion Week NYC: Fashion shows, shopping events, clothing swaps, and styling competitions that spark conversations about how residents, nonprofits, and businesses can create solutions to reduce textile waste.
- refashionNYC: Free and convenient clothing donation service for apartment, office, and commercial buildings.
- NYC Textile Map: Find the nearest drop-off bin, takeback program, textile recycling location, and more.
- Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Circular Economy Learning Hub: Explore the circular economy business model and see real-world examples. Access information on how to make your company more circular and what circular design really means.
- CFDA Guide to Sustainable Strategies: Provides a “how to” for sustainable fashion with a focus on taking the complex idea of sustainability and simplifying it into clear, digestible resources and actions.
- Sustainable Strategies Toolkit: Aims to visualize the mapping and framing of sustainability priorities. It is intended to facilitate in diagnostics and provide users with step-by-step guidance in the creation of strategic blueprints.
- The New York Fashion Tech Lab: Delivers a platform for collaboration between major fashion retailers and the startup community. The lab supports women-led companies that have developed innovations at the intersection of fashion, retail, and technology.
- XRC labs: Brings together entrepreneurs, investors, brands, and retailers to foster rapid innovation and unlock new opportunities in retail.
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