This is a permanent sculpture located at 555 Seventh Avenue (also known as Fashion Avenue) between 39th and 40th Streets in midtown Manhattan. The 8-foot bronze sculpture called "The Garment Worker" was created by JUDITH WELLER. It depicts a man sitting at a sewing machine sewing a garment. The piece is a tribute to the history of the area as Manhattan's Garment District or Fashion District.
It is a realistic rendering of a garment worker, wearing a yarmulke and hunched over a hand-operated sewing machine. The figure is modeled after the artist’s father, who was a machine operator in New York’s garment industry. “When I was a little girl, I recall seeing him at work,” Well explained. “I utilized what I know of him as well as my memory in creating the sculpture.” The sculpture was created to commemorate the Jewish garment workers, the backbone of Jewish life in New York at the turn of the century.
Historical landmark in New York City, New York