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May 18, 2021 Learn how the iconic costumes and sets were created for Halston, a new limited series streaming now on Netflix, in an intimate conversation with costume designer and FIT alumna Jeriana San Juan (The Get Down, The Plot Against America) and production designer Mark Ricker (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Escape at Dannemora). This creative team will discuss how they brought the world of the American fashion icon to life, often drawing on assets found at The Museum at FIT (MFIT) and the college’s Special Collections and College Archives for inspiration. Moderated by Raissa Bretaña, who teaches costume design and fashion history at FIT and is also an alumna, the talk premiered Monday, May 24, on Vimeo. Click here to read the original article

May 12, 2021 Dr. Preeti Arya, assistant professor of Textile Development and Marketing, has become a go-to source for journalists writing about performance textiles. She is an expert in textile composites and finishes, research and product development, and textile science and technology. At FIT, she teaches courses on finishes, fabric development, and performance textiles. Within the past year, Arya spoke with Glamour about choosing sustainable fabrics, with Women's Running about how to make athletic gear last, and with Sourcing Journal about the promise of antimicrobial finishes in medical textiles. For NBC News, she weighed in on eco-friendly weighted blankets, and for HuffPost, she discussed the damage done by machine-washing. She also praised the strength and drape of hemp for Hemp Benchmarks. Click here to read the original article

May 5, 2021 FIT has one of most popular and renowned Illustration programs in the country—and two recent rankings help make this case. In its 2021 list of the Top Public Illustration Schools in the U.S., Animation Career Review ranked FIT No. 1. The ranking was based on academic reputation, admission selectivity, depth and breadth of the program, value, and employment data. The site recognized FIT for providing excellent training on computer skills employers require and for the program’s unique visual thesis process. Additionally, FIT’s status as a public college means tuition is affordable, and students get access to resources throughout the SUNY system. StateUniversity.com hranked FIT No. 2 nationally in its list of Most Popular Schools for Illustration. Both public and private colleges were in the running. Ed Soyka, chair of the Illustration program, believes a number of FIT’s strengths factored into these rankings: the motivated and talented students; the focus on myriad fields within commercial illustration, such as editorial, video games, and advertising; the college’s central location in New York City; and the new hybrid classrooms, which are equipped with both digital and analog media, so that students can jump back and forth as needed. Soyka gives special commendation to the caliber of teaching. “Our faculty are expert and highly experienced, both as freelance illustrators and as very empathetic and supportive teachers,” he says. Click here to read the original article  

April 16, 2021     In the Oscar-nominated film Minari, a family of working-class Korean immigrants moves to rural Arkansas. The props that convey the Yi family’s hardscrabble life were researched and sourced by Stacy Suvino, Visual Presentation and Exhibition Design ’08. Working alongside a production designer and set decorator, Suvino, the film’s buyer and set dresser, scoured stores near the filming location in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in addition to Facebook Marketplace. Though Minari is set in 1983, she shopped for items from the ’70s, because the Yi family  couldn’t afford new decor. Each character had a color story; props support mood as well. The “haunted” dresser was found at River City Trading Post, a local antique shop. Suvino was convinced that the Yi family needed a small oscillating electric fan, but it was hard to find. An owner of the Trading Post eventually offered one from their personal collection. Also difficult to procure was a classic ’70s couch with blocky lines and bold, rust-hued polyester fabric; the style is trending again, making prime specimens rare. A store run by the H.O.W. Foundation, which helps men struggling with alcohol or drug addiction, proved to be a trove for props: “We hit that place every week,” Suvino says, happy the purchases served a purpose.  In the Oscar-nominated film Minari, a family of working-class Korean immigrants moves to rural Arkansas. The props that convey the Yi family’s hardscrabble life were researched and sourced by Stacy Suvino, Visual Presentation and Exhibition Design ’08.   Working alongside a production designer and set decorator, Suvino, the film’s buyer and set dresser, scoured stores near the filming location in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in addition to Facebook Marketplace. Though Minari is set in 1983, she shopped for items from the ’70s, because the Yi family  couldn’t afford new decor. Each character had a color story; props support mood as well. The “haunted” dresser was found at River City Trading Post, a local antique shop. Suvino was convinced that the Yi family needed a small oscillating electric fan, but it was hard to find. An owner of the Trading Post eventually offered one from their personal collection. Also difficult to procure was a classic ’70s couch with blocky lines and bold, rust-hued polyester fabric; the style is trending again, making prime specimens rare. A store run by the H.O.W. Foundation, which helps men struggling with alcohol or drug addiction, proved to be a trove for props: “We hit that place every week,” Suvino says, happy the purchases served a purpose.  Aspiring Hollywood set designers, take heed: Suvino’s story of breaking in exemplifies persistence, bravery, and making the most of a coincidence. It just so happened that the third season of HBO’s show True Detective was filming in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where her parents live, and they knew the owners of the warehouse where it was being shot. Suvino’s dad sent her a photo of the front door of the warehouse, which had a sign with a cell phone number on it. “Call that number,” he told her. It turned out to be the show’s production manager. He told her they already had a crew. Undaunted, Suvino went home for the weekend and visited the site, resume in hand. When a secretary called in the production designer to show him her CV, he said, “You’re the one with the dad!” She told him, “I really want to be here.” The set designer was “crewed up” for the duration, he said; but the team admired her fortitude and encouraged her to call again. Every week for four months, she did. Each time, they told her no. Suvino gave up, and packed up her car to head home. Thirty minutes outside Fayetteville, her phone rang. Someone was fired, and they wanted Suvino to step in. She worked on the show for over three months, staying late every night so she could learn how the production worked.    Today, Suvino lives in Atlanta, a new hub for film production, and she’s racking up credits: She’s worked on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and a new show for F/X, Reservation Dogs. She has an agent for commercials and editorial, but she hopes to work as a production designer for Steven Spielberg. In the meantime, she’s proud of her contributions to Minari. “It’s a version of the American dream,” she says, “and I think people are looking for hope right now.”  Click here to read the original article 

April 5, 2021 FIT is advancing its investment in experiential learning through the launch of DTech Live, a series of interactive events powered by Bambuser, that will connect designers directly with consumers for a live shopping experience. An extension of FIT’s Innovation Center and a first-of-its-kind initiative in higher education, DTech Live fosters innovation by practice, facilitating the exploration of business and creativity through emerging technology and real-world experience. DTech Live debuts Tuesday, April 6, at 1 pm, with 7 Collections, a fashion pilot featuring the extraordinary work of FIT alumni from seven countries, all of whom earned MFAs in Fashion Design.  FIT was selected by Bambuser as its first partner from the global higher education category. A worldwide leader in interactive live video shopping, Bambuser is the platform of choice for companies such as Moda Operandi, Farfetch, and Clarins that are seeking deeper connections with customers across digital platforms. “We are pleased to provide FIT’s emerging designers with the exclusive opportunity to leverage the same new technology that is driving innovation for some of the world’s leading luxury fashion and beauty brands,” said Dr. Joyce F. Brown, president of FIT. “We are especially proud to debut 7 Collections to a broad audience, expanding FIT’s commitment to supporting new alumni in their role as valued contributors to the creative economy.” During the 7 Collections presentation, the audience was invited to view garments shown in engaging videos; watch one-on-one conversations with the designers and Dr. Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of The Museum at FIT; engage in a live chat; and have the opportunity to purchase a selection of custom made-to-order items from the collections of these emerging designers. The alumni discussed their inspiration, what comes next in their careers, and how they were influenced by their diverse backgrounds and geographies. Items available for purchase include head-to-toe looks as well as dresses, coats, and accessories. All proceeds from sales will go directly to the designers who will have full oversight of garment customization and fulfillment. “7 Collections celebrates beautiful design while seamlessly connecting creativity to commerce,” said Cathleen Sheehan, professor and acting chair, Fashion Design MFA. “Through this experience, the designers overcame the challenges of the pandemic to focus on craftsmanship while remaining true to their artistic vision. The breadth of themes and approaches represented is very exciting, and we can’t wait to watch these designers shape the future of fashion.” FIT’s partnership with Bambuser enables unprecedented experimentation with the next generation of fashion design talent. “FIT is a widely respected force of positive transformation in fashion and other creative industries worldwide, making them a perfect partner for Bambuser,“ said Maryam Ghahremani, CEO of Bambuser. “As our first collaboration with an educational institution, we view our relationship with FIT as a perfect opportunity to nurture the next generation of fashion industry talent and provide insights for working across the entire value chain. We look forward to innovating together to drive the future of interactive customer experiences.” DTech Live, the latest launch from the FIT DTech Lab (dtech.fitnyc.edu), is reimagining how designers and brands connect with consumers. “Innovation requires tremendous determination, resilience, and agility,” said Michael Ferraro, executive director of DTech Lab. “The designers featured in 7 Collections developed these critical career skills through a learning environment that models professional practice and closely connects students to industry.” DTech Live will continue to bring together students, faculty, and industry partners to experiment and solve real-world problems at the intersection of creativity, commerce, and technology. Its next project is set to debut in the fall. Click here to read the original article 

March 18, 2021 FIT’s student-run fashion and culture magazine, Blush, has won a 2020 Pacemaker Award from the Associated Collegiate Press for the second year in a row. The Pacemaker, considered the “Pulitzer Prize of collegiate journalism,” is judged by teams of professionals based upon coverage and content, quality of writing and reporting, leadership, design, photography, and graphics. In this national competition, Blush was one of nine chosen in the four-year feature magazine category. “The Pacemaker is the association’s preeminent award,” Associated Collegiate Press executive director Laura Widmer said. “ACP is honored to recognize the best of the best.” Gary Lundgren, ACP associate director and coordinator of the Pacemaker competition, noted that the quality of the winning collegiate magazines rivals those produced by professionals. “The verbal and visual storytelling in the winning magazines is incredible and robust long-form stories combine with shorter quick-reads to pace the reader through the pages of the feature magazines,” Lundgren said. The Blush team submitted their fall 2019 "Ferromagnetic" issue for the 2019–20 academic year. Due to the pandemic, the student organization was unable to submit a typical spring 2020 issue. Blush also won the Pacemaker in 2019, the first year they submitted an entry. The Pacemaker awards were announced during the ACP/College Media Association Fall National College Media Convention awards ceremony, presented virtually on Oct. 22. Click here to read the original article 

March 11, 2021 FIT President Joyce F. Brown has issued comments regarding racist attacks and hate speech directed at Asians, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders. Her statements read as follows: March 19, 2021 Dear FIT community, Recently, I put out a statement condemning anti-Asian rhetoric and violence. It deeply saddens me to think about the number of statements I have issued over the years condemning hate speech—speech that incites the ugly instincts that some harbor against the “other”—people not like themselves. I think of this as I consider the disaster in Atlanta with eight beautiful lives lost, six of them Asian women. I write now to highlight and support the joint statement put out by the SUNY and CUNY boards of trustees condemning this act of racism and hatred. What happened in Atlanta is intolerable—what happens in every city and town and rural country road that harms anyone because of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation is intolerable. So today I add my voice to what I hope is a thunderous chorus—a roar of condemnation—from every corner of this country protesting the twisted thinking that produces hate speech and violence and in this case, particularly, violence against Asian women. I refuse to believe that our voices are not effective tools for change. I will continue to speak out and I hope this long loud volley of support brings some solace to the Asian American community, including, of course, our own Asian community at FIT—the students, faculty, and staff members of Asian descent who make up so large and dynamic a part of FIT’s richly diverse family. Dr. Joyce F. BrownPresidentFashion Institute of Technology March 11, 2021 Dear FIT community, There is a long history of anti-Asian sentiment in American society. This continues in spite of the fact that our Asian colleagues, businesses, students and visitors are an integral part of the rich mosaic not only of the FIT community but of our cosmopolitan city as well. In the past year, anti-Asian rhetoric and hate-filled speech have ratcheted up and been reinforced by public statements and private actions such that overt discrimination and violent crimes against our Asian neighbors, relatives and friends have become horrifyingly prevalent in the daily headlines. Indeed, they have reached record levels. Our collegewide efforts to celebrate diversity, to practice civility, to be mindful of our language and be inclusive in our behavior should ensure that FIT is a safe haven for every member of our community. I hope that these efforts will prevail beyond the walls of FIT—and perhaps influence others as well—so that those in the Asian community are no longer targets of discrimination and violence and are treated with the dignity and respect that every person deserves. Dr. Joyce F. BrownPresidentFashion Institute of Technology       Click here to read the original article 

February 25, 2021 Each year, a growing number of enterprises collate and crunch swaths of data to build college rankings, relied upon by high school seniors worldwide in making college decisions. Though a number can hardly encapsulate the complexity of the college experience, we are still pleased that FIT places well. Here are a few recent rankings. In its 2021 rankings, study.com ranked FIT the number one Best Bachelor’s Degree in Advertising  and the number one Best Bachelor’s Degree in Fashion Merchandising. The popular ranking site based its decisions on academic and career resources, quality of education, faculty, and more. Another highlight: Study.com also included FIT’s up-and-coming Entrepreneurship program for the first time in its top 50 Bachelor’s Degrees in Entrepreneurship. House Beautiful compiled the 13 best interior design schools—in no particular order—and FIT’s renowned program made the list. In another ranking of top Interior Design degree programs, both undergraduate and graduate, Intelligent.com included FIT’s undergraduate Interior Design major and its graduate Experience and Exhibition Design major in the mix. Criteria included flexibility of study, faculty excellence, course strength, cost, and reputation.  Best Value Schools ranked FIT number one on its list of Best Fashion Design Schools. The site’s editors based the ranking primarily on tuition costs; FIT’s top placement reflects the college’s unparalleled value. In a similar vein, CollegeCalc recognized FIT as the most affordable school in New York State. Of 143 schools in the category of Specialized Sales, Merchandising, and Marketing, FIT’s Fashion Business Management program was the most popular, its curriculum was the third most focused, and alumni salaries were ranked at number four. FIT was also the most popular of 370 competing programs in the category of Public Relations and Advertising, corresponding to FIT’s Advertising and Marketing Communications major. The curriculum was judged to be the second most focused, and the program was given an overall rank of second place nationwide. FIT also ranked at or near the top in the categories of Textile and Apparel Studies, Visual and Performing Arts, and Design and Applied Arts. In fact, FIT received badges for high placement in 72 of College Factual’s rankings for many of the college’s varied programs in business and design. Prep Scholar named FIT the top fashion school in the country, based on its enviable New York City location, its successful alumni, the breadth of its programs, and its overall reputation. The site included all of FIT’s many fashion-related programs, both in business and design, in the ranking. GameDesigning, a site for those looking to create their own video games, included FIT in its ranking of the top graphic design schools in the U.S., as many graphic designers become game designers. For those looking to focus on video games from the get-go, FIT also offers a BFA in Animation, Interactive Media, and Game Design. UniversityHQ praised FIT specifically for its Advertising and Marketing Communications major, placing FIT’s program in the top 20 among all marketing programs nationwide. FIT strives to be a welcoming place for students of all races, ethnicities, and cultures. In a recent ranking by Hispanic Outlook on Education magazine, the college had the second-most Hispanic students in the category of visual and performing arts degrees. Click here to read the original article 

February 23, 2021     When children wear school uniforms, how much do they forfeit their individual identities? On Feb. 4, Kyunghee Pyun, associate professor, History of Art, gave a presentation about school uniform culture in South Korea. Inspired by the theories of semiotician Roland Barthes and sociologist Erving Goffman, Pyun examined images from media, such as the popular Korean film Our Twisted Hero (1992), which is about a schoolboy who is bullied. “I want to challenge a hypothesis that social influence has a significant impact on our beliefs or behaviors, making us more similar to others around us,” Pyun said. Following an established dress code “often represents superficial public compliance rather than private acceptance,” she argued.     Click here to read the original article 

February 10, 2021 Two students from the Exhibition and Experience Design MA program (EED) partnered with a student from the Fashion Design MFA program to create an interactive website. The project received a $4,000 grant from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Two years ago, the chair of EED, Christina Lyons, invited students from the MFA program to team up with her students and share their thesis work. EED students then designed concepts for exhibitions to highlight the fashions. One team emerged with a promising idea. For his thesis, MFA student YunRay Chung created a series of performances on the theme of “culture shock” (he is from Taiwan), involving garments that were doused in paint and glue and exchanged between the performers. In response, EED students Tina Columbus and Chang Lee proposed a series of installations around New York at which visitors could bond, based on their shared experience of immigrating to the city. The team, which called itself “by xx,” won a grant for the proposal. When COVID-19 rendered an in-person version of the project impossible, they transformed it into an interactive website. The result, our nyc journeys, launched in October, along with a related Instagram component. Visitors can tag places on a map of New York to contribute a memory. Chung said one participant marked the location of their first apartment, which happens to be the same block where his was. Columbus said her favorite anecdote was contributed by EED Professor Brenda Cowan, who described being in SoHo in the 1980s. Columbus said, “This is what we wanted to do—expose the multiple layers of the city.” More than 120 memories have been collected so far.   The site is still live, and the team hopes to realize an in-person version after the pandemic ends. All three graduated in 2019, and Columbus works as an experiential graphic designer for the firm IA Interior Architects. Lyons says the project proves the potential of interdisciplinary work: “Exhibition and Experience Design is an extremely multidisciplinary field, so we certainly look forward to further project partnerships across FIT.” our nyc journeys was made possible in part with public funds from Creative Engagement, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.     Click here to read the original article 

February 8, 2021     When in-person classes were halted in March 2020, faculty scrambled to reinvent their curricula for remote delivery. They came up with creative solutions, especially challenging for hands-on courses. Here are four of countless examples of courses that shine online. In TY 421: Advanced Hard Toy Design and Engineering, students typically build prototypes of hard toys in FIT’s state-of-the-art lab, but when classes moved online, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Judith Ellis and her team substituted 3D printing for lab work. Faculty member Joseph Masibay and James Pearce, manager of the Innovative Technology and Digital Production Group, showed students how to digitally model their toys in SolidWorks. Then, using a new industrial-grade high-resolution 3D printer, Pearce’s team in the FabLab produced and mailed toy parts to the students, allowing them to present a fully functioning toy vehicle by semester’s end. “We’ll never go back to teaching the way we did,” Ellis says.   For Lori Massaro, professor of Fashion Business Management, it was easy to move her courses in Computer-Aided Product Development (FM 341 and 441) online. Most of the technology used in the curriculum is cloud-based, and the lab component became more streamlined when students could share files and receive feedback seamlessly. Importantly, the shift to remote meetings mirrored the same shift by industry, a change that experts predict will linger after the pandemic. In other words, according to Massaro, students need to learn on a virtual platform to be better prepared for the workforce. Collaborating remotely, she says, “I find we get a more personal connection.” Prior to the pandemic, Jean Marc Rejaud, professor of Advertising and Marketing Communications, had been setting up partnerships with institutions to help raise FIT’s profile in the advertising industry. He trained members of the Association of National Advertisers in shopper marketing and taught at ISCOM, a college in France specializing in communications and advertising. When COVID-19 struck, he taught these seminars remotely—and then applied lessons learned to his courses at FIT. Rejaud found that attention spans are shorter on digital platforms, so he broke up his lectures with frequent polls and small-group discussions. This meant he couldn’t cover the material as quickly, but he supplemented class time with videos that students watched in between classes. He also met with students individually, to reduce the distance brought on by remote learning. One benefit of teaching online is that he can easily bring in speakers from around the world. In TS 461: Weft Knit Fabrication and Finishing Techniques, Fashion Design students usually learn how to operate the industrial machines in FIT’s Knitting Lab. Marian Grealish-Forino, adjunct assistant professor of Textile Development and Marketing, and technologists Kathryn Malik and Bernd Wyss worked to replicate that experience for students at home. Through trial and error, they recorded demonstrations on the large, complex Stoll knitting machines; a custom-built box held an iPad above Grealish-Forino while she operated the equipment. They also mailed students yarn kits to teach them to knit and apply trims by hand. To make final garments, the team programmed the Stoll machines according to students’ specifications, then mailed them the pieces to be assembled at home. “They ultimately did finish their garments,” Grealish-Forino says. “We really pulled it off.”     Click here to read the original article 

February 4, 2021 As senior curator of education and public programs at The Museum at FIT (MFIT), Tanya Melendez-Escalante, also a graduate of FIT’s Fashion and Textiles Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice master’s degree program, connects exhibition curators and fashion designers to create dynamic learning experiences. However, for a recent exhibition at the Museo de Arte de Zapopan (MAZ) in Guadalajara, Mexico, she seized the opportunity to curate a show herself. Newsroom recently sat down with Melendez-Escalante to talk about the experience of curating her new exhibition, Julia y Renata: Moda y Transformación, which tells the story of the Guadalajara-born sisters and fashion designers Julia and Renata Franco through their fashion collections. Newsroom: How did you become involved in curating this exhibition? Melendez-Escalante: I really like installing shows. In my current role at MFIT, I hadn’t done installation in a really long time. I forgot how much I loved it, being able to touch garments, and being hands-on. The similarities between my job at MFIT and my role as curator for the exhibition is that I am always thinking about the audience. How is the public going to receive it? Are we serving all of the audiences and connecting people to the content? I approach the museum’s Fashion Culture series and our symposia through that lens, while thinking about how to attract new audiences. I’m always thinking about the person who is new to the subject matter as well as the scholar. You want to educate, inform, and delight. It’s important to give everyone points of entry, make the content accessible. Giving people interesting bits that spark their curiosity and make them want more. In 2019, I attended a program at MAZ for an exhibition on Rei Kawakubo, of Comme Des Garçons and interviewed Julia and Renata as part of a panel discussion. Afterwards, it was Vivianna Kuri, the MAZ museum director, who thought it would be a great idea to have me curate an exhibition about their label, Julia y Renata. Everyone was on board. MAZ is a contemporary art museum in Zapopan, a small suburb of Guadalajara, which itself is the second largest city in Mexico and is known as a creative hub—home to architects, designers, musicians, painters, and curators. What was it like to bring this exhibition to life?   I like being the bridge between designers and curators; I see that as part of my job. Julia, whose personality is more intuitive, is the draper, and Renata, who is more analytical, is the patternmaker. Their contrasting strengths are reflected in their designs. When they first launched in the ’90s, they were seen as avant-garde because they developed their business on their own terms. From the very beginning they included artists and curators in their shows instead of working with fashion producers. Their commitment to their own vision paid off, and by the 2000s, they were popular among press and fashion fans alike. The exhibition, which opened in November, was organized and designed entirely by women. The exhibition designer, Karla Vasquez, is also a furniture and interior designer, and a fashion collector. How important was it to you to highlight the role of women in Mexico? Organizing the sections of the exhibition allowed me to show the designers’ strong feminist point of view. Julia and Renata are known for their play with silhouettes and shapes, structure and drape. To capture their artistry, which is the root of their work, multiple garments were displayed as flat, like paintings on the walls, instead of entirely on dress forms. I met Julia and Renata when I was facilitating an acquisition for a pink dress to be featured in MFIT’s spring 2019 exhibition, Minimalism/Maximalism. I had been a longtime admirer of their aesthetic, and the relationship blossomed from there. The collaboration across the board was a lucky coincidence. All the women involved shared the same fondness and respect for the designers, and we were all on the same page in terms of execution and outcomes. We have all been lucky to be in leadership roles in our fields, which was instrumental in bringing this exhibition to life. The more women that have the opportunity to be leaders in their profession, the more women can collaborate across all industries. How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect your process? Though the curation process began in 2019, the heavy lifting started at the beginning of 2020 and continued through the pandemic that affected New York City as the epicenter in March. Curating an exhibition in the midst of a pandemic came with many challenges. MAZ is a government-funded institution, and prioritizing COVID-19 needs was a top priority. Garment selection was done through Zoom; garments on loan could only be accepted from local lenders and collectors. In late October, I traveled from New York City to Guadalajara to oversee the final stages of the installation. While I was there, there was a statewide curfew issued to the state of Jalisco, where Guadalajara is located. Working under new, but crucial, constraints meant added pressure to complete the work by Nov. 6, the opening date. The hard work paid off and the press preview was well attended by both the press and government officials, like the mayor of Zapopan, his wife, and the secretary of culture of Jalisco, Mexico. Guided tours were limited due to occupancy rules. Still, despite the newly placed restrictions, the opening was considered a success. Julia y Renata: Moda y Transformación is on view at the Museo de Arte de Zapopan through Feb. 14, 2021 and will remain available online through the museum’s website.   Click here to read the original article 

JANUARY 19, 2021     The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we buy, the way we dress, even the way we design our homes. Several FIT faculty have weighed in on recent trend reports; here are six highlights, placed by FIT’s Media Relations.     Fuzzy slippers are having a moment. Ellen Lynch, professor, Accessories Design, spoke with The New York Times about the history of the fuzzy slipper. She said faux-fur footwear was popular in earlier decades but in fancy shoes. Only recently have these materials “reinterpreted themselves into a more comfortable, durable, but not work-related kind of shoe.”     Clothing retailer bankruptcies will slow. So said Vincent Quan, associate professor of Fashion Business Management, in a short and pithy interview with KCBS Radio Los Angeles. He pointed out that more than 30 retailers filed for bankruptcy in 2020, which surpassed the previous record held in 2019. “I see 2021 ebbing, because if you would have filed, you would have filed this year.” Another ray of hope: after more than a year of sweatpants and pajamas, Quan expects tailored looks to return by Q4 2021.     Cut-outs are in. Refinery29 examined the trend of artfully cut out areas of garments. Valerie Steele, director of The Museum at FIT, said that cut-outs are “playing with that issue of hiding and revealing.” She added, “Skin implies nakedness and therefore, as Barthes said, eroticism is where the garment gapes, where suddenly you’re showing a flash of skin … If you cover it up and you show a piece of skin then that’s an exciting revelation.”     Post-pandemic, expect a return to pre-pandemic trends. In Fast Company, Dr. Steele discussed how simple white gowns became popular during the French Revolution because women could be attacked for looking like an aristocrat—but these simple gowns had emerged the decade prior. “If these historical examples are useful to us, then we would not expect a completely new fashion once we come out of COVID, but rather an exaggeration of trends that were already in existence before March,” she said.     The comfy-cozy couch makes a comeback. Phyllis Harbinger, a faculty member in Interior Design, spoke with New York magazine about the resurgence of the slipcovered white couch. “These couches are like comfort food for the external body,” she said.     Interior designers are rethinking the environmental cost of marble. It’s not a sustainable choice, Grazyna Pilatowicz, associate professor of Interior Design, told CNA Luxury. “For many years [interior design] was considered a luxury item, and being luxury, it wasn’t considering any kind of responsibility to the public.”

DECEMBER 21, 2020 This past year has been challenging, frightening, and inspiring, sometimes all at the same time. Our most-read articles of the year speak to these unprecedented times, with an uplifting story about alumni working to provide masks to hospitals coming in at number one. On the other hand, despite our community working and studying remotely, much of the year unfolded as usual: students won major awards and scholarships, faculty continued to devote themselves to teaching and research, and alumni found innovative ways to advance their careers. Here’s hoping our school, our city, our state, our country, and our world all reach a sense of normalcy in 2021.     1. FIT Alumni and SUNY Rising to the Call When the pandemic first hit and personal protective equipment was scarce, a pair of alumni started Sew4Lives, a New York–based nonprofit to sew medical-grade PPE for hospitals. They made a significant impact at a pivotal moment in our nation’s history. Image from movie poster for 1963 film Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor     2. Fashion History Timeline Justine De Young, assistant professor of History of Art, created a scholarly web resource that chronicles fashion history from ancient times to the present. Hundreds of students from 42 majors created content that has already been referenced by fashion historians. In a feature on the new Hue website, we examined five diverse entries.     3. Fashionista Names FIT Among the World’s Top Fashion Schools Yet again, FIT earned a spot in this important ranking of global design programs. For more rankings, check out this roundup. Seven images of clothing and accessories on models     4. FIT Kicks Off Design Entrepreneurs 2020     Over the past decade, the FIT Design Entrepreneurs program helped more than 200 companies grow their businesses. In 2020, the program concluded. The kickoff announcement became one of the top stories on Newsroom this year. A retrospective story about the impact of the program didn’t quite make the list—but it provides testimonials from distinguished alumni of the program.     5. FIT Takes Five Spots in Met Museum Competition Fashion Design students excelled in this year’s Costume Institute competition, themed after the blockbuster exhibition About Time: Fashion and Duration. The assignment was to “create one design expressive of fashion as an acutely accurate and especially sensitive timepiece” and “generate temporal associations that conflate the past, present, and future in one ensemble.” deco style drawing of a woman's head with jewelry radiating from it     6. The Evolution of Fashion Through Illustration This spring, FIT’s renowned Special Collections and College Archives brought selections from its Frances Neady Collection of fashion illustrations to the Society of Illustrators for a seminal exhibition. The exhibition has ended, but you can still take in our slide show of sumptuous highlights. Elisabeth Moss and Alexis Bledel in The Handmaid's Tale     7. An FIT Guide to Binge-Watching At the start of the year, no one could have guessed just how much time they’d be spending at home, and in the first months of the pandemic, Americans watched a record amount of TV. Given that numerous alumni are established in costume design, producing, acting, and other essential parts of the TV biz, we listed some of the shows they worked on.     8. Three FIT Students Awarded Gucci Changemaker Scholarships To help increase diversity in the fashion industry, Gucci launched a major scholarship program that provides funding and mentorship to 20 fashion design students of color per year. FIT students won three in the first year.     9. FIT and Yellowbrick Launch Gaming and Esports Online Education Program As part of an expansive effort to create programming for diverse, nontraditional learners, FIT collaborated with online education provider Yellowbrick to debut a gaming and esports certificate.     10. How Will the Pandemic Change the Fashion Business? This story from the new Hue website brought in faculty and alumni experts to address the big question on everyone’s minds since COVID-19 triggered a global shutdown. Will the fashion industry survive? Editors’ Choice: Girl Scouts Enlists FIT Fashion Design Students for Uniform Redesign and New Apparel Collection The Girl Scouts uniform was in need of an update. FIT’s DTech Lab partnered with the Girl Scouts of the USA and brought together FIT students to design looks that would appeal to today’s kids. The makeover made national news.

August 25, 2020     Internships, a signature component of the FIT experience, are still going strong during the pandemic—albeit remotely. According to a recent survey, 93 percent of FIT’s summer interns reported that they achieved their learning objectives, and 83 percent would recommend their internships to other students.     “There’s a myth out there that everything has shut down,” says Tardis Johnson, associate dean for Student Academic Support. “Everything hasn’t shut down—it’s migrated remotely.”     When the pandemic put the city on lockdown, the tools for remote learning were already in place, though not at this scale, says Frantz Alcindor, director of Career and Internship Services. In moving internships online, he has educated employers on which tasks, like social media outreach and writing, can be done online.     To those struggling to find internships or jobs right now, Marjorie Silverman, chair of Internship Studies—a department that offers courses that help prepare students for their internships—says to keep learning. “Employers are going to know what it meant to be a student in 2020,” she says. “How do you use this time to develop your skill set, whether it’s learning a foreign language or serving your community? How do you use this time to show that you are relevant to industry?”     We spoke with four students about how their summer internships played out.     Hoover Yu Hau Chung, Menswear ’20 “I am a pro-online learning person,” says Hoover, who had a career in advertising before coming to FIT. He finds he can focus better in video meetings, and if he doesn’t understand a term—he grew up in Hong Kong and his first language is Cantonese—he can unobtrusively look it up.     His summer internship, which took place after he completed the coursework for his degree, was with an avant-garde, gender-fluid label called Linder. Previous internships at Derek Lam and Eckhaus Latta were more structured; for Linder, Hoover helped the two owner/designers complete their spring 2021 collection, which involved lots of sample-making on his home sewing machine.     He missed the in-person interactions with more experienced artisans that might have improved his own skills, but he learned what he’d hoped to: “How artistic brands create their DNA and come up with their clothing—that is something that cannot be taught.”     As a graduate, he is still looking to build skills, to give him an edge in the job market during this historic recession. He plans to study 3D design and intern in performance wear, and will look for a full-time position next year.     “It’s going to be a long haul,” he says. “I just have to be a renaissance man right now.”     Apoorva Grover, Advertising and Marketing Communications ’21 Apoorva, a student from Nigeria, had a seven-week marketing internship with Carol Hannah, a luxury bridal company. Each morning, her supervisor would lay out the day’s tasks in a Google Doc, and they would talk them through on the phone or a video call. She carried out market research on the brand’s competitors, bolstered traffic to the website using search engine optimization (SEO), drafted blog posts, and ran social media analytics.     Toward the end of her internship, restrictions in New York City relaxed, and she was allowed to work in the store. She finally met her supervisor and Carol Hannah in person, and she worked on an in-house photo shoot and mailed out sample gowns for brides to try on.     She says that working remotely could have been demotivating, but she had a great relationship with her supervisor and felt that her work mattered (she was the company’s only intern).     “Knowing that sitting behind my laptop and making a few tweaks is making a huge difference for Carol Hannah was a really good feeling,” she says.     Jay Son, Fashion Business Management ’21 When Jay’s prestigious summer internship with Ralph Lauren was canceled, he scrambled and found one at La Perla, an Italian luxury intimates brand. He couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.     Monday mornings, his supervisor, a merchandising manager, gives him a project for the week, and Monday afternoons, he attends a corporate videoconference to hear about the state of the brand. His work mirrors what he studied at FIT: organizing data to make a report of each week’s sales trends, creating line sheets to help sell the products to each store, and assisting with buying and replenishment programs.     “I’m really excited, because this is exactly what I wanted to learn,” he says.     Jay also enjoys the work-at-home lifestyle. He doesn’t have to wake up early, he saves money on lunch, and he records every conference with his boss so that he doesn’t have to keep following up. He does miss face-to-face interaction, though: “That is not something you can achieve from a video chat.”     He plans on continuing the internship through the fall semester, and he looks forward to the going into the office.     “Before I started, I was worried—I thought it would be ridiculous to work remotely,” he says. “But surprisingly it has been going really smoothly.”      Kia Ward, Textile/Surface Design ’21 Kia interned with Fashion Fights Cancer, a nonprofit that offers fashion- and design-related activities to those who have been affected by cancer.     “My aunt passed about five years ago from ovarian cancer,” Kia says. “When I saw the opportunity, I knew I had to give something back.”     Every morning, she logged into the organization’s project-management system to see her assignments, which included asking established designers to donate clothes or their time. Some designers taught classes to cancer survivors; others appeared in photos to promote the charity.     Adjusting to remote work was not easy, and Kia wished she had gotten to meet her team in person and see the facilities. With two weeks left in the internship, she hit upon a project she became passionate about: working behind the scenes on the Fashion Fights Cancer’s Therapy Podcast, which featured FIT alumnus Byron Lars, Jason Wu, and other designers talking about current issues, such as the impact of COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement. One episode was a conversation about natural hair in the Black community. She loved working on the podcast so much that she extended her internship.     Kia is nervous about the job market; she sees companies laying off their workforce and hopes the industry will rebound by the time she graduates. Ultimately she wants to open a boutique where she can sell African-inspired prints that she designs.     “I’m praying and hoping that there will be opportunities for me,” she says.     Click here to read the original article