Kansas City’s Garment District

6th Street to 11th Street. Washington Street to Wyandotte Street. Kansas City’s Garment District.

Today, Kansas City’s Garment District is a neighborhood boasting of cutting edge offices, cool lofts and quaint coffee shops. And this trendy KC neighborhood of 2025 traces its origin all the way back to the shops, the stores and the manufacturers which sprang up in this section of Kansas City during the first half of the 20th Century. Shops, stores and manufacturers which formed as a result of the growth of Kansas City’s garment industry…long, long ago.

Kansas City is a major US railroad hub. If you drew a diagram of the United States on a piece of paper, and if you marked the exact center of your diagram with a pen, you’d have…Kansas City.

An ability to ship garments to fashion-hungry consumers to the east. To the west. To the south. And to the north. Trendy garments shipped by rail in an optimistic, fashion-conscious post-war United States. Kansas City’s garment industry could do that. And did.

Yet the growth of Kansas City’s garment industry early in the 20th Century wasn’t just because of easy access to the railroad. Nor was the growth of Kansas City’s garment industry really just based upon Kansas City’s perfect location.

No, the growth of Kansas City’s garment industry was the result of a “perfect storm” – a low-cost/low-regulation region, shipments that could easily be made by rail and a post-war America that was looking to buy (and show off) new, fashionable clothes. This “perfect storm”…further fueled by the relocation of garment manufacturers to the Midwest. Away from the high-cost/high-regulation business environments they operated within in the East. To this lower-cost location. With less regulation. To Kansas City.

Garment manufacturers migrating in to Kansas City. Homegrown garment manufacturers growing their businesses in Kansas City. A perfect storm. The foundation for the growth of Kansas City’s garment industry in the first half of the American 20th Century.

The Donnelly Garment Company…1828 Walnut Street.

Between 1916 and 1978, Kansas City-based Donnelly Garment Company manufactured over 75 million dresses. Making the Donnelly Garment Company the largest dress manufacturer of the 20th century.

Peak employment for Kansas City’s garment industry was reached at the midpoint of the 20th Century. Closing in on 1950, nearly 5,000 garment industry workers had been employed by the close-to-100 Kansas City-based garment manufacturers. While Kansas City’s Donnelly Garment Company did the lion’s share Kansas City’s garment industry hiring…employing nearly 20% of all Kansas City’s garment workers at that time.