The main missing ingredient is "Pattern Makers." These are the Garment District equivalent of Engineers. They are still around, but in far lower numbers.

It's fairly obvious that people think that these folks can be replaced by software, but they say the same thing about engineers.

Also, entire communities were built around textile mills and transportation/consolidation/intermodals. When we shut down the Garment District, and shipped all the work overseas (and my friend freely admits his company did the same), it destroyed these communities. Lot of skilled labor left, and stopped training the next generation.

And, to answer another question, I don't have to "prove" anything. I was simply telling something that I heard from an extremely relevant source. I'm sure as hell not going to ask my friend to "prove what he said," for the convenience of Internet randos.