Picture Yourself in Fashion Design School in New York

If you're going to attend fashion design school, why not put yourself at the heart of the nation's fashion industry in New York? Wherever you go in the state, New York has fashion design schools galore, with direct fashion industry contacts and connections.

In New York City alone there are eight major fashion design schools, and the apparel manufacturing industry provides one-third of the jobs in the city. According to the Garment Industry Development Corporation, New York City has more than 5,000 fashion showrooms, with a fashion industry that generates $14 billion in annual sales, and 100,000 jobs in fashion-related businesses.

That said, there's still plenty of fun ways to expand your fashion design school experience exponentially in New York. The Garment District south of Times Square and along Madison Avenue has one of the world's largest concentrations of fashion design studios, fabric manufacturers, and design showrooms.

Fashion design schools in upstate New York as well as in the New York City environs encourage students to visit renowned fashion boutiques in the city's SoHo, Upper East Side, and Greenwich Village neighborhoods to see up-to-the-minute designs. New fashion boutiques are springing up in the hip Williamsburg and Carroll Gardens sections of Brooklyn, as well as Manhattan's NoLita neighborhood.

New York is also home to fashion design shows to fuel your imagination. Last year, there were more than 60 exhibitions by designers like Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, Narcisco Rodriguez, and Carolina Herrera.

And, if you're enrolling in a New York fashion design school, there's positive news about the fashion industry: a National Retail Association Survey predicts that clothing and accessory stores will experience "steady sales gains" in 2006, making this a great time to start your future in fashion.