On June 6, 2025, the LA Fashion District, a fabric of 4,000 businesses and over 15,000 workers, was left reeling from a sweeping ICE raid at Ambiance Apparel, taking some 40 workers into custody and sparking protests citywide.
The response was quick and sharp: stores shuttered, pedestrian traffic froze, and an area teeming with activity just hours before turned into a ghost town.
It was more than news of another bankruptcy; it was a trauma to Los Angeles’s social and economic core, exposing vulnerabilities that few had been willing to acknowledge. How deep does the damage run?
The LA fashion industry generates an estimated $72.3 billion annually, with the Fashion District accounting for about 20%, or about $14.5 billion annually.
The news is families torn apart and neighborhoods living in fear, behind the news. While the workers who were
Notes: Sales plummeted by half in the weeks after the ICE raids, leading to a theoretical $7.23 billion loss in business, if we calculate the same loss rate weekly for an entire year.
