The daughter of two public schoolteachers, Ms. Bland was born in Washington. She attended the Savannah College of Art and Design and moved to Manhattan in 2003 to pursue a design career, before settling in Williamsburg two years later. She was quickly inspired by the flourishing creative entrepreneurialism there to set up her own label, Brooklyn Royalty, in 2006. “I had already grown tired of designing quality merchandise extolling the virtues of New York City, only to have it produced overseas,” she said. “But the reality is, it’s become almost impossible to produce a line here.”

Still, in what was then her day job at Ralph Lauren, “it seemed crazy to me that the only way to see the end product of my designs was to go into the store and buy it,” Ms. Bland said, adding that while there aren’t enough corporate jobs available to design-school graduates, “the vast majority of what we’re taught is geared toward us working for somebody else.” (She conceded that she had drawn many of her ideas from powerful conglomerates like Jones Group and LVMH, “who share vast resources among many brands, from marketing to sales, sourcing and production.”)

Business mentoring (“all the stuff you should have learned in fashion school and didn’t,” Ms. Bland said) will also be available to designers in the Manufacture New York stable, and she is planning to help arrange paid apprenticeships with designers like Nanette Lepore and Ralph Rucci who have expressed their support for the program.

Heather Blond, another designer who has joined Manufacture New York, said she had done so as much out of practicality as principle. “As an ‘emerging designer,’ my quantities are still very low, so I don’t get to take advantage of the low overseas prices,” she said. “Add on the freight and duty costs and producing in China isn’t cost-saving anymore.”

Ms. Bland said design talent was being vetted on experience over aesthetic. “They need to have at least established a brand, with some sales and a proven customer base,” she said. “That way they’ll have a strong enough foundation for us to build on and help them take it to the next level.”

But unlike the CFDA’s recently established incubator fund, which seems to be aimed at more established names, Manufacture New York is committed to providing support at a grass-roots level, she said, adding: “And if a more built-out designer comes to me wanting to reshore their product, I’m happy to help with that, too.”