Wholesale Retailers

Some retailers will offer wholesale prices for fabrics and materials

In New York City, apparel fabric wholesalers have retail stores or showrooms in or near the Garment District, from 35th to 41st streets, between 8th and 9th Avenues. Wholesalers of trims or buttons and other fasteners are clustered nearby. In fact, the Garment District buildings often house similar kinds of businesses to make it easy for buyers to shop the market on foot. A cluster of home furnishing fabric wholesalers is located on Third Avenue in the 60s, and another on Fifth Avenue in the upper 20s. The Fashion Center, a Business Improvement District encompassing the traditional Garment District, offers an on-line map (www.fashioncenter.com) that allows you to see which buildings specialize in textiles, and for some, to see a list of tenants. Additional fabric wholesalers in New York City can be found on the Lower East Side, on or near Orchard Street.

"We have a relationship with the supplier; it's a wholesale versus a retail price." Peter Del Rio discusses how he orders fabric for IC3D products without holding excessive fabric inventories. He combines mill orders with purchases from New York City wholesale fabric shops.

Some retailers will offer wholesale prices for fabrics and materials

Most wholesalers have minimum order requirements for wholesale purchases, either a yardage or a dollar amount. If you purchase from a wholesale retailer, you will benefit from discounts of 30-50%, depending on the size of your order, and you will not pay sales tax on your purchases. In order to receive these benefits, you must apply for a tax resale number or purchase a vendor's license. Requirements vary by state.

In New York, you would contact the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance to request a Vendor Registration Form (www.tax.state.ny.us/) (pdf file, select Pub 20 1100.pdf, page 15) . It might take several weeks to receive this document.