Hue Summer 2014

volume 7 | number 3 | summer 2014

Alumni Magazine of the Fashion Institute of Technology

Alumni Magazine of the Fashion Institute of Technology

Hue is the alumni magazine of the Fashion Institute of Technology, a State University of New York college of art and design, business and technology. It is published three times a year by the Division of Communications and External Relations, 227 West 27 Street, Room B905, New York, NY 10001-5992, 212 217.4700.

Email: hue@fitnyc.edu Vice President for Communications and External Relations Loretta Lawrence Keane Assistant Vice President for Communications Carol Leven

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Editor Linda Angrilli Managing Editor Alex Joseph, MA ’13 Staff Writer Jonathan Vatner Editorial Assistant Laura Hatmaker Art Direction and Design Empire Design Studio

Hue magazine on the web: fitnyc.edu/hue blog.fitnyc.edu/huetoo Get involved with FIT and your fellow alumni. Like the FIT Alumni page on Facebook and follow @FITAlumni on Twitter. Email the Office of Alumni Relations at alumnirelations@fitnyc.edu and let us know what you’ve been up to.

FEATURES 6

Oh, Happy Day! A cosmetics dynamo and a star shoe designer enliven commencement

17 Something Blue Students learn the making and marketing of denim

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FIT Gala Celebrates Industry and Students Fancy fête raises funds for scholarships

18 How Jeans Are Made An illustrated journey from cotton field to marketplace

ENVIRONMENTAL SAVINGS FOR SUMMER 2014 63 trees preserved/planted 181 lbs waterborne waste not created 26,597 gallons wastewater flow saved 2,943 lbs solid waste not generated 5,794 lbs net greenhouse gases prevented 44,349,600 BTUs energy not consumed Printed by Cohber Press on Mohawk Inxwell Super Smooth Eco White FSC-certified, 100% post consumer waste reclaimed/ recycled fiber, made with 100% renewable energy; manufactured chlorine free; certified ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management System.

Please recycle or share this magazine.

12 The Office Cutting-edge interior design isn’t just for homes 16 Thrill Ride Alumna brings diversity to a Diesel ad campaign

20 Winners’ Tales Future boldface names from the BFA fashion show 22 Masterpiece Theater Alumni help set the stage for a fabulous Charles James exhibition at the Met

ON THE COVER

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DEPARTMENTS 4 Hue’s News 8

Hue’s Who

10 I Contact 11 Footprint 11 Faculty On… 28 Alumni Notes 31 Sparks

Shortly before David Hamilton, Advertising and Marketing Communications ’14, addressed the graduates at commencement on May 22, Sofia Johansson, Photography AAS ’14, took our cover photo. As president of the FIT Student Association, Hamilton wears the white sash denoting this position and holds the mace, a ceremonial symbol of the college. The red, white, and blue veteran’s cords commemorating his military service spill over his left elbow.

(He served in Baghdad in 2005.) Ever attuned to the symbols of fashion, he also wears sparkly high tops—with signature red soles—by Christian Louboutin, in honor of the legendary shoe designer, who served as commencement speaker. “They were $2,500, which I couldn’t afford,” Hamilton explained.

“I went to a consignment shop, and someone was dropping them off right as I walked in. I got them for $450.”

Hamilton, who after graduation was starting as an assistant account executive at Grey Advertising, walked away from the ceremony with more than a degree; he ended his speech with a proposal to his girlfriend, Binta Diallo.

He stepped off the stage and got down on one knee. (She accepted.) More on commencement, page 6.

Libeskind Speaks at Holocaust Commemoration

Peter Do, Fashion Design ’14, winner of a

On April 24, world-renowned architect Daniel

CFDA scholarship, won a Graduates Prize in

Libeskind spoke at FIT’s 13th Annual Holocaust

the LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers,

Commemoration event. Born in Poland, the son

a new contest created to demonstrate the

of Holocaust survivors, Libeskind established

luxury house’s commitment to nurturing a new

his architecture studio in Berlin in 1989 after

generation of designers. Do received 10,000

winning the competition to build the Jewish

euros (approximately $13,600) and a one-year

Museum there. In 2003, after he was selected as

contract with the LVMH fashion house Céline,

the master planner for the World Trade Center

and FIT received an equal monetary gift. Of the

site redevelopment, he moved his headquarters

three student winners, Do was the only winner

to New York City.

from North America and the only designer

In his talk, he described the concepts

Matthew Septimus

without a graduate degree. Turn to page 21 to see his androgynous coat from the Future of Fashion show. Do also won a Critic Award. See

Do walks the runway at the Future of Fashion show with a model wearing his design.

page 21 for this year’s Critic Award recipients.

Exposed Opens at MFIT at FIT through November 15, traces the develop-

of being able to walk through his buildings and hear “whispering voices of those who are not there physically” and to experience “the void that continues backwards and forwards and will be there forever.”

Ralph Lauren Celebrates Connection with FIT

Exposed: A History of Lingerie, at The Museum

behind Jewish museums he designed. He spoke

In honor of the 300-plus Ralph Lauren employ-

ments in intimate apparel from an 18th-century

ees who attended FIT, Joy Herfel Cronin,

corset to a brand-new La Perla bra and panty.

Fashion Buying and Merchandising ’86, group

More than 70 garments (and undergarments)

president, wholesale and retail for the Americas

from MFIT’s collection, many of which have

at Ralph Lauren and a member of the FIT

never been shown, are on display. The exhibition,

Foundation board of directors, co-hosted a

organized by Associate Curator Colleen Hill,

group of alumni for a reception at the company’s

was widely covered in the media, from The

Bitter Bredt

what’s happening on campus

Fashion Design Student Wins LVMH Prize

headquarters in New York. President Joyce F.

New York Times to WWD to The Daily Beast.

Brown, who sits on Ralph Lauren’s board, co-hosted.

Libeskind’s 14,500-ton wedge of concrete and steel cuts through the Military History Museum in Dresden, in response to a shifting perspective regarding Germany’s past.

A Proliferation of Student Art Anyone wandering the college’s lobbies, hallways, and gathering spaces in May saw an impressive diversity of artwork created by

Jerry Speier

graduating students in FIT’s 17 Art and Design majors. See more images on our blog, Hue Too (blog.fitnyc.edu/huetoo).

Herfel Cronin presents to FIT alumni.

Major News about Minors FIT is offering two new minors this year.

MFIT

Creative Technology, offered through the Poirette bra, nylon lace, 1949, USA; and Christian Dior petticoat, nylon net, taffeta, and horsehair net, 1951, France.

School of Art and Design, is for students who want to study digital technology beyond their prescribed curriculum. Ethics and Sustainability, an interdisciplinary minor, comprises 17 courses that will enhance students’ understanding of the philosophical, social, economic, and environmental impact of their work.

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hue | summer 2014

Ashley by Liz Yeung, Illustration ’14.

LOT-EK Wins FIT’s Israel Prize

A Whale of a Table

QUICK READ

The Interior Design Department awarded Ada Tolla and Guiseppe Lignano, founding partners

>> President Joyce F. Brown’s new blog, “On My

of the architecture firm LOT-EK (pronounced

Mind” (blog.fitnyc.edu/onmymind), offers her

low-tech), the 2014 Lawrence Israel Prize, given

thoughts on higher education, her hopes for

annually to an individual or firm whose ideas

FIT, and her reflections on the news and issues of

and work enrich students’ studies. The principals

the day; it is also an opportunity to engage the

spoke at FIT on April 22 about their innovative,

FIT community in conversation.

sustainable approach to construction and materials for installations and buildings. As an example, in

>> David Hamilton ’14, president of the FIT Student

redeveloping a pier in the Meatpacking District,

Association, and Brian Williams ’16, student vice

LOT-EK is upcycling shipping containers to create

president of alumni affairs, established the

public and commercial spaces.

college’s first-ever class gift, a donation from the class of 2014 to benefit FIT’s natural dye garden.

FIT’s Pinocchio-inspired table.

Danny Bright

Every year, interior designers, architects, and others create imaginative dining environments to

three best-of-show winners from the Best of SUNY

benefit Dining By Design, a fundraiser for DIFFA:

art exhibition. He received a $1,000 scholarship,

Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS. For

and his work is on display at the State Museum in

the 2014 event, Visual Presentation and Exhibition

Albany through August 31.

Design majors Angel Chang, Gabriella Gambino, Jae Min Song, and Robyn Williamson, all class of 2014, created an award-winning student entry based on a scene from Pinocchio in which the

LOT-EK created Puma City, a portable retail and event space, from 24 retrofitted shipping containers.

>> Takuya Okawara, AAS Fine Arts ’14, was one of

rebellious marionette is swallowed by a whale.

They constructed gigantic vertebrae out of PVC pipes, built the table to look like a raft, hung nautical rope and lanterns, and set the table with mismatched bottles and glassware. The project was overseen by Adjunct Associate Professor Glenn Sokoli and mentored by event designer Jes Gordon.

>> Seven students won SUNY Chancellor’s Awards for Student Excellence this year. The award was created in 1997 to recognize students who integrate academic excellence with extracurricular accomplishment. >> The SUNY Scholar Athlete Award, recognizing academic and athletic achievement, was awarded to four FIT students this year. >> Dance & Fashion, an exhibition that will explore the intersection of these two art forms, premieres September 13 at The Museum at FIT.

Stamp-ede!

To create the U.S. Postal Service’s commemora-

Jerry Speier

tive stamps, a tradition dating back to 1893, stamp

Lignano and Tolla accept the award, an oversized drafting triangle, from Andrew Seifer, chair of Interior Design.

Going Greener Faster A $3.2 million grant to FIT from the Accelerated Conservation and Efficiency program of the New

art directors hire artists whose work matches their vision. Three Illustration faculty members recently served as stamp artists: Rudy Gutierrez,

a $10,000 scholarship from Joe’s Blackbook, a recruitment and consulting firm for the creative industries. >> FIT established the new Global Scholar Award

adjunct instructor, designed a Jimi Hendrix

program to enhance international learning

stamp; William Low, assistant professor, created

opportunities. Beginning this fall, the program will

a poinsettia stamp for Christmas as well as a set

offer seven need-based scholarships, totaling

featuring winter flowers; and Kam Mak, professor

$25,000, for study abroad.

and assistant chair, illustrated one commemorating the 2014 Lunar New Year. Mak has been commissioned to

York City Department of Citywide Administrative

design 12 Lunar

Services has enabled three energy-efficient

New Year stamps,

upgrades at the college: a new air-handling unit

annually from 2008

that can be turned down in the evenings, new

to 2019. The stamps

hot-water heaters in the academic buildings,

are available for

and an upgrade to a museum-quality heating,

purchase at

ventilation, and air-conditioning system in The Museum at FIT’s accessories collection. Together

>> Dashiel Walter Brahmann, Menswear ’14, won

Gutierrez’s Jimi Hendrix stamp.

uspsstamps.com.

>> Robert Ferguson has been named vice president for development and executive director of the FIT Foundation. He was most recently deputy director of development for the Natural Resources Defense Council. >> This year’s capstone presentations by MPS students in Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing and Management, titled “The Changing Face of the Beauty Consumer,” focused on new categories of consumers and developing

these improvements will reduce the college’s

strategies to market to them.

carbon footprint by more than 1,400 metric tons and save more than a million dollars a year in fuel.

fitnyc.edu/hue

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OH,

HAPPY DAY!

Wild enthusiasm and sage advice mark commencement 2014 “If you’re ready to conspire with the universe, make some noise!” exhorted David Hamilton, the president of the FIT Student Association, at the

college’s 69th commencement exercises, on May 22.

In response, the crowd of graduating students and their families let out an immense whoop. Hamilton, Advertising and Marketing Communications ’14, drew inspiration for his speech from Paulo Coelho’s spiritual allegory The Alchemist, but closed with an old-fashioned coup de théâtre: He proposed to his girlfriend, Binta Diallo. (She accepted.)

It was merely one sensational moment in a day packed with them, as approximately 1,600 graduates of 46 programs received AAS, BFA, BS,

extraordinaire Christian Louboutin, speaker and

MA, MFA, and MPS degrees. Inside Javits Center

honorary degree recipient, advised students not

North, the mood was jubilant, as fantastically

to take advice. For example, he said, he’d received

decked-out mortarboards and magnificent

two recommendations: “One, never sleep where

footwear competed for the unofficial title of most

you work; two, don’t work with friends—they’ll be

resplendent accessory. This year, the students

your enemies.” Yet he slept in his studio for eight

heard their names announced as they crossed the

years, and he started his company with friends.

stage to be congratulated by President Joyce F.

(They still work together.)

Brown and the deans of their schools. John J.

In her address, President Brown counseled

Pomerantz, trustee emeritus of FIT’s Board of including one of her first jobs as a waitress.

photographer Vivian Maier. Now considered a

received a lifetime achievement award, celebrating

“I learned a lot of math—I could calculate 20

noteworthy street photographer, Maier never

his 55-year association with the college and his

percent of any number,” she said. She counseled

published any of the 100,000 photographs she took

storied career. Liz Peek, chair of the Board of

the students to “be nice,” and recalled an early

in her lifetime; her work was only discovered after

Trustees, spoke about how creative people need to

collaboration with renowned photographer Bruce

her death. “Everyone wants to be famous,” Dr.

occasionally “turn off the noise” from technology.

Weber. Though she was anxious on the day of the

Brown said. “Thanks to the magic of smartphones,

shoot, he welcomed her to his studio with a

we broadcast every minute, every iota of our lives

Technology and Liberal Arts graduates, Bobbi

compliment. “I’ll never forget his kindness, and

to the world. …. I do not want to suggest that you

Brown, founder and chief creative officer of the

how he made a real difference in my experience,”

strive for obscurity. However, as you go on your

wildly successful firm Bobbi Brown Cosmetics,

she said.

journey, I hope you fall in love with the process.”

was the speaker and honorary degree recipient.

In the afternoon, for the schools of Art and

It was the perfect sentiment for the day, being

She described the early years of her career,

Design and Graduate Studies, shoe designer

both elegantly phrased, and eminently tweetable.

A

t the morning ceremony, for Business and

PUMPS AND CIRCUMSTANCE 2014: THE SHOES OF COMMENCEMENT

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students to resist the pursuit of fame and invoked

Trustees and former chair of the FIT Foundation,

hue | summer 2014

NATURAL WOMAN

A Conversation With Bobbi Brown

What’s the secret to writing a great commencement speech?

To not try to be anything different than what I am.

I wrote and rewrote it ten times.

What’s your decision process for new products?

First, quality. It’s also important that they make a difference and that the colors are pretty.

Where do you find color inspiration?

Faces, of course, but I also find a lot of inspiration in cement. I look at the sides of buildings to look

SOLE MAN

at the different grays. I’m a crazed color thinker.

A Conversation With Christian Louboutin

I calm myself at night with color—I’ll think of a

When talking about heels, how high is too high?

blue is instant happiness for me.

Nothing. Nothing is too high. Maybe it depends

Who is your makeup icon?

Photos on this page: Jerry Speier. Shoes: Smiljana Peros, Tudor Vasilescu BFA ’15, and Sofia Johansson AAS ’14. Opposite page: Peros.

on the person, but for me? No.

beige blanket or ocean blue water. That Caribbean

That would have to be Estée Lauder. She was an

What’s your first memory of heels?

original entrepreneur. She created things that

Vertigo, with Kim Novak. Also that Jacques

didn’t exist. And she did her own social media—

Tourneur film—what is it? Cat People. There’s

she believed in word of mouth.

a certain music in the way that woman walks.

If you were stuck on a desert island and could only

Have you ever worn your own high heels?

bring one product, what would it be?

No. Maybe just for one second to try the balance

Definitely sunscreen. I have a cream that’s SPF 35.

of the heel.

Is there a mirror on this island?

What’s the most important pair of shoes in

You’re on Twitter and Instagram, you have a blog,

history?

and you were recently named editor in chief of

Cinderella’s shoe. It’s an object of consummation

Yahoo Beauty. How do you keep social media from

between two people, but it also means virginity.

taking over your life?

Plus, no one can agree whether it’s made of crystal

It’s part of the culture now. Instead of parents

or fur!

fighting it, they should embrace it and teach their

Who would you most like to put in your shoes today?

Two people. On Queen Elizabeth II? A flat. And the pope: 9-inch heels!

kids how to use it responsibly. It’s the same thing with drinking. Now that I have a job at Yahoo, I’m in the tech industry, so when my husband tells me to get off the computer, I tell him I’m working!

But I’m also grateful when I get on an airplane and there’s no Wi-Fi. What’s missing from the beauty market?

The truth. It’s really important to tell women the truth.

Top: Bobbi Brown, Dr. Joyce F. Brown, and Dr. Peter Knuepfer, member of the SUNY board of trustees; above left: Dr. Brown hoods Christian Louboutin; far left: Louboutin, Dr. Brown, and Robin Burns-McNeill, vice chair of the FIT board of trustees; left: John J. Pomerantz. Liz Peek, chair, FIT Board of Trustees.

Scads of red-soled Louboutins were on display this year, among lots more fabulous footwear. Check out blog.fitnyc.edu/huetoo for more photos of the class of 2014.

fitnyc.edu/hue

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VIPs at FIT events this academic year

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Carolina Herrera hosted a luncheon for the Couture Council board of directors: Valerie Steele, Elizabeth Musmanno, Julie Macklowe, Carolina Herrera, Yaz Hernรกndez, and Dr. Joyce Brown.

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Couture Council Luncheon Honoring Michael Kors: 1. Hilary Swank, Michael Kors*, and Anna Wintour. 2. Nina Garcia*.

3. Iman. 4. Alexandra Richards and Patti Hansen. 5. Dennis Basso*. 6. Martha Stewart. 7. Linda Fargo, Bergdorf Goodman; Yaz Hernรกndez, FIT board of trustees; and Stefano Tonchi, W. 8. Iris Apfel.

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A Queer History of Fashion Opening: 1. Erin Brady, Miss USA, and Cassidy World, Miss Teen USA. 2. Simon Doonan.

3. Fern Mallis. 4. Hamish Bowles, Vogue. 5. Robert Verdi*.

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Cocktails and Conversation, a Couture Council event with Reed Krakoff. Krakoff and Valerie Steele.

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The Couture Council visits the atelier of Ralph Rucci.

Rucci*.

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The Future of Fashion: 2014 BFA Fashion Show: 1. Alexa Chung. 2. Calvin Klein*. 3. Randy Fenoli*. 4. Bryanboy, blogger. 5. Rebecca Minkoff*. 6. Francisco Costa*.

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A Queer History of Fashion Symposium: 1. Hal Rubenstein, InStyle. 2. Christoper Breward, author. 3. James Gager, MAC Cosmetics, and Valerie Steele. 4. John Bartlett* and Fred Dennis*. 5. Valerie Steele and Fran Lebowitz.

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Speakers on campus: 1. Tim Gunn. 2. Elie Tahari.

3. John Varvatos. 4. Spike Lee. 5. William Wegman.

6. Bruce Rockowitz, Li & Fung. 7. Wendy Williams and Constance White, author. 8. Daniel Libeskind.

9. Virginia Postrel, author.

*FIT alumna/us

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hue | summer 2014

FIT Gala Celebrates Industry and Students FIT’s 2014 gala, on June 9, drew more than 600 of fashion’s boldface names to Cipriani 42nd Street and raised more than $2.5 million for the college’s Educational Development Fund. On view in the festive space were fabulous feathered creatures that Visual Presentation and Exhibition Design students had created. Their extraordinary work set the stage for an event that celebrated the industry and FIT, but in the end was about all the students who benefit from an FIT education.

Three industry VIPs were honored: Jay H. Baker, FIT trustee, chair of the FIT Foundation, and former Kohl’s president; Linda Fargo, senior vice president of the fashion office and store presentation at Bergdorf Goodman; and jewelry designer, philanthropist, and FIT trustee Joan B. Hornig.

Clockwise from top left: President Joyce F. Brown, Jay and Patty Baker, and the Baker Scholars; Dr. Brown, Baker, Joan Hornig, and Linda Fargo; Fargo and Alber Elbaz; Ruben Toledo, Iris Apfel, and FIT alumna Isabel Toledo; Diane von Furstenberg and Hamish Bowles, editor-at-large of Vogue; Dennis Basso ’73 and Dr. Brown; Adrienne Vittadini and Arie Kopelman, former president of Chanel; Carolina Herrera and Ariel Foxman, editor of InStyle; a feathery design from the Fowl Play student project; Elizabeth T. Peek, chair of FIT’s board of trustees, and FIT trustee Yaz Hernández.

Lanvin designer Alber Elbaz presented Fargo’s award, calling her a “rare pearl in the fashion industry…. a dreamer, but also a doer” who pushes people to excellence. Hornig’s husband, George, surprised her by establishing an endowed scholarship in her name; their $100,000 gift will aid Jewelry Design students.

Accepting his award, Baker said that often the only thing standing between a creative young person and an education is financial means, and he announced a gift of $1 million. In 2001, Baker and his wife, Patty, made a $10 million donation—still the largest gift to FIT—part of which funds the Baker Scholars program for students in the School of Business and Technology; in 2005, the school was named for the Bakers in recognition of their continuing generosity. Two scholars—a current student and an alumna—presented Jay Baker’s award. Almost 40 Baker Scholars past and present attended the event, demonstrating their lasting affection for the Bakers, who stay closely involved with these students.

The evening closed with the scholars gathered for a photo with Baker and his wife, leaving guests with a vision of FIT’s best and brightest—and of those who help secure their future.

fitnyc.edu/hue

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a student in first person

START SPREADING THE NEWS Ayelet Cohen Direct and Interactive Marketing ’14

What cool projects have you worked on this year?

For a class in direct marketing communications, we had to invent a potential business. I came up with a website that was a combination of an online dating site and LinkedIn. A lot of times, work habits match but personalities clash; on my site, employers could review resumes but also see a potential employee’s personality, hobbies, and work habits. Last semester, for a class in direct response and media planning, I created a product called a Shrink-A-Mabob-It. Um, what?

You know how, when you get to the bottom of the ice cream carton, there’s always a little bit left in this huge container? My 12-year-old brother had this idea for a container that shrinks and expands, like an accordion. I turned that into my project and targeted it to mothers who are packing school lunches and young professionals who could carry water in it. I also developed a toothpaste-toothbrush combo called Push ’N Brush.

I want one! So what’s a typical hot topic in your major?

We spent so many hours discussing why Ron Johnson failed as CEO of J.C. Penney. The key thing to learn is to always test the market. He just did away with coupons. He said, “We didn’t do market testing when I was at Apple!” The customers didn’t like it.

Your internship sounds pretty amazing.

I got interested in my major because I wanted to apply business skills at a charitable organization or nonprofit. This foundation is corporate philanthropy and fashion all in one. They provide women entrepreneurs who are just starting out with access to low-cost loans and networking and mentoring events. I help make sure the events run smoothly.

You grew up in Long Beach, California. Will you be going home after graduation?

I am absolutely one hundred percent staying in New York City.

In between high school and college, I lived in Israel for a year.

I worked for a family bakery in Jerusalem and a fashion designer in Tel Aviv, and I loved every minute of it. I could’ve gone to UCLA; I got in. But the moment you land in New York, the moment you take that gorgeous jaunt through Central Park,

Matthew Septimus

you know. There’s just something about it.

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hue | summer 2014

POWERFUL SOLUTIONS “We’re living today in a scientific nightmare,” Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. pronounced in his keynote speech at FIT’s Eighth Annual Sustainable Business and Design Conference, “People, Planet, Prosperity: Measuring Our Impact,” held April 8 in the John E. Reeves Great Hall. The conference, which also featured Tom LaForge, the Coca-Cola Company’s global director of human and cultural insights, and Laurie Kerr, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s City Energy Project, drew more than 500 registrants for the first time.

Kennedy, senior attorney for the NRDC and fervent environmental activist, rattled off facts and observations about environmental damage caused by the energy industry: Coal mining has destroyed the 500 biggest mountains in West Virginia and contaminated every freshwater fish in America with mercury, the oil industry backed a $500 million campaign to lie about global warming, and nuclear power costs five times as much as any other energy source and produces waste that will be radioactive for 30,000 years.

“In a true free market, companies would have to pay the cost of bringing their goods to market,” he growled, exasperated and barely pausing to breathe. “That includes the cost of cleaning up after themselves—which is a lesson we were supposed to have learned in kindergarten.”

Instead, he said, traditional energy companies get heavy government subsidies. “If you show me a polluter, I’ll show you a subsidy.”

Though Kennedy’s speech was mostly fire and brimstone, he offered a solution. He called for a nationwide transmission grid for electricity, to allow solar panels in the Southwest and wind turbines in the Midwest to feed energy needs on the coasts. He claimed that a 75-by-75-mile field of solar panels in the Southwestern desert could power the entire country, and that a transmission grid would cost about $3 trillion, “less than the cost of the Iraq war.”

He said that with such a grid, the cost of electricity would drop almost to zero. Cheap green energy would clean up the environment and ease diplomatic tensions in the Middle East.

His impassioned speech electrified the audience, and Kennedy finished to a standing ovation.

Matthew Septimus

insights from the classroom and beyond

THE NOSE KNOWS Virginia Bonofiglio, Assistant Professor and Associate Chair Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing We think we smell with our nose, but we really smell with our brain. Smelling is very personal; how things smell to you depends on your culture, how you were raised, scents you were exposed to in your childhood, like what fragrance your grandmother wore. That’s why it’s so difficult to market a global scent.

In the U.S., for example, babies smell powdery, like Johnson & Johnson—very sweet. But in South America, they put lavender on their babies, which is much more herbaceous. Everything has scent—not just beauty products but detergents, candles, room spray, even food. If you work in the fragrance industry, you’re going to have to figure out what smells are in many of these products.

In my class, Fragrance Knowledge, students learn to identify 100 scents, single notes as well as finished fragrances.

There is a methodology of smelling: scents are classified into families, such as citrus, green, floral, and herbaceous. We all intuitively have this ability to identify odors. It’s called an olfactive memory. Some students are more in touch with their sense of smell; others need to take that first step. You start by smelling things that don’t smell like each other; the differences allow you to remember them. You can’t smell consistently hour after hour, so we limit it to 12 scents per class. I tell my students that they need to find their own individual memory triggers to help them distinguish between scents. I’ll pass around fragrance blotters and ask, where does this scent take you? If it’s lemon, they might say furniture polish, lemonade, or candy. I tell them to just have the Lorenzo Ciniglio

steps toward a sustainable future

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. electrifies the FIT audience with a plea for green energy

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

emotional experience and not to overthink it. Then it’s a matter of practice, repetition, like exercising a muscle. By the end of the semester, students have created their own system of smelling. That’s their first step to becoming fragrance marketers or evaluators.

fitnyc.edu/hue

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The Office Bill Bouchey, Interior Design ’85, creates innovative workspaces

By Dan Rubinstein

ABOVE

Milliken & Company, Spartanburg, SC When materials and textile giant Milliken wanted to bring together its corporate flooring division under one roof, M Moser responded with a hive-like system of hexagonal cubicles from Herman Miller, which Milliken happens to supply the woven materials for. The plan gives employees their own spaces and creates informal areas for impromptu meetings.

A boat used in team rowing was hung from the ceiling to represent teamwork.

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hue | summer 2014

Nick Parisse ’09

Considering how much time people spend at their

“I feel passionate about understanding how

jobs, it’s surprising that workspace design doesn’t

design can support, enhance, improve, and match

attract attention like its more glamorous residential

a client’s business objectives,” he says. He cites

cousin—and designers of work environments tend

a recent advertising client in Asia and their need

not to get big awards or their own TV shows. But

to make a communal meeting space both func-

Bill Bouchey, the design director of M Moser

tional and memorable for visiting clients. “We

Associates’ New York office, finds his prolific,

used the theme of a carousel; there’s a slide that

30-year career of crafting spaces unreservedly

cascades down, adjacent to a flight of stairs,”

fulfilling. “I’ve always gravitated to the workplace

Bouchey says. “The stair element is expanded

because it’s where you live most of your life,”

into the design to be like stone bleachers, so it

Bouchey says. “I want my workplace to be as

could also be used as a place for people to sit.”

satisfying as my home.” To him, offices are no

corporate spaces to be extra-creative: the amount

need to include all the comforts and personal

of square footage per employee is shrinking, more

flourishes that you’d expect in a residence.

and more space is being dedicated to media and

Raised in Lansingburgh, NY, a small town LEFT

Milliken & Company, NYC The reception area of Milliken’s Manhattan office and showroom is flooded with light from windows. Bouchey had the floor painted white to create a canvas for demonstrating the company’s various textile offerings. To balance out the busy patterns, amorphous seating from Moroso is upholstered in calming, solid colors.

Recent trends have driven designers of

longer simply functional spaces. Instead, they

technology, and clients themselves are more

near Albany, Bouchey always dreamed of living in

design savvy than ever. “They’ve all been online

New York City. FIT’s faculty and its conceptual,

and done their research. Even if they’re not

holistic approach drew him to the Interior Design

trained as architects, they almost always come

program, where he studied with Julius Panero,

in with ideas,” he says. “It’s a real challenge to

Martin Zelnik, and Michael Altschuler. “The

come up with something original, authentic,

faculty had a large number of architects, and the

and fresh, so you’re not repeating something

emphasis was on problem-solving with a three-

somebody else has done.”

dimensional approach that emphasized emotional

But this only fuels Bouchey’s love of creative

connections and a sense of place,” he says. problem-solving. “The beauty and the joy of it Bouchey has been with M Moser for four

is that you get to collaborate with a variety of

years, a global design and architecture firm,

creative and technically interesting brands.”

overseeing a large team of creatives. (The firm

His advice for the next generation? Trust

has more than 600 employees worldwide.) He

your gut and learn the delicate dance of working

stresses the importance of the discovery process,

creatively with a client. “When you combine that

with today’s clients more interested than ever

with being able to generate ideas, it’s pretty

in reflecting their brands through their offices.

powerful. And it’s pretty satisfying, too.”

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BELOW

Nucraft, Chicago For the Chicago showroom of Nucraft, a manufacturer of wood furniture used in corporate offices, M Moser was challenged to counterbalance the cold image of the company. Bouchey introduced “rough, textured elements to create a dialogue” between the space and the “very sleek and buttoned-up” goods the brand is known for.

A trellis made from reclaimed wood is used as a canopy to highlight new products and create a focal point.

ABOVE

M Moser Associates, NYC Bouchey’s firm, M Moser Associates, has a nonhierarchical structure and a collaborative, collegial atmosphere, so he designed its New York headquarters with an open plan: employees all have the same amount of desk space and no private offices. The open breakout meeting space is given extra personality with a white column employees are encouraged to write on.

14

hue | summer 2014

LEFT

National Alzheimer’s Association, NYC For the kitchen at the corporate training center for the National Alzheimer’s Association in New York, M Moser made an effort to put caregivers at ease. “The association didn’t want it to look corporate,” Bouchey says. “They asked for solutions to make it warm, hospitable, tailored, and sleek.” They paired purple— the organization’s official color—with cork flooring, high-backed lounge chairs, and residential lighting fixtures.

ABOVE

Hudson Rouge, NYC When designing the main collaborative space for advertising agency Hudson Rouge, Bouchey and his team created an open, flexible floor plan. The design allows for meetings of various sizes and for the use of an overhead projector. “It’s not dictatorial,” Bouchey says. Colorful stools, a reclaimed-wood table, and a variety of seating options balance out the rest of the clean-lined office.

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15

Thrill Ride Getting to know fashion editor Jillian Mercado, Fashion Merchandising Management ’10, Diesel’s most talked-about model

don’t really have diversity in fashion. It’s really sad to say that. But I’m the only one in a wheelchair at fashion week.

What is the medical condition that keeps you in a wheelchair?

It’s called spastic muscular dystrophy. In certain parts of my body, my muscles get tight all of a sudden. They say it’s hereditary but no one in my family has it. As a child, I was told I had cerebral palsy, but finally the doctors figured out that nothing was wrong with my brain. At an appointment, I read my diagnosis on my chart. They didn’t tell me. They thought I knew.

Who’s the other model in the picture?

Fame has been good to Jillian Mercado, executive editorial director of WeTheUrban, an online fashion, art, and music magazine. She caused a media sensation in January when she appeared in Diesel’s Reboot ad campaign, created by artistic director Nicola Formichetti, mastermind of Lady Gaga’s insanest getups. Hue spoke with Mercado about her chair, her career, and her fabulous hair.

How did the Diesel ad come about?

I met Nicola Formichetti in February 2013 at a fashion week party for WeTheUrban. We hit it off, talking about our dogs all night. One day, he

original idea was to pair me with the six other bloggers at the shoot. At the last second, they were like, “You and James have the same hair color. Let’s put you together.”

What’s your natural color?

A really dark brown. Like super dark, almost hitting black. I never was a fan of natural hair colors. I’ve tried all the Revlon and Garnier boxes in the drugstore, and natural color just isn’t fun for me. I can’t spice up my outfits with it.

posted on his Facebook page that he was doing a casting call. I submitted

And now you share a hairstylist with Courtney Love?

some photos, and two or three weeks later, I got an email saying they were

I hooked her up with my hairstylist. At a photo shoot for WeTheUrban,

really interested in me. I was like, “Whaaaaat? This is not happening!”

Courtney Love was in the next room, complaining about how her hair was

Were you nervous about such intense exposure?

16

James Astronaut. He’s an artist and designer, but he’s also a model. The

in knots. My hairdresser did her hair, and Courtney fell in love with her.

It was a risk. I didn’t want people to think this was a Make-A-Wish

What has happened as a result of the Diesel campaign?

Foundation kind of photo, because I sleep, eat, and drink the fashion

I’ve gotten interviews almost every day for four months now. And that is so

industry. For their part, I know they had a huge meeting about me. They

unheard of, a campaign being so relevant four months later. I thought it was

opened a conversation that’s been buried for a long time, which is that we

going to last a week. —Jonathan Vatner

hue | summer 2014

THE ASSIGNMENT:

CREATE A DENIM BRAND TH E RE S U LT:

REAL-WORLD LEARNING WITH INDUSTRY GREATS

By Jonathan Vatner very spring for the past ten years, eighth-semester

E

The program was also given an interdisciplinary boost.

Textile Development and Marketing students

Eight third-year Fashion Design students, curious about how

have gone through the entire process of dev-

fabric is developed, took the course, sketching by hand and

eloping a line of jeans, except actually producing

creating “technical flats” in Adobe Illustrator to send to the

it. They create a consumer profile and brand

patternmaker. For Arris denim, a line of sleek black jeans

identity, select fibers and trims, order fabric samples and

meant to double as dress pants, Fashion Design students

prototypes, and devise a sales and marketing plan.

Katherine Taylor and Alessandra DiBernardo preserved a

“I was sick of talking about how denim is made, and

clean silhouette by using only double-welt pockets, the type

I thought, why not actually make it?” Professor Jeffrey

that usually appears on the rear of dress pants.

Silberman, chair of the department, recalls. He brought in Andrew Olah, one of the world’s leading experts in denim development and marketing, and Amy Leonard, vice president of global sourcing for Banana Republic, to spearhead the course and mentor students. Ten years later, they’re

Classes in other majors were brought in as well, some to improve the jeans, others to extend each denim brand: • Technical Design students improved the fit of the jeans—specifying, for example, a U-shaped, not V-shaped crotch.

still doing it.

This year’s students learned from 19 experts—at

• Production Management students calculated detailed

Cotton Incorporated, Nexgen Packaging, and Google—

costing, down to the price of a yard of cotton/spandex

about topics ranging from fabric selection to social media

fabric ($12) and the time it takes to sew an eyelet

marketing. After making every decision necessary for

buttonhole (nine seconds).

producing their lines—conventional or organic cotton? Raw or washed denim? Sold in department stores or in branded boutiques? Ads on Facebook or in fashion magazines?—the four teams presented their samples and strategy to a packed house of faculty, alumni, and students, as well as to the

• Working from a design brief and customer profile, Home Products Development students designed deniminspired bedding, draperies, rugs, and desk accessories.

• Textile/Surface Design students crafted bib aprons and pot holders that reflected the character and mood of

advisors to the denim project.

the jeans.

• Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing students mixed brand-inspired scents. For Stand denim, a sustainable brand, they chose natural ingredients and a refillable bottle. For Arris, students blended fresh, light notes such as lemon, jasmine, and grass, and designed an architecturally striking bottle.

As the semester ticked to a close, the students struggled to meet the non-negotiable deadline. But all four teams showed off wearable jeans and compelling marketing images and videos in their presentations.

“We had to stay organized and motivated, even when the fabric we ordered wasn’t finished properly or when the sample didn’t fit our model,” says Amanda Johnston, team leader for Arida, a stylish, waterproof denim line. “We couldn’t treat it like just another school project, because it wasn’t just another school project.”

The project is funded by the Importer Support Program of The Cotton Board and managed by Cotton Incorporated.

To find out how jeans are made, turn the page.

As part of the Textile Development and Marketing denim project, students toured Cotton Incorporated headquarters in Cary, NC.

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hue | summer 2014

ďŹ tnyc.edu/hue

19

WINNERS’ TALES

Nine top student designers create the Future of Fashion To discover the best among the next generation of designers, look no further

Sarah Conlon, Sportswear

than these nine Critic Award recipients from the class of 2014.

Critic: Rebecca Minkoff

Eighth-semester Fashion Design students cap off their studies by creating

GRAY-AND-SILVER WOOL-AND-SILK

a mini-collection of looks in their chosen specialization: sportswear, knitwear,

WINDBREAKER WITH LAMÉ KILT

special occasion, intimate apparel, or children’s wear. Each class is assigned a

“I love retro-futurism and the Space

“fashion critic,” a top designer in the industry, to help shape these garments over

Age in the 1960s, how designers

the course of the semester. Then each critic grants one exceptionally talented student FIT’s prestigious Critic Award.

Hue spoke with this year’s winners before their innovative, head-turning

designs graced the runway of FIT’s annual Future of Fashion show on May 1.

represented what they thought the future would be. And part of my aesthetic is combining unexpected fabrics and making them work. My look combines metallic silk, gray wool, silver and gold lamé, leather, and fur.”

Grace Cox, Knitwear Critic: Kate Williams, Donna Karan NEON-PINK SHOELACE MIXED-MEDIA COAT OVER FUCHSIA WOOL DRESS

20

Gayoung Ahn, Sportswear

Danielle Ortiz, Intimate Apparel

Critic: Daniel Vosovic ’05

Critic: Jennifer Zuccarini ’02,

BLACK LEATHER DOTTED TOP AND HIGH-WAIST, DROP-CROTCH PANTS “I like structured and controlled architectural pieces, and I’m obsessed

Fleur du Mal IVORY-AND-SAGE LACE BANDEAU BRA AND PANTY WITH SHEER BEIGE SHAPEWEAR CONTROL SLIP

“My look would be worn by a big kid, someone who eats

with stripes and dots. I made my own

“I was inspired by an artwork by Brendan

ice cream for breakfast, a rebel who’s not actually bad.

fabric, and I cut and placed the dots

Fowler that I saw at MoMA. The artist

The double-jacquard dress was inspired by the crazy

individually. Originally, I had some

combines photography and sculpture in

graphics in Czech, Estonian, and Russian textbooks for

trouble getting the shape of the top

a very chaotic and organic way, which is

children, the hand-crocheted coat by Pee-wee’s Playhouse.

just right. There were sleeves, and

why I named my collection Organic

I was going to make the coat out of just shoelaces, but

Daniel said I had too many details

Chaos. Jennifer loved how I used leather

Kate suggested mixing in ribbon and felt to make it softer

already, so I removed them to make

straps to simulate a fan-lacing effect,

and give it a better drape.”

the asymmetry stand out more.”

often seen in corsets.”

hue | summer 2014

Joelle Samaha, Special Occasion

Peter Do, Sportswear

Critic: Mathieu Mirano

Critic: Felicia Zivkovic, Lela Rose

BLACK MANIPULATED LACE AND

WHITE NEOPRENE LONG COAT

ORGANZA GOWN

“I was looking at X-rays of astronaut

“My piece is very lingerie-inspired.

suits from the ’60s, and I made a

The frayed edges and faggoted

unisex coat where you can see all

Sarah Angel, Knitwear Critic: Reiko Waisglass, 3.1 Phillip Lim NEON CORAL ORGANZA-AND-YARN COAT WITH CITRUS TOP AND PANTS

seams make it very romantic.

the construction. The outer layer is

“We’re bombarded by images, yet somehow our

Mathieu gave great feedback: he

made of spacer fabric—a super light,

brains manage all this. I wanted to create an image

said a smaller bra cup would make

see-through, breathable neoprene

that’s a lot to take in. I knitted a drop-stitch jersey and fused it to organza, so it acts like a woven but

the dress look more youthful. The

from a mill in Germany—and I com-

fact that I basically made my own

bined that with traditional tailoring

looks like a knit. I couldn’t find yarn in the colors

fabric from strips of different laces

elements: a belt and pants pockets

I wanted, so it’s knitted with sewing thread. It was

impressed him.”

in the coat.”

a constant experiment.”

Talisa Almonte, Sportswear Natali Collado, Children’s Wear

Critic: Brandon Sun

Critic: Lisa Di Napoli, Tommy Hilfiger

WOOL AND SILK GAZAR JACKET

LAYERED-SILK HAND-BEADED DRESS WITH MULTIDIRECTIONAL FLUTING “Most of the children’s dresses I see are super bright; I wanted a tone that would be attractive to parents as well. There are 14 layers of tulle underneath. It was going to be even flouncier, but it would have been overwhelming.”

AND MINISKIRT WITH COTTON JERSEY T-SHIRT “I was inspired by geometric shapes, particularly the lines of the Javits Center. To be honest, I was really surprised I won. In the past, they’ve chosen garments that are more dramatic. My work is more subtle.”

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Masterpiece

Theater

In the catalogue for Charles James: Beyond Fashion, Reeder writes that this 1948 photograph

by Cecil Beaton, featuring eight “sumptuously draped and richly colored” James gowns, was taken “in the paneled eighteenth-century drawing rooms of French & Company Antiques in New York. Encapsulating America’s aspirations for aristocratic Old World elegance, Beaton’s photo secures James’s reputation as master of the ball gown and in retrospect has become a defining image of postwar glamour.”

22

hue | summer 2014

On the occasion of a groundbreaking exhibition about designer Charles James, Hue celebrates FIT alumni who help The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute present influential costume shows

THE ARTIST’S WAY Behind the scenes of the Charles James: Beyond Fashion, with the show’s co-curator, Jan Glier Reeder, Museum Studies: Costume and Textiles ’87

BY ALEX JOSEPH

N

o designer in fashion history was more exacting, outrageous, or

quixotic than Charles James (1906-1978). He created the most avant-garde, highly engineered garments of his day, including a ball gown with an imposing, cloverleaf-shaped skirt, and a prototypical wrap dress; his quilted evening jacket, a forerunner of today’s “puffer” ski parka, was called “soft sculpture” by Salvador Dalí. He had the most elite clientele—performer Gypsy Rose Lee, and society doyennes Babe Paley, Millicent Rodgers, and Mrs. William Randolph Hearst, Jr.—women who not only paid his exorbitant prices, but understood that they were buying (and wearing) works of fine art. He had an extremely high-strung temperament—suicide attempts, drug addiction, legendary tantrums. More than any other American designer of the time, he maintained the impossibly high standards of haute couture, sometimes to a client’s detriment: “He was once hired to make a maternity gown,” says Jan Glier Reeder ’87. “He kept reworking it, and each time his assistant increased the ‘bump’ a little more. By the time he was finished, the client already had the baby.”

James exhibitions are catnip for fashion fans, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute has mounted a knockout, featuring 65 of his designs, on view until August 10.

Reeder co-curated the show with Harold Koda, the institute’s curator in charge, and they co-authored the catalogue—a sumptuous coffee-table book. (Koda co-curated shows at The Museum at FIT with Richard Martin in the ’80s and ’90s.) Ralph Rucci, Fashion Design ’80, perhaps the only American designer whose work could be compared to James’s, contributed an

Portrait by Cecil Beaton. Balenciaga called James “not only the greatest American couturier, but the world’s best,” and Dior credited him with inspiring the New Look, yet he remains comparatively obscure.

introduction to the book, and Sarah Scaturro ’10 and Glenn Petersen ’91 wrote a chapter on the challenges of conserving James. (See page 25.)

Reeder already knew James’s reputation when, in 2008, the Met hired her to photograph, catalogue, and assess the 25,000-piece Brooklyn Museum costume collection. In the 1940s and ’50s, the Brooklyn Museum had a program that supported industrial and fashion design through education and a lending library. James loved that, so he donated many of his most important pieces to the museum, and Reeder was able to study them up close. She devoted a chapter to James in her book High Style. The collection now resides at the Met, though it maintains a separate identity; Reeder’s job title is consulting curator for the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. James grew up in England and worked in Paris and London before setting up shop in New York, but little of his early career was known. In 2011, Reeder traveled to England, first to London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, where she found a cache of intimate letters from James to a design assistant; she also visited Birr Castle in County Offaly, Ireland, to see James designs

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REEDER ON JAMES, FABRICS, AND HIPS Reeder finds this dress fascinating for “its sculptural aspect and the way it reconfigures the woman’s body. [It’s] constructed of four different fabrics, each with its own weight, degree of drape, and light-reflective property.

When the dress moves, each of these fabrics responds in a different way to the light and the movement, creating an ever-changing visual experience.

The construction defies any usual dressmaking norms—the bulk and the volume are in the front; Surrealist ideation influenced James throughout his career. James was interested in the female body as a vessel of reproduction— accentuating the hips would definitely have that reference of female fertility.

His dresses were blatantly erotic.”

Left: Ball gown, 1946. Black silk-rayon velvet, red silk satin, brown silk faille, and black silk crepe.

Not all of James’s garments were voluminous and architectural. His “Taxi” dress of 1932 in black wool ribbed knit prefigured the modern wrap dress; it was so named because its simplicity would allow the wearer to put it on (or remove it) in a taxi.

24

hue | summer 2014

THE EDUCATION OF A CURATOR Jan Glier Reeder wound up in the costume field almost by accident. She grew up in a small town in Kentucky and majored in Russian studies at Smith before earning a Master of Social Work from Hunter College. She had raised her children and was working as a social worker when an aunt showed her a trunkful of 1920s dresses from her attic. “They weren’t couture but very ‘high-end,’ with details like a leaping deer in gold sequins,” Reeder says.

The garments triggered a long-repressed love of fashion history: “I thought, ‘Where else can I study that except FIT?’” Serendipitously, she contacted the college just as the first class was being assembled for the program now called Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice. Her teachers included Harold Koda, Betty Kirke, Richard Martin, and Valerie Steele. “They worked us from dawn to dusk,” Reeder says.

“It was wonderful.”

that were worn by Princess Margaret’s mother-in-law.

career; they divided it into themes that correspond with

“The family still lives there,” Reeder says. “I worked in the

the designer’s construction techniques: Spirals and Wraps,

children’s nursery. I was able to look at the garments to my

Drapes and Folds, Platonic Form, and Anatomical Cut. The

heart’s delight. That’s what inspires me—to start research

curators also wanted viewers to have a 360-degree view of

with objects and then go outward from there.” Three of

James’s biomorphic fashions, often as impressive from the

those pieces ended up in the show, as well as rare, impor-

back as from the front. In the end, they devoted a room to

tant early garments contributed by James’s last assistant,

his most spectacular gowns, each mounted on a stand-

Homer Layne. The New Yorker called Reeder’s carefully

alone platform that viewers can circle. This presentation

researched catalogue essay “the first reliable chronology

accentuates the garments’ similarity to fine art. “They’re

of the life and the work” of the couturier.

like sculpture,” Reeder says, “although his clients often said

Reeder was startled to discover how sloppy James

they were surprisingly wearable because they fit so well.”

could be. “It was always said that he was a perfectionist,

The comparison is apt, she says, partly because of the

but his clothes—especially the early pieces—are kind of a

scientific way James created his garments, so their contours

mess inside,” she says. “He doesn’t care about how wonky

reflect light and shadow, providing miraculous depth to

the zippers look, and the insides look a little crazy and

their surfaces.

cobbled together. It wasn’t the perfectionism of couture

James’s perfectionism came at a price. He spent his

technique; it was the perfectionism of whatever concept

last years bitter and alone in a cluttered apartment at the

he was trying to resolve.”

Chelsea Hotel. One of his last significant friendships was

If you go to the show, Reeder says, pay particular

with the legendary, FIT-trained illustrator Antonio, who

attention to the waistlines. “Note how the seaming is

captured his garments in elemental, black-and-white

related to the curves of the body. He never makes a gar-

drawings. When the ambulance arrived to take James to

ment with a horizontal waist, which is how all [ordinary]

the hospital for the last time, Reeder writes, the designer

garments are made. He said the waist is a series of measure-

kept the attendants waiting while he freshened up his

ments, so he did a lot of very interesting and intricate cuts.”

appearance. He told them, “It may not mean anything to

One particular challenge Koda and Reeder faced was

you, but I am what is popularly regarded as the greatest

the scope of the exhibition, which covers James’s entire

couturier in the Western world.” He died the next day.

TO PRESERVE AND PROTECT At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sarah Scaturro, Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice ’10, confronts the “inherent vice” in Charles James’s clothes

V

isitors to Charles James: Beyond Fashion at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume

Institute have been bowled over by gorgeousness and glamour. The New York Times says this “outstanding” exhibition, which closes August 10, “confirm[s] James’s ceaseless artistry.” The show inaugurates the Though he identified as homosexual, James married Nancy Lee Gregory, seen here in his “Swan” gown, 1955. They had two children.

Photo by Cecil Beaton.

exhibition space called the Anna Wintour Costume Center. In one room, the Anglo-American designer’s spectacular ball gowns are displayed on invisible mounts so that the dresses seem to float, pristine and perfect. The prestigious architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro crafted the much-noted exhibition and digital design. Video screens show animated sequences that demonstrate, with scientific precision, how James constructed his dresses.

What visitors will never see is the white, antiseptic lab tucked behind the Wintour space. The lab is emphatically unglamorous, but without it the elegant fashion displays would be impossible. This large, open, apparently dust-free room, containing mobile workstations and metal racks full of garments in archival boxes, is the domain of the Costume Institute’s conservation team. Wearing lab coats and latex gloves, they examine pieces, execute carefully planned treatments, and study fibers under microscopes and on computers. Four alumni of the FIT master’s program now called Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice work here—Cassandra Gero ’06, Miriam Murphy ’11, Glenn Petersen ’91, and Sarah Scaturro ’10, who serves as head of the lab.

Scaturro is an appealing woman with wavy hair that spills over her shoulders. She speaks quietly, conveying the moral seriousness that characterizes her field. “Conservation is grounded in the preservation of cultural heritage; it’s highly ethical,” she says. “It’s a unique combination of science, chemistry, art history, and hand skills—actual technique.” Prior to her position at The Met, which she’s held for two years, she was a textile conservator at the CooperHewitt, National Design Museum.

The James exhibition presented particular challenges to the conservation team. James, who once provocatively stated, “The feminine figure is intrinsically wrong, and can be corrected only by good posture and fashion,” made idiosyncratic clothes for iconoclastic women. In his quest for perfection, he spent years and some $20,000 crafting the design of a single sleeve. “James garments are always a lot more complex than they look,” Scaturro says of preparing the pieces for display. “If you’re working on a sleeve, it’s not just a simple sleeve.”

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In addition, the clothes suffer from “inherent vice,” an art-historical term that, as Scaturro and

ALUMNI HELP FASHION THE MET’S COSTUME SHOWS

Petersen explain in a chapter they co-wrote for the James catalogue, “refer[s] to a quality intrinsic to an artifact that is the very cause of [its] ruin.” All clothes have this characteristic to some degree. When worn, they are subject to wear and tear, staining, and perspiration, which can be acidic. James garments can be particularly challenging: For his sculptural garments, he draped soft, organic fabrics like silk over stiff, inorganic materials—borrowed from his earlier career as a milliner—causing stress to the textiles. Furthermore, his somewhat erratic career meant his pieces were often improperly stored. In order to look perfect on display, every single garment required the conservators’ attention. In the end, Scaturro decided some objects could not be shown at all; others, because of their fragility, are on display for possibly the last time.

Petersen addressed some of the greatest challenges, particularly the back of the bodice of the brown “Swan” dress (a similar dress appears in the black-and-white photo on the previous spread). James created a nested chevron design using chiffon layered over satin. Over the years, the delicate, sheer chiffon disintegrated; yet patching over this flaw with new chiffon would be noticeable—and distracting—because of the cream-colored satin underneath. So Petersen created a whole new surface by fashioning a precise, finely wrought reproduction of the damaged portion. The result is aesthetically satisfying to the viewer, and also protects the vulnerable area. Furthermore, as Scaturro points out, conservation ethics mean that every treatment must be entirely reversible. “We have not permanently altered the nature of the garment,” she says, proudly.

All members of the team collaborated with Diller Scofidio + Renfro, but Scaturro singles out Petersen’s contribution to the videos the architects created. He studied the gowns, worked out James’s elaborate techniques, and described them in a way that made such visualizations possible. Scaturro calls Petersen, who documented the Brooklyn Museum collection with Jan Glier Reeder ’87 and has studied James extensively, “one of the most experienced, skilled, costume conservators in the world.”

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hue | summer 2014

All images courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art unless otherwise noted

Erica Lansner

In addition to Reeder, Scaturro, Petersen, Murphy, and Gero, who are all graduates of the MA program now called Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice, The Met’s Costume Institute employs many other FIT alumni. Also from that program: Elizabeth Bryan ’03, associate research curator/collections manager; Anne Reilly ’10, research associate, Fashion Design ’98; Tracy Jenkins ’12, research assistant; and Anna Yanofsky ’12, research assistant. From other majors: Mellissa Huber, Fabric Styling ’10, Fashion Merchandising Management AAS ’08, research assistant; and Julie Lê, Fashion Design, librarian.

Above: Scaturro in the lab at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, with a 1931 beaded evening gown from the house of Charles Frederick Worth. She oversees the preservation of the institute’s entire collection, including costumes, accessories, textiles, and other objects.

Miriam Murphy worked on the “Four Leaf Clover” dress that features black lace. The underarms

Opposite: Too dark? Too bad. Scaturro worked with the lighting designers to make sure the levels were safe for garments like this “Four Leaf Clover” gown. She also collaborated with the exhibition designers so the elaborate “robot” laser technology, visible to the left of the dress, wouldn’t burn or damage it. Murphy did exacting conservation work on the hem, underarm, and lace.

and overlays. It is, again, unnoticeable, and completely reversible.

of the bodice had areas of loss due to sweat, so Murphy masked them with fabrics she first custom dyed, then covered with strategic couching stitches in fine silk thread. James incorporated a nonwoven synthetic called Pellon—a blend of cotton, acetate, and nylon bonded with synthetic rubber. At the hem of the skirt, the garment’s rigid understructure had torn through the silk shantung that overlaid it, so Murphy executed a similar treatment there, including custom dyeing of both underlays Scaturro was surprised by how often James used synthetic materials. Before treatments could begin, all fibers had to be identified; much of that work was by Cassandra Gero, who consulted throughout the project with Denyse Montegut, the chair of FIT’s Fashion and Textile Studies program. “Denyse helped with some tricky things,” Scaturro says. “A lot of the materials that look like silk are actually synthetics. They’re either blends, like a rayon warp and a cotton weft, or rayon and silk.”

From working on the show, Scaturro says she was struck by James’s perseverance. “As a human being, he was never done. He was constantly reworking his concepts. He would redo sleeves, he would let out hems, he would rework the bodice, the waistline; he was always progressing, as a man. I don’t know if that means he was never satisfied,” she adds, “but he was a true artist.”

Scaturro has plenty of work ahead as well. Exhibitions like the James show, she points out, are only one tiny part of her job: “I’m doing loans, acquisitions, collections issues, future exhibitions, you name it.” New projects include a dye kitchen and a synthetic fiber identification project. She lets out a deep, satisfied breath, and smiles. “We have a very busy schedule.” —AJ

fitnyc.edu/hue

27

1977

COMING ATTRACTION RICHARD SAMROV, FASHION BUYING AND MERCHANDISING ’63 Richard Samrov, executive director of the Glove Performing Arts Center in Gloversville, NY, talks about the theater’s past and future.

This was quite a theater in its time. It was originally a vaudeville and movie theater, and stars flocked here. Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert came for the premiere for he was in The Beverly Hillbillies, Buddy Ebsen brought five vaudeville acts. Cynthia Nickloy,

Old Elegance, oil, 11 by 14 inches.

paints still lifes, landscapes, and commissioned portraits in oil. She loves Grand Central Terminal as a subject, because the dramatic lighting reminds her of the Old Masters. Her work is frequently on view at galleries in New York State, New Jersey, Connecticut, and South Carolina.

PATT LACHKY BALDINO, ADVERTISING DESIGN,

one of the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz, came to introduce the movie when it played.

George Burns, Tony Randall, Jack Lemmon, Zippy the Chimp...the list goes on.

The Glove opened on October 9, 1914. It was one of 160 theaters owned by the Schine brothers. It was their headquarters, the jewel Samrov shows off a vintage projector at the Glove Theater. in their crown. My grandfather had given them their first lease, on another theater in Gloversville, and worked for them as a projec-

1978

tionist and booking agent his whole life. He died in 1965, the year they sold their theaters.

SIBYLLE-MARIA PFAFFENBICHLER, PRODUCT DESIGN: TEXTILES, is

a

Philadelphia-based artist who loves creating the illusion of movement in her drawings and paintings.

Her charcoal drawings of boogie-woogie dancers have shown in Vienna.

She also uses the backs of Charcoal Lines 1, long sheets of wallpaper as charcoal and pastel on paper, 30 by 22 inches. a canvas to paint a dancer’s gradual movements, frame by frame. “I so enjoy watching people dance,” she says. “Maybe it’s because I’m too shy to dance myself.”

1985 KAREN GLOEGGLER, FASHION

The Glove suffered because of television in the late ’60s, and it closed in 1976. When a committee of concerned citizens reopened the building in the mid-’90s, there was a 16-foot hole in the ceiling, and a piano was floating in water that came up to the stage. Animals were swimming around, and mushrooms were growing out of the seats. Gloversville used to be a performing arts hub, with four theaters, and this was all that remained. I was so saddened, I left and didn’t want to come back.

But I had fond memories of the Glove—I was an usher for ten years; it was a connection to my grandfather—so I came back to volunteer. In 2009, when I suggested going to an all-volunteer staff to save money for the restoration, the board made me executive director.

I feel I’m carrying on the legacy of my grandfather and the Schines.

We need between two and three million dollars to complete the restoration. We installed an energy-efficient heating system, we’re working on the marquee, and we’re hoping to put in new permanent seats. We bring in monthly productions—this year we’ll have had Next to Normal, Avenue Q, and Gypsy—but ticket sales only keep the productions coming in. We raise money from the community, and get matching donations from Renee Schine Crown, daughter of J. Myer Schine.

We know we can make a successful theater in this depressed area. We just keep plugging away, waiting for the big donations to come in.

BUYING AND MERCHANDISING,

is senior technical designer for ladies’ swimwear at Sears/Kmart. Also an avid quilter and quilting teacher, she wrote a how-to book, Jane Austen Quilts Inspired by Her Novels, after designing an Austen- Gloeggler’s book features quilt patterns loosely inspired by inspired quilt as a high Jane Austen novels. school graduation gift for her niece. Gloeggler says that, in addition to being one of the most important novelists of the 19th century, Austen had a knack for sewing.

28

hue | summer 2014

1989 LORRAINE REYNOLDS, ADVERTISING AND COMMUNICATIONS, creates

spooky assemblages of found objects in the vein of Joseph Cornell’s boxes. Her recent work involves torn-up garments cocooning doll parts and other objects. “Originally I repurposed found objects because I didn’t have any money for art materials,” she says. By day she is senior technical designer at Lands’ End, and she previously worked for Burton Snowboards, where she fitted uniforms for the past three Olympic Winter Games.

Everthine, mixed-media assemblage, 12 by 8 by 4 inches.

Bill Buell/Daily Gazette

news from your classmates

Drums Along the Mohawk in 1939. Long before

SERIAL SUCCESS

DUANE THOMAS, ADVERTISING AND

a freelance art director, and Sharon Graham, Fashion Design, a freelance designer, own Carbon Bazaar, an e-marketplace featuring more than 20 lesser-known, eclectic AfricanAmerican designers and artisans.

The duo, who met at FIT, supplement the online business with pop-up shops in the New York City area to generate buzz and move product.

COMMUNICATIONS,

LAUREN MAILLIAN BIAS, INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND MARKETING FOR THE FASHION INDUSTRIES ’07 At just 29 years old, Lauren Maillian Bias has accomplished more than many entrepreneurs could hope for in a lifetime. Using seed money from walking the runways of New York, Paris, and London, she launched and operated a successful winery, then started a luxury branding and marketing firm

Medea Cuff by Elsa Mehary, brass, $135.

Michael Letterlough, Jr.

1994 ROB NORMAN, GRAPHIC DESIGN,

She writes about her experiences in her memoir-cum-business-manifesto, The Path Redefined: Getting to the Top on Your Own Terms (BenBella Books, 2014). The book is

Maillian Bias’s new book debuted in May.

filled with advice from Maillian Bias and her

mentors on mapping out goals, taking risks, the work-life balance, and many other topics.

Hue asked about her biggest projects to date.

Hue: With Sugarleaf Vineyards, you had a successful winery before you were legally allowed to drink! Your wines were poured in the White House. Why did you sell the business?

Maillian Bias: I went through a quarter-life crisis. I was the youngest self-made winery owner in the country, hands down. But there was no more challenge for me. A lot of entrepreneurs would love to have their business on autopilot and sit back, but I wanted to do something new. I took my emotions out of the decision and sold it.

Your company, Luxury Market Branding, has an impressive client list: Beverly Alex Bitar ’93

owns Planet Brooklyn Academy, a store that sells athletic apparel featuring his collegiate-style graphic designs, printed in his business partner’s factory in New Jersey. “Growing up in Brooklyn, it’s like a school of survival on the streets,” he explains. “That’s where the name came from.” His best seller so far is a sweatpant with the logo across the front instead of, more typically, the backside or the leg. Another reason to visit: the store also sells fresh lemonade.

and began investing in technology start-ups.

Norman in front of Planet Brooklyn Academy.

2000

REEM HUSSEIN, RESTORATION, paints

Arabic calligraphy and teaches art to children and adults. Her paintings are inspired by the way objects look when they age. She is also chair of the art department at the Knox School, a boarding school on Long Island, and she teaches online art courses for the University of Maryland University College.

Johnson beauty products, Sukari New York handbags, and a number of wine companies.

What do you provide these companies?

I help them engage consumers and create loyal customer bases. For example, I found cost-effective ways to market Beverly Johnson’s products to women of color. We did radio interviews and commercials, TV appearances, and geo-targeted mobile advertising—your ad pops up in searches in areas where you want people to see it. We also selected about 100 brand ambassadors to make sure Beverly is top of mind in social media.

You were also a founding partner of a venture capital firm. What companies did you fund?

Gen Y Capital Partners looked for early-stage companies that use technology in a significant way. One of our first investments was in Levo League, which is like LinkedIn for Gen Y women. They had a great competitive advantage: not only did they have a great product, they had great funding, and Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, was an early investor. At this point, we’ve fully invested the fund, and now I am personally involved with several companies, including technology start-ups, as an active advisor and/or investor.

What are you hoping to accomplish in your 30s?

I’d like to power something big in the cross-section of marketing, media, technology, and luxury goods. And I hope to use my platform to be a light that helps others shine.

There Are No Words, cut paper installation (detail).

2001

2003

JEANNE EXNICIOS FOSTER, ADVERTISING AND MARKETING

PETER JOE DIPILATO, ADVERTISING AND

has been named associate publisher of Gambit, a weekly entertainment newspaper in New Orleans.

She focuses on digital development, marketing, and promotions to build the paper’s brand, for example, creating mobile websites for clients that tie into special events in the city.

She uses multimedia to enhance the value of the printed newspaper, rather than supplant it.

is a freelance photographer of concerts, events, fashion shows, and celebrities, with work published in Us Weekly and People. He prefers to stand behind a celebrity to photograph what she’s looking at, rather than the way everyone else sees her.

COMMUNICATIONS,

MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS,

DiPilato got his own angle on Dakota Fanning.

fitnyc.edu/hue

29

THE SAFETY OF OBJECTS

KRISTEN CARUSO PAULOS, FASHION MERCHANDISING

is director of global communications for Yigal Azrouël, Inc. She oversees public relations, digital marketing, social media, corporate communications, and brand identity for the New York–based fashion company. That includes organizing runway shows and convincing influential stylists to dress the A-list in Yigal Azrouël.

“Some people might find it silly to dress a celebrity,” she says, “but if one celebrity wears your look, it works its way to retail sales and ultimately affects your bottom line.”

A Yigal Azrouël fashion show.

2005 CONNIE TAM-TAI, COSMETICS AND FRAGRANCE MARKETING,

created Miyu Beauty, a cruelty-free line of facial serums matched with soothing teas. Tam-Tai has produced two serums: De-Stress Mi, with five minerals and licorice; and Hydrate Mi, with goji berries and a powerful moisturizing compound.

The serums are light enough to be dispensed as a facial mist, and the herbal teas, which contain some of the same ingredients as the serums, complement their effects.

LAURA MINA, FASHION AND TEXTILE STUDIES: HISTORY, THEORY, MUSEUM PRACTICE ’10 This is no ordinary balloon. It’s an anoxic (i.e. low-oxygen) treatment chamber in the conservation lab at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. “When objects travel, or are in open display in the museum, they are vulnerable to pests,” Laura Mina says, shown here checking the oxygen meter. “For example, webbing clothes moths will eat protein fibers.” During her threeYigal Azrouël

news from your classmates

MANAGEMENT,

year appointment as a Mellon Fellow in Costume and Textiles Conservation for the museum, Mina works on installations and cares for objects in the conservation lab. “Before objects are

Mina checks the oxygen meter on the anoxic treatment chamber.

returned to storage, they’re treated to ensure that no pests are brought into the storage area. The treatment kills insects in all life cycles from egg to adult.” Objects are sealed in a vapor-impermeable chamber, in this case made of aluminized polyethylene film; nitrogen is pumped in while oxygen is removed, and the enclosure is monitored for a full week. A coworker gave the chamber a face so it would resemble the title character from My Neighbor Totoro, a Japanese animated film. “Even though we take pest management seriously,” Mina says, “we like to have fun, too.”—Alex Joseph

2011

2012

SAYAM KOCHAR, FASHION MERCHANDISING

DANIELLA SAMPER, PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT:

founded Techpacker, a free cloud-based app that automatically creates the tech packs that technical designers use to communicate specifications to factories.

The app, currently in beta testing, also helps connect independent fashion designers with reliable factories overseas.

MANAGEMENT,

The line of Miyu Beauty products.

FASHION AND RELATED INDUSTRIES, FASHION

SONNI CARUSO POLIFRONI, DIRECT AND INTERACTIVE

KOFI ESSEL, FASHION DESIGN, is an associate designer for Nautica, in men’s woven shirts. Each season, the creative director gives Essel and his manager a theme and direction and they pitch new color combinations, styles, and details. Of the 100 or so designs Essel creates each year, about 60 percent go into production.

He also works with the merchandising team to keep top sellers in rotation.

Essel at his desk.

30

hue | summer 2014

launched 59threads.com, an e-boutique that sells apparel and accessories from emerging designers, including Tracy Vanderbeck, Accessories Design ’05, who makes handbags Polifroni wore her best-selling from exotic skins. top, a cotton shirt with leather Polifroni runs the site scales, to Fashion Week. with her sister, whose funky fashion-forward taste counterbalances her own sophisticated, modern aesthetic.

MARKETING,

Carlos Fabrizio

2008

DESIGN ’10, founded Of Radical Playhouse, a fashion-forward clothing line produced by Indian artisans using traditional fabrics and embroideries.

She creates the looks, and her husband, Sayam Kochar (see 2011), handles the business side.

They met while studying in FIT’s program in Florence, Italy.

A dupion satin turtleneck and neoprene skirt with silk panels made from recycled saris.

2013 CLEMENCIA GUILLEM, FASHION MERCHANDISING MANAGEMENT, volunteers as a board member of Green Tree, a nonprofit textile recycler in New York. The organization, founded in 2011, collects clothing and scraps in green bins around the city. Business apparel is donated to a dress-for-success program, other clothing to the poor in Africa and the Caribbean, and toys to local families in need; scraps are sold to the recycled fibers market to be made into insulation or industrial wipes.

sources of inspiration

EXPRESS YOURSELF Leo Preziosi, Jr.

Production Management: Textiles ’88, Fashion Design ’84 In the fall of 2000, I came across an article about two gay teenagers who were bullied in high school, and out of desperation they committed suicide. I thought, This has to stop— we have to do something to nurture these kids. The following winter, I founded Live Out Loud, a nonprofit that provides educational programs that inspire and empower today’s LGBTQ teens.

Our programs connect today’s teens to role models in the LGBTQ community. One of our signature programs, Behind the Scenes, takes students to companies like The New York Times, HBO, and Google to meet employees who share their experiences of being out in the workplace.

Our national program, the Live Out Loud Homecoming Project, encourages LGBTQ community members to return to their high schools to offer encouragement to the next generation. So far we’ve had over 100 people address thousands of students in 26 states.

It’s important that we support teenagers and introduce them to new possibilities. I had a rough time in high school. I knew what it was like to live in fear every day. I never knew where the next taunts would be coming from—homeroom, gym, the hallways. I survived by disappearing. But I always yearned to be like those kids who are fully self-expressed and authentic. That’s been my personal goal. I marvel at those who have that freedom. I continue to be inspired by my role models: actor Tyne Daly, who gives 110 percent on stage; author Marianne Williamson, whose lectures are always encouraging and insightful; and my all-time favorite, Whoopi Goldberg, who’s a force of nature and definitely her own creation. These three women have journeyed their own path and have found their freedom, which is what we’re all searching for—and that leads to happiness.

John Jay Cabuay, Illustration BFA ’95, adjunct assistant professor, drew this illustration of Whoopi Goldberg, one of Preziosi’s inspirations, for Hue. He has also drawn portraits for The New Yorker and book covers for Simon & Schuster.

fitnyc.edu/hue

31

227 West 27 Street New York, NY 10001-5992

First Lady Michelle Obama and Anna Wintour greet FIT students after a tour of the Costume Institute’s new Anna Wintour Costume Center’s inaugural exhibition, Charles James: Beyond Fashion, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, May 5, 2014.

Read about the alumni who worked on the show on pages 22 to 27.

Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson

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