our story

Founded in 1987, Ferrara Manufacturing has built a culture centered on a passion for product and engineering.

Ferrara Manufacturing was founded by Carolyn and Joseph Ferrara. After graduating from New York University, Carolyn started a fashion production management company while Joseph worked as a management consultant. At the age of 25 years old, shortly after getting married, the couple launched a manufacturing business to fulfill Carolyn’s dream of creating the highest quality and best fitting clothes in the world.

The 13,500 square foot factory resides on West 39th Street in the heart of Manhattan's Garment District, producing the finest tailored garments for the fashion industry's most notable and prestigious brands. Seen on the runway in New York City and Paris, worn by American Olympians, celebrities, and VIPs around the world.

In 2016, Gabrielle, the couples’ oldest daughter, joined the company as COO. Gabrielle grew up in the factory and was always inspired by the people and energy. Gabrielle brings her experience from working in the technology industry to guide the future of the business. The Ferrara family is involved with several organizations within New York City within the arts and business. They are a founding member of the New York Garment Center Supplier Association (GCSA) Foundation.

In 2020, Ferrara Manufacturing launched a PPE division, Ferrara Supply, which has produced over 23 million protective apparel and accessory items. The team was able to apply decades of product develop and garment engineering experience to design and scale one of the highest performing masks available.

Today, as a mother-daughter team, Carolyn and Gabrielle are an innovative force on a mission to dress women of all shapes and sizes in the process of developing a proprietary custom fit technology.

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FMFG History Image
the finck building

A portrait of the American Dream and an iconic manufacturing landmark.

Moshe Finck was 12 when he arrived at Ellis Island just before the Great War broke out, with his father, an itinerant bootmaker from the eponymous Finck, Austria. Like so many poor, immigrant Jews before them, settled in New York City.

As a teenager Moshe applied his skills to the garment trade, sewing night and day. Eventually after five years of working eighteen hour days, Finck had saved enough money to open a small garment factory on Avenue D and 11th Street, specializing in dickies, ascots and other affairs of the neck. He entered the dickie manufacturing business just as the Roaring 20s Dickie Boom began -- everyone from Babe Ruth to Charles Lindbergh were wearing Finck Dickies.

During World War II, the Army-Air Force's demand for aviator's scarves sky-rocketed. Finck was making 75% of all Allied aviator scarves and employed over 1,000 scarf-makers. Finck built the Finck Building in 1943 to house his massive operation.

While Finck Aviator Scarves and its subsidiaries closed in 1961, Ferrara Manufacturing has been located in the Finck Building for over 30 years and is proud to continue the legacy of quality garment production in Manhattan.

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FMFG History Image
garment district, manhattan

The neighborhood that made Manhattan the center of the fashion universe.

New York City is known as the Global Fashion Capital. The industry generates $98 Billion annually in the city alone. What people may not know is that New York’s Garment District has been located in Midtown West Manhattan for nearly 100 years and is home to the world's highest concentration of fashion manufacturers, suppliers, and designers. Early in the 1900's the District produced the majority of the country's clothing.

New York City continues to be the center of culturally diverse and skilled workers, the majority of whom are immigrants and women. Today 40% of all U.S. fashion designers are based in the city and the District employs over 7,000. Enter the prolific new technologies in manufacturing, the District's centralized supply chain and ecosystem is a strong foundation for exploring future materials, personalization / customization, immersive retail experiences, and wearable technologies, and its vicinity to the largest tech companies in the world located a few blocks downtown in Manhattan. The future of The Global Fashion Capital is extremely bright.

Ferrara Manufacturing is a proud member of NYGCSA and the founding partner of GCSA Foundation, a 501(c)3 dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Garment District, Manhattan.

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