Growing up in Manhattan Eric Sauma spent most weekends accompanying his father to work at Mood Fabrics to help hand out flyers. On most days, what would normally be a quick jaunt across a few city blocks would take nearly 45 minutes, as throngs of people would stop his father to talk shop or say a quick hello. If you worked in fashion, Jack Sauma was the man to know. On any given day, Eric’s father was accosted by aspiring designers, businessmen and manufacturers from all walks of life, as trucks whizzed by in the background carrying garments and hundreds of workers walked the streets pushing carts filled with fabric.

For reality television enthusiasts, Mood likely evokes scenes from the fabric store Project Runway. According to Eric Mood is the family business that he runs alongside Philip his brother. Eric have now dramatically quelled.

Now the garment district is under even more duress as the result of a proposed redistricting plan put into action by Mayor Bill DeBlasio’s administration, with the support of the Council of Fashion Designers of America that has the potential to relocate the area to Brooklyn.

Talking about the transformation of the garment district designer Yeohlee Teng got her start in the garment district in 1981, selling her first collection to Bergdorf Goodman. During that time she found factory space available on 37th Street. More than three decades later, she still produces in the district, just a couple streets away on 35th Street.

Fashion jobs in the district began to diminish as designer’s outsourced production overseas in search of cheaper rates over the years. In 1987, there were 30,000 manufacturing jobs in the garment district. It was protected by zoning laws that prevented real estate moguls from buying up factory space and flipping it into luxury real estate. At present there are just 5,000 workers occupying the same space, and discussions have percolated over lifting overlay zoning that protects garment businesses on side streets in the area.