Hue Spring 2008 by Fashion Institute of Technology

1952

MISTER BAGEL

1983

1993

on the record

In 1977, when rick hartglass, textile administration and

maria perez whittingham, patternmaking technology,

owns two boutiques in Nyack, NY—Maria Luisa and ML Gifts and Accessories. Maria Luisa opened in 1987, and offers clothing, footwear, jewelry, and home accessories with an emphasis on local designers and handmade wares. Some handbags are made by Whittingham herself. ML—opened in 2006 just a few doors down—focuses on trendier accessories and gift items.

ari vega, fashion design ’84; patternmaking technology ’86;

Sarah Lewitinn, Advertising and Marketing Communications ’01

sales ’66 ,

opened his first Mister Bagel shop, in Portland,

frozen Lender’s in the store,” he says. “A bakery might produce a round roll with a hole. That was it.” The native Brooklynite helped change that, in a big way: There are now 13 Mister Bagels throughout Maine. But the product has changed, too. “I’m a traditionalist,” he says. “Today, they want a blueberry bagel with strawberry cream

news from your classmates

cheese and God knows what else!”

1996

1988

margaux baran caniato, advertising and communications,

is a Manhattan-based milliner and clothing designer whose original hats have appeared in Italian Elle and The New York Times. His atelier offers made-to-order creations; he’s working to get his hats into stores as well.

is manager of external designers for Target, helping contract talent like Isaac Mizrahi navigate the company’s design process. She ensures that the finished products express both the designer’s unique voice and Target’s brand while serving the company’s mission of affordable, well-designed apparel, accessories, and housewares. Caniato is based in New York City.

lawrence levens, fashion design,

Am I Devi, 1999, 63 by 48 inches, by Estelle Kessler Yarinsky ’52. estelle kessler yarinsky, textile design,

1990

showed 20

Albany Institute of History and Art’s exhibition, in her adopted hometown of Albany, NY. Fabrica, a one-person show, focused on little-known

Photo: John Ewing, Portland Press Herald

1967

contributions to their

illustration ,

families, faiths, communities,

and illustrator of The

or professions. Yarinsky

Dancer’s Book of Crafts

extensively researches her

(Homemade Creations

subjects’ lives, and stitches

2008), a how-to with

poetry fragments, quota-

knitting, jewelry- and

tions, and symbols into the

clothes-making, and art

works. Her work has been

is the author

projects for dancers (and

exhibited widely in Florida,

dancers’ parents) of all ages. Haskin, a lifelong dancer

Ohio, New York, Texas, and

herself, lives in Connecticut.

Washington, DC.

Illustration by Christina Haskin ’67.

1973

1966 mark suss , textile adminis -

bernadette costantino puleo ,

owns the Upper Deck Café,

tration and sales ,

is president of Retail and Executive Placement Associates, a Washington, DC-based recruiting and background-screening firm he founded in 1983. Suss has filled high-level positions in human resources, retail, and technology across the U.S., in Puerto Rico, and in St. Thomas. His clients include Bed Bath & Beyond, Circuit City, Fortunoff, Ralph Lauren, and Target.

advertising design ,

Harbor, ME. The former vice president for merchandising at Z-Tex, Inc., a fabrics supplier in Chicago, Brown decided on early retirement after 30-plus years in the business and relocated to Maine. The restaurant is in its eighth year, and recently won gold in a local chowder contest. In the early ’70s, Brown served as Alumni Association president.

is a freelance graphic designer based in Dix Hills, NY, working largely with images for children’s wear. She has created graphics for kids’ clothes made by Gerber, Li & Fung, and Haddad, to name a few.

Embroidery design by Bernadette Puleo ’73, for H.I.S. International.

hue | spring 2008

is the inventor of the Busy Buddy Tug-A-Jug, a dog toy made by Premier Pet since fall 2006. Inspired by her Boston terrier’s destructive tendencies, Kolesar’s toy is a hard-to-break plastic bottle whose bottom can be unscrewed to fill it with treats, and whose neck is partly stoppered with a knotted rope. By working the rope, dogs can tease out the food. The Tug-AJug sells online and in stores worldwide. Kolesar also teaches high school health education in Westfield, NJ. buying and merchandising ,

is owner and lead designer of KW Home—a combination interior design office and home furnishings store in Easthampton, MA. As a retailer, Woodruff offers an eclectic mix of bedding, fabric, furniture, lighting, and home accessories, all of which complement his contemporary-meetstraditional design aesthetic. He’s designed commercial and residential spaces River-rock rain shower, by Keith throughout the Northeast. Woodruff ’90. design ,

started her own record label, Stolen Transmission, in her

Pocket Karaoke), and former Spin magazine assistant editor—figured she’d be a natural. She was right: In early 2006, after a run of self-released, sold-out singles, Universal Music Group added Stolen Transmission to its Island/Def Jam division. Despite the bump to the big leagues, Lewitinn’s independent m.o. stayed the same: Scout, sign, and promote the bands she loved.

If only this were the analog era. Beginning in 1999 with the emergence of Napster,

online leaks and free file shares have made the future of the music business look bleak. “It’s like being a mammal in the Ice Age,” Lewitinn says. In December 2007, Island/Def Jam announced layoffs. Ultragrrrl was out of a job.

Well, sort of. As of this writing, Stolen Transmission is in limbo, with the legal

wrangling over ownership still under way. Meantime, back in her apartment, Lewitinn continues to promote the label’s acts every way she can—building bands’ MySpace pages, making sure advertising posters get to tour venues, and striking deals with T-shirt

2001

2002

jaclyn wall borjes, fashion

paula scutella-jagos, advertis-

design ’98; production

ing and marketing communica-

management: apparel ’01,

keith woodruff, interior

lewitinn

grrrl, Lewitinn—a popular DJ, blogger, author (The Pocket DJ and the forthcoming

Keith Woodruff

jim brown , textile design ,

a seafood eatery in Boothbay

susan pakula kolesar , fashion

christina haskin , fashion

n 2004, sarah

Lower East Side apartment. Well known in New York City’s music scene as Ultra-

women who made major

is a partner at Brennan Beer Gorman Monk / Interiors, in New York City. She has designed and directed projects for clients including Elizabeth Arden, Morgan Stanley, and Pfizer. Jakubowski is also active in the International Interior Design Association and the U.S. Green Building Council. amy astfalk jakubowski , interior design ,

of her large-scale fabric collages this past fall in the

has been elected vice president of the State University of New York Council of Business Faculty/Administrators. Vega is an assistant professor in FIT’s Production Management: Fashion and Related Industries Department. merchandising management ’93 ,

Brad Walsh

ME, the bagel was a bit exotic there. “You might find

marketing: fashion and related industries ’90 ; fashion

color coordinator for Komar, a sleepwear company (for Kohl’s, JCPenney, Vera Wang) with offices in New York City and Hong Kong. Borjes sends the clothes’ color standards, artwork, and fabric specs to Hong Kong, receiving the overseas manufacturers’ “strikeoffs” weeks later, which she checks against to ensure accuracy.

tions, is both event

coordinator for GOGO Worldwide Vacations and co-owner (with her husband) of Everlasting Events, a full-service events planning firm in Middletown, NY. The company puts on baby and bridal showers, family reunions, quinceañeras, weddings, and more.

merchandisers. Unfazed, she speaks of her situation with a dogged optimism familiar to any reader of her exclamation-point-intensive blog. “I’m pretty much loving it,” she says. “It’s a great time to change because, really, everyone’s changing.”

Lewitinn is well equipped to survive music’s bumpy transition to the digital era. For

one, she enjoys a can’t-buy reputation as a soothsayer and tireless campaigner. On her blog and while at Spin, she stumped hard for acts like Interpol, The Killers, and My Chemical Romance long before they became headliners, and this prescience won her glowing press everywhere from Paper to Vanity Fair. (This earned her plenty of animosity from fellow bloggers, enough that the Village Voice gave the Ultragrrrl backlash a cover story in March 2007.) For another, she’s a longtime internet devotee with a keen sense of the medium. Her blog is so often disarmingly frivolous and personal (posting family photos or video of herself executing clumsy, late-night cartwheels) that fervent plugs for Stolen Transmission bands or her DJ gigs read more like word-of-mouth testimony than marketing.

Best, she knows the value of a contact and has never burned a bridge. Lewitinn

worked “a bajillion” media internships in high school and college, netting friends at each stop. She interned for Michael Hirschorn at the now-defunct Inside.com, later joining him at both Spin and VH1, where he’s now an executive vice president. She met Rob Stevenson, the record-label veteran who brought Stolen Transmission to Island/Def Jam, at a cocktail party. True to form, when she recently met with former IDJ colleagues, Lewitinn bore no grudge. “It was hugs all around,” she says. “I asked everyone to buy me drinks. Like, ‘Who’s got the corporate card?’” —Greg Herbowy