Process
Winners
Finalists
News
Submit
REOPENS FALL 2025
Nominate
ALWAYS OPEN
To all winners
Bringing garment manufacturing back to NYC’s historic garment district
Image of Mi Jong Lee in black and white

Winner

Mi Jong Lee

Bringing garment manufacturing back to NYC’s historic garment district
Image of Mi Jong Lee in black and white

Website

emmelledesign.com

Year

2024

Organization

Emmelle Design

Sector

Jobs & Economic Growth

Borough

Manhattan

Neighborhood

Midtown

Mi Jong is proving that garment manufacturing has a home in the heart of the garment district.

Mi Jong has designed and made clothing in New York City since 1982. She’s obsessed with detail — invisible seams, hand drawn patterns, perfectly aligned prints, the weight of silk. Her brand is quiet — “if you know, you know” — but she has dressed ma…
Read winner story

Publication

Inc. Magazine

Can New York City Become a Fashion Manufacturing Capital Again?

By Rebecca Deczynski
September 10, 2024
Korean-American designer Mi Jong Lee is bullish on domestic production…
“I believe that the best ideas are born from the necessity to change our reality and we need to change the reality of the garment district.⁠”
Mi Jong Lee
2024 David Prize Winner
Hillary Clinton (right) wearing Mi Jong Lee at the 2023 Praemium Imperiale Laureates.

Publication

Crain's New York Business

Fashion industry has designs on the future

By Beth Treffeisen
April 22, 2022
After a pivot to mass-producing PPE, local manufacturers return to crafting small-batch couture…
To all winners