Creative Fabric: Mapping Community Connection in NYC’s Garment District
Tessa Maffucci
Cecilia Jakovljevic, MS Data Analytics and Visualization ’23
School of Design, Fashion Design
![woman sits in fashion studio](https://www.pratt.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/38__Creative_Fabric_Image_1_Maffucci.jpeg)
Creative Fabric: Mapping Community Connection in NYC’s Garment District is a digital humanities project that employs both geographic and network mapping to illustrate the relationships within New York City’s Garment District necessary to sustain this creative ecosystem.
![a man works at an industrial garment machine](https://www.pratt.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/38__Creative_Fabric_Image_2_Maffucci.jpeg)
The Garment District presents a uniquely urgent site for inquiry— this vibrant cluster of manufacturers, suppliers, and specialty studios has provided the foundation for New York’s fashion industry for over a century and is now at risk of disappearing due to decades of disinvestment and devaluation of the predominantly BIPOC and immigrant individuals who make up the majority of this highly-skilled workforce.
![a woman sits at a work bench with a man who is smiling](https://www.pratt.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/38__Creative_Fabric_Image_3_Maffucci.jpeg)
![a woman, wearing a shirt that reads NYC, sits at her workbench in a studio.](https://www.pratt.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/38__Creative_Fabric_Image_4_Maffucci.jpeg)