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COURIER LIFE, MARCH 25-31, 2022
A recovery centered on equity
New York Embroidery Studio to bring 500 jobs to Sunset Park
BY XIMENA DEL CERRO
New York Embroidery Studio,
a collaboration between luxury
fashion designers Caroline Herrera,
Ralph Lauren, and Oscar
de la Renta, is moving to Sunset
Park, signing the largest new
lease in three years at the Brooklyn
Army Terminal.
The high fashion company,
known for helping brands embellish
garments with decorative
stitching and rhinestones,
pivoted at the height of the pandemic
to make personal protective
equipment like masks and
hospital gowns. Founder Michelle
Feinberg and her team
made over 590,000 hospital gowns
in just nine weeks while keeping
hundreds of New Yorkers employed
even as the city’s economy
dwindled.
Many manufacturing companies
had too few workers and
not enough factory space to complete
the job when hospitals were
short on equipment and at capacity
with COVID-19 patients during
the worst of the pandemic.
As local healthcare facilities
stretched their dwindling supplies
of PPE, businesses like the
New York Embroidery Studio
stepped up to fill in the gap.
While US-made reusable
gowns ranged from $12 to $20 a
piece, New York Embroidery Studio
pieces cost $7.88 each. Feinberg
said her gowns “exceed the
standard” set by the Defense
Logistics Agency, the federal
agency that stepped up to supply
PPE to hospitals and local governments
who found themselves
short on supplies.
The new 80,000-square-foot
lease will bring more than 500
on-site jobs, yielding an estimated
$73 million in economic
output for New York City. The
announcement came on Friday
from Mayor Eric Adams, a week
after revealing his Economic Recovery
Plan, which he said will
support small businesses, entrepreneurship,
a more equitable
economy while connecting New
Yorkers to quality jobs and in-demand
skills.
“Small and minority- and
women-owned businesses must
be at the core of an inclusive and
equitable economic recovery,
and I am proud to honor Women’s
History Month by supporting
NYES and women entrepreneurs
in all five boroughs,” Adams said
in a statement.
At Brooklyn Army Terminal,
the studio will use automated
machines and advanced manufacturing
techniques to produce
PPE full-time as part of an ongoing
effort to restore the country’s
national stockpile.
“The local production of PPE
is essential to our health care
workers and our city, so we are
always prepared,” said New York
City Economic Development Corporation
President and CEO Andrew
Kimball. “We must be forward
thinking as we address our
city’s future pandemic preparedness.”
NYES has been manufacturing
in the garment center for
over 30 years.
“I am totally committed to
growing the apparel industrial
base here in NYC,” said Feinberg.
“We want to bring high fashion’s
drive for innovation and quality
to PPE manufacturing by developing
novel and sustainable
products for our clients.”
While medical PPE is typically
not biodegradable, NYES
has developed a biodegradable
isolation gown and eco-friendly
production methods to reduce
waste and the city’s carbon footprint.
The company has committed
to working with minority and
women-owned businesses as contractors
and subcontractors as
they make the space, one of the
largest at BAT, their own.
The fashion studio will go
through the HireNYC program
to find hundreds of local new employees.
Adams’ economic recovery
plan contains 70 initiatives with
the goal of returning to pre-pandemic
employment levels. New
York City’s unemployment rate is
high at about 7.5 percent, roughly
double the national average. The
city’s budget relies on billions of
dollars in federal aid.
“This is a plan to accelerate
job creation and more quickly
reach pre-pandemic employment
levels, which were the highest in
recorded history,” wrote Adams
in an opening letter for the economic
recovery plan. “But let me
be clear— our goal is not to return
to the previous status quo
but to move forward stronger
than before, making sure our recovery
is centered on equity and
economic mobility.”
Above: NYES Founder Michelle Feinberg at the new Brooklyn Army Terminal space, where the company will produce personal
protective equipment. Right: Sewers and stitchers get to work producing Personal Protective Equipment at the New
York Embroidery Studio’s new location at the Brooklyn Army Terminal. NYES
“The local production
of PPE is essential
to our health care
workers and our city,
so we are always
prepared,” said New
York City Economic
Development
Corporation President
and CEO Andrew
Kimball. “We must
be forward-thinking
as we address our
city’s future pandemic
preparedness.”