Hue Spring 2009

Alumni Magazine of the Fashion Institute of Technology

volume 2 | number 2 | spring 2009

Features

6 Gold Standard FMM’s Alfred Sloan on a half century of teaching 8 Dress We Can! FIT folks outfit Michelle Obama and Jill Biden

14

10 Making Waves Computer Animation alumni build Björk a river 14 Second Chances Business and design opportunities in a brave new world 16

Randy ❤ s Brides Here come the gowns

21 Author, Author Arianna Huffington and Loung Ung visit FIT 22 Now It’s Personal

Direct marketing comes of age

22

Departments

4 The Ask

Got an avatar? Tell us about it 4 Hue’s News Recent developments at

and related to FIT 9 I Contact

A TDM student talks Turkey

13 27/7 What’s a luxury you’ll never stop buying?

20

Faculty on…

Old poems for young lives

20

Footprint FIT’s green plan gets noticed

8

24 Alumni Notes Find out what your classmates are up to 27 Sparks Svetlana Ponorovsky ’93 on toys as food for thought

10 16

Front and back covers: The avatars of Rachel Sullivan ’10 and Shenlei Winkler ’06 frolic in the virtual world Second Life.

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 Advancement and External Relations, Seventh Alumni Magazine of the Fashion Institute of Technology

Avenue at 27 Street, Room B905, New York City 10001-5992, 212 217.4700.

Email: hue@fitnyc.edu

volume 2 | number 2 | spring 2009

Address letters to the editors, Hue Magazine.

Vice President for Advancement and External Relations Loretta Lawrence Keane Assistant Vice President for Communications Carol Leven

Editor Linda Angrilli Managing Editor Alex Joseph Staff Writer Gregory Herbowy Editorial Assistant Vanessa Machir Art Direction and Design Empire Design Studio

Hue magazine on the web: fitnyc.edu/hue

Sitings

On FIT’s website, www.fitnyc.edu Continuing and Professional Studies: fitnyc.edu/continuinged FIT job openings: fitnyc.edu/jobs Gallery of student work: fitnyc.edu/studentgalleries Gladys Marcus Library: fitnyc.edu/library The Museum at FIT: fitnyc.edu/museum To view videos about the college, go to: youtube.com/aboutfit Email the FIT Alumni Association: vicki_guranowski@fitnyc.edu Go to fitnyc.edu/hue to answer The Ask, tell us what inspires you for Sparks, or update your alumni info.

2

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

3

Features

6 Gold Standard FMM’s Alfred Sloan on a half century of teaching 8 Dress We Can! FIT folks outfit Michelle Obama and Jill Biden

14

10 Making Waves Computer Animation alumni build Björk a river 14 Second Chances Business and design opportunities in a brave new world 16

Randy ❤ s Brides Here come the gowns

21 Author, Author Arianna Huffington and Loung Ung visit FIT 22 Now It’s Personal

Direct marketing comes of age

22

Departments

4 The Ask

Got an avatar? Tell us about it 4 Hue’s News Recent developments at

and related to FIT 9 I Contact

A TDM student talks Turkey

13 27/7 What’s a luxury you’ll never stop buying?

20

Faculty on…

Old poems for young lives

20

Footprint FIT’s green plan gets noticed

8

24 Alumni Notes Find out what your classmates are up to 27 Sparks Svetlana Ponorovsky ’93 on toys as food for thought

10 16

Front and back covers: The avatars of Rachel Sullivan ’10 and Shenlei Winkler ’06 frolic in the virtual world Second Life.

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 Advancement and External Relations, Seventh Alumni Magazine of the Fashion Institute of Technology

Avenue at 27 Street, Room B905, New York City 10001-5992, 212 217.4700.

Email: hue@fitnyc.edu

volume 2 | number 2 | spring 2009

Address letters to the editors, Hue Magazine.

Vice President for Advancement and External Relations Loretta Lawrence Keane Assistant Vice President for Communications Carol Leven

Editor Linda Angrilli Managing Editor Alex Joseph Staff Writer Gregory Herbowy Editorial Assistant Vanessa Machir Art Direction and Design Empire Design Studio

Hue magazine on the web: fitnyc.edu/hue

Sitings

On FIT’s website, www.fitnyc.edu Continuing and Professional Studies: fitnyc.edu/continuinged FIT job openings: fitnyc.edu/jobs Gallery of student work: fitnyc.edu/studentgalleries Gladys Marcus Library: fitnyc.edu/library The Museum at FIT: fitnyc.edu/museum To view videos about the college, go to: youtube.com/aboutfit Email the FIT Alumni Association: vicki_guranowski@fitnyc.edu Go to fitnyc.edu/hue to answer The Ask, tell us what inspires you for Sparks, or update your alumni info.

2

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

3

Beginning in fall 2009, the Jay and Patty Baker School of Business and Technology will offer a new Bachelor of Science degree in Technical Design. The program addresses the growing need for skilled professionals who understand the increasingly advanced technology used in fashion.

Technical designers work with designers, manufacturers, and merchandisers around the world to analyze and manage a product’s development cycle, from concept to salable good.

Though the degree comes out of the business school, the program is an interdisciplinary mix of design and business courses, and builds upon FIT’s associate’s degree program in Fashion Design. “Technical designers work closely with the head designers,” says Robin Sackin, acting dean for the Baker School. “They need to be wellversed in not just the technology and business of fashion, but its artistry as well.” The program includes courses in pattern development, manufacturing process analysis, and merchandising, and a final-semester internship in the workplace. The Baker School is now home to nine BS programs, bringing FIT’s total baccalaureate offerings to 23. For more info, visit fitnyc.edu/techdesign.

Every spring, students in the Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice master’s program present an exhibition at The Museum at FIT. Each graduating class mounts a show in its entirety, from researching and curating to writing the publicity materials. This year’s show, Muriel King: Artist of Fashion, celebrated the Depression- and WWII-era American designer, whose work was among the first to achieve a reputation on a par with Parisian fashion. It ran from mid-March through early April in Gallery FIT.

Noncredit Course Gift Certificates Devotees of sensuality and the female form are advised to check out Seduction, the latest show in the Fashion and Textile History Gallery. The gallery is dedicated to rotating selections from the museum’s collections. Curated

by Colleen Hill, assistant curator of accessories, the exhibition traces the history of seductive fashions, from the form-fitting wear of the 18th century to today’s soft fabrics and feminine silhouettes. Seduction will run through June 16.

Cry, Baby

This Mother’s Day, skip the flowers and send Mom an FIT Continuing and Professional Studies gift certificate. Introduced this past winter, they’re available in any amount between $50 and $500 and may be redeemed toward tuition for any noncredit course, whether it’s events planning, color theory, web design, or a class in fashion design for middle- or high-school students.

“This is a way to help contribute to a loved one’s education at a time when people are feeling financially pinched,” says Joan Volpe, managing coordinator of the Center for Professional Studies. For more information or to purchase a certificate, visit www.fitnyc.edu/cegiftcertificates.

Pet-à-Porter

A Muriel King watercolor sketch, 1936, from Muriel King: Artist of Fashion.

People are creating avatars as alter egos for online games and 3D virtual worlds such as Second Life (see p. 12). If you have an avatar, what does it look like?

If you don’t, what would it look like?

The world of pet toys and apparel has long since grown beyond old tennis balls and hand-knit sweaters; one recent estimate pegged the pet accessories industry’s profits at $41 billion annually. With that in mind, Advertising and Marketing Communications faculty members Janet Brav and Deborah David, with Joan Volpe, managing coordinator of the Center for Professional Studies, introduced FIT’s latest noncredit certificate program, Pet Product Design and Marketing, in fall 2008.

“The program capitalizes on this emerging field,” Brav says. “FIT offers accessories and fashion design, toy design, cosmetics and fragrance, home products…..

Most of our majors tie into the pet products industry.”

The program’s six courses cover pet fashion and accessories design, branding, business, and marketing. On April 22, the program hosts its first dog fashion and lifestyle product show in the John E. Reeves Great Hall.

Look for coverage in the next issue of Hue.

4

hue | spring 2009

QUI CK READ

Those looking to unload a pair of threadbare or unfashionable jeans this past fall had a novel option: donation bins for Cotton Incorporated’s initiative, From Blue to Green. The program recycles unwanted denim into cotton fiber insulation for nonprofit housing organizations like Habitat for Humanity. FIT was one of six U.S. campuses, and the only northeastern college, to participate in the drive.

The college’s Public Relations Student Society of America chapter ran the effort, setting up bins around campus, staffing donation tables at the college’s flea markets (where donors got free T-shirts), and spreading awareness with posters and email blasts. “The challenge was to collect 500, enough to insulate an entire home,” says Roberta Elins, Direct and Interactive Marketing chairperson and FIT’s PRSSA advisor. “We collected almost 900.”

Cotton Incorporated awarded the club $700 for its efforts.

>> Richard A. Anderman, a consultant and lawyer with four decades’ experience in corporate and international law, was appointed to FIT’s Board of Trustees on February 16.

Anderman is a member of the Center for Arts Education’s board of directors, the New Museum’s Producers Council, and the Contemporary Arts Council of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, which he chaired from 2003 to 2007. >> Multimedia artist Laurance Rassin was the featured guest at the spring 2009 School of Art and Design Dean’s Dialogue, in the Katie Murphy Amphitheatre on February 19. His presentation included a fashion show (using FIT’s Model Club members), live band, and art exhibition. >> Writer and actor Dan Hoyle performed Tings Dey Happen, his acclaimed monologue about Nigerian oil politics, for the spring 2009 Dean’s Forum of the School of Liberal Arts on April 1 in the Katie Murphy Amphitheatre. The event was cosponsored by the Presidential Scholars. >> On April 22, Career Services will participate in Shomex’s Diversity in Advertising Career Day, at the Hilton Towers in Manhattan. A minority and women recruitment fair, the annual event is sponsored by the American Association of Advertising Agencies. >> On April 22, the Art Market: Principles and Practices graduate program will host Regrouping: Art World Professionals Examine the Art Market, a roundtable discussion on the economic downturn’s effects on the industry. Faculty member Sheri Pasquarella will moderate.

Paige Smith

Email your story to hue@fitnyc.edu, or send it to the editors at Hue Magazine.

Submissions will be considered for publication in a future issue.

Old Jeans Go Green

what’s happening on campus

what’s happening on campus

FIT Launches New BS Museum News in Technical Design

Nadirah Zakariya’s photo collage, Cry, appeared in the Marvin Feldman Center from November 10-21 in Altered Egos, a show by third-year Photography BFA students. Assistant Professor Douglas Mulaire called the show “a photographic exploration of the self.”

Zakariya said the piece, shot with a Lomo camera, came from a series called “Love.” For inspiration, she said, “I took the phrase ‘Cry your heart out’ literally.”

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

5

Beginning in fall 2009, the Jay and Patty Baker School of Business and Technology will offer a new Bachelor of Science degree in Technical Design. The program addresses the growing need for skilled professionals who understand the increasingly advanced technology used in fashion.

Technical designers work with designers, manufacturers, and merchandisers around the world to analyze and manage a product’s development cycle, from concept to salable good.

Though the degree comes out of the business school, the program is an interdisciplinary mix of design and business courses, and builds upon FIT’s associate’s degree program in Fashion Design. “Technical designers work closely with the head designers,” says Robin Sackin, acting dean for the Baker School. “They need to be wellversed in not just the technology and business of fashion, but its artistry as well.” The program includes courses in pattern development, manufacturing process analysis, and merchandising, and a final-semester internship in the workplace. The Baker School is now home to nine BS programs, bringing FIT’s total baccalaureate offerings to 23. For more info, visit fitnyc.edu/techdesign.

Every spring, students in the Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice master’s program present an exhibition at The Museum at FIT. Each graduating class mounts a show in its entirety, from researching and curating to writing the publicity materials. This year’s show, Muriel King: Artist of Fashion, celebrated the Depression- and WWII-era American designer, whose work was among the first to achieve a reputation on a par with Parisian fashion. It ran from mid-March through early April in Gallery FIT.

Noncredit Course Gift Certificates Devotees of sensuality and the female form are advised to check out Seduction, the latest show in the Fashion and Textile History Gallery. The gallery is dedicated to rotating selections from the museum’s collections. Curated

by Colleen Hill, assistant curator of accessories, the exhibition traces the history of seductive fashions, from the form-fitting wear of the 18th century to today’s soft fabrics and feminine silhouettes. Seduction will run through June 16.

Cry, Baby

This Mother’s Day, skip the flowers and send Mom an FIT Continuing and Professional Studies gift certificate. Introduced this past winter, they’re available in any amount between $50 and $500 and may be redeemed toward tuition for any noncredit course, whether it’s events planning, color theory, web design, or a class in fashion design for middle- or high-school students.

“This is a way to help contribute to a loved one’s education at a time when people are feeling financially pinched,” says Joan Volpe, managing coordinator of the Center for Professional Studies. For more information or to purchase a certificate, visit www.fitnyc.edu/cegiftcertificates.

Pet-à-Porter

A Muriel King watercolor sketch, 1936, from Muriel King: Artist of Fashion.

People are creating avatars as alter egos for online games and 3D virtual worlds such as Second Life (see p. 12). If you have an avatar, what does it look like?

If you don’t, what would it look like?

The world of pet toys and apparel has long since grown beyond old tennis balls and hand-knit sweaters; one recent estimate pegged the pet accessories industry’s profits at $41 billion annually. With that in mind, Advertising and Marketing Communications faculty members Janet Brav and Deborah David, with Joan Volpe, managing coordinator of the Center for Professional Studies, introduced FIT’s latest noncredit certificate program, Pet Product Design and Marketing, in fall 2008.

“The program capitalizes on this emerging field,” Brav says. “FIT offers accessories and fashion design, toy design, cosmetics and fragrance, home products…..

Most of our majors tie into the pet products industry.”

The program’s six courses cover pet fashion and accessories design, branding, business, and marketing. On April 22, the program hosts its first dog fashion and lifestyle product show in the John E. Reeves Great Hall.

Look for coverage in the next issue of Hue.

4

hue | spring 2009

QUI CK READ

Those looking to unload a pair of threadbare or unfashionable jeans this past fall had a novel option: donation bins for Cotton Incorporated’s initiative, From Blue to Green. The program recycles unwanted denim into cotton fiber insulation for nonprofit housing organizations like Habitat for Humanity. FIT was one of six U.S. campuses, and the only northeastern college, to participate in the drive.

The college’s Public Relations Student Society of America chapter ran the effort, setting up bins around campus, staffing donation tables at the college’s flea markets (where donors got free T-shirts), and spreading awareness with posters and email blasts. “The challenge was to collect 500, enough to insulate an entire home,” says Roberta Elins, Direct and Interactive Marketing chairperson and FIT’s PRSSA advisor. “We collected almost 900.”

Cotton Incorporated awarded the club $700 for its efforts.

>> Richard A. Anderman, a consultant and lawyer with four decades’ experience in corporate and international law, was appointed to FIT’s Board of Trustees on February 16.

Anderman is a member of the Center for Arts Education’s board of directors, the New Museum’s Producers Council, and the Contemporary Arts Council of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, which he chaired from 2003 to 2007. >> Multimedia artist Laurance Rassin was the featured guest at the spring 2009 School of Art and Design Dean’s Dialogue, in the Katie Murphy Amphitheatre on February 19. His presentation included a fashion show (using FIT’s Model Club members), live band, and art exhibition. >> Writer and actor Dan Hoyle performed Tings Dey Happen, his acclaimed monologue about Nigerian oil politics, for the spring 2009 Dean’s Forum of the School of Liberal Arts on April 1 in the Katie Murphy Amphitheatre. The event was cosponsored by the Presidential Scholars. >> On April 22, Career Services will participate in Shomex’s Diversity in Advertising Career Day, at the Hilton Towers in Manhattan. A minority and women recruitment fair, the annual event is sponsored by the American Association of Advertising Agencies. >> On April 22, the Art Market: Principles and Practices graduate program will host Regrouping: Art World Professionals Examine the Art Market, a roundtable discussion on the economic downturn’s effects on the industry. Faculty member Sheri Pasquarella will moderate.

Paige Smith

Email your story to hue@fitnyc.edu, or send it to the editors at Hue Magazine.

Submissions will be considered for publication in a future issue.

Old Jeans Go Green

what’s happening on campus

what’s happening on campus

FIT Launches New BS Museum News in Technical Design

Nadirah Zakariya’s photo collage, Cry, appeared in the Marvin Feldman Center from November 10-21 in Altered Egos, a show by third-year Photography BFA students. Assistant Professor Douglas Mulaire called the show “a photographic exploration of the self.”

Zakariya said the piece, shot with a Lomo camera, came from a series called “Love.” For inspiration, she said, “I took the phrase ‘Cry your heart out’ literally.”

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

5

Gold Standard

Sloan was a new teacher at FIT when the college’s first building (now the Marvin Feldman Center) opened on April 1, 1959. Shown, left to right, at the ribbon-cutting ceremony: Shirley Goodman (waving), longtime executive director of the Educational Foundation for the Fashion Industries; Lawrence L. Jarvie, president of FIT, 1966-70; Morris Haft, coat and suit manufacturer for whom the college auditorium is named, and chair of FIT Board of Trustees, 1953-68; Lawrence L. Bethel, president,1953-66.

Professor A.V. Sloan, Jr., talks about 50 years of teaching at FIT by Greg Herbowy

Du ring Wor l d War I I , I served in England with the Army’s decorated 445th Bombardment Group. I lost many good friends. I was a staff sergeant. Jimmy Stewart, the actor, was our squadron commander. He was a Princeton man, and I’d gone to Rutgers, so he razzed me about that. Two good things I remember about Stewart: He refused promotion until all of his lead pilots were promoted to first lieutenant, and even though he was allowed to choose his missions, he didn’t just pick the easy ones. He’d take every sixth or seventh mission that came up, whether it was dangerous or just some Mickey Mouse thing. The papers kept up with what Stewart was doing, so my parents could keep track of where I was.

6

hue | spring 2009

•

Photograph by Lee White.

September 2008, FIT’s 64th year, marked a half-century of teaching at the college for Dr. Alfred V. Sloan, Jr., professor of Fashion Merchandising Management and the longest-serving full-time faculty member in the institution’s history. During his tenure, Sloan has seen transformative growth at the college and in his program, which he joined in its early years, when it was called Fashion Buying and Merchandising. It is now FIT’s largest department, enrolling 28 percent of the college’s degree students.

Newton Godnick, FBM chair for 18 years until his 1992 retirement, credits Sloan as author of much of the department’s founding curriculum and a consummate teacher whose guidance goes beyond the discipline.

In 1968, Sloan founded the London Scholars program, FIT’s first study abroad offering; shortly thereafter, he started an FBM faculty exchange program between FIT and the University of Huddersfield in Yorkshire, England.

“Students aside, he’s been a counselor to countless fellow faculty,” Godnick says, “and I know for a fact he was considered umpteen times for senior administrative positions at SUNY. Every time, he chose to stay in the classroom.”

“A soldier’s place is in the trenches,” replies Sloan, a fourth-generation Manhattanite who served in the U.S. Army in World War II. This winter, the veteran professor shared some memories of his life and career—and of an ever-evolving FIT, as seen from the front lines.

“I travel a lot,” he says, “and I used to have to explain what I did. Now I don’t have to say anything except, ‘I teach at FIT.’”

Faculty of what was then called the Fashion Buying and Merchandising Department, Commencement, June 14, 1962.

Front row, left to right: Iris McQuistion, Stephanie Farrar, Jeannette Jarnow (chair), Muriel Landers, Ethel Graham, Bette Tepper.

Back row: Alfred Sloan, Nathan Axelrod, Arthur Winters, William Strasser, Stanley Koenig.

I n m y first y e ar at the college, FIT was on the top floor of the High School of Needle Trades. Our enrollment was maybe 450. I remember riding the elevator one day with Lawrence Jarvie, who at that time was SUNY vice chancellor for two-year colleges, but later became president of FIT. He made mention of the college’s imminent move to a big building all its own, now known as the Marvin Feldman Center. He said, “I hope you’ll be able to fill it!” Boy, did we ever.

•

T oday th e r e ar e something like 200 colleges in the U.S. teaching fashion merchandising, but I believe we were the first. It was like creating a discipline. A number of years ago, I took my family on vacation to Montana, and the housekeeper at the inn was studying fashion merchandising at her community college. So I asked to see her course catalogue. The college had copied FIT’s curriculum—word for word, comma for comma. Even the course numbers were the same! It was unbelievable.

I n th e l at e ’6 0 s , FIT had a baseball team. My son and I are big baseball fans, so we’d go to all the games. One year, a game against the Bronx campus of Hunter College [now Lehman] was scheduled over the Easter break. Only eight FIT guys showed up, and you need nine to play. So I volunteered, even though I was in my middle 40s. We lost. I wasn’t anything great, but I didn’t discredit myself.

I figure I must hold the record for the oldestever outfielder in a college baseball game.

•

How hav e th e students changed? Not a lot—they’re bright, respectful, middle-class kids with strong values. Today’s students are maybe weaker on the mechanics, but much stronger on social awareness. And the student body is much more diverse. In one class last year, I had 25 students from 11 different states, two Canadian provinces, and three foreign countries. At what other college do you get kids like this?

I teach Merchandise Planning and Control—which never changes; it’s like teaching Shakespeare—and Consumer Motivation in Fashion, which changes from minute to minute. I love teaching it to our foreign students, because you’re not just teaching them the course, you’re teaching them the American way of life.

Once, I had a Thai student who wrote such beautiful English, I thought she must’ve been raised with it at home. She told me her mother knew only two English words: Calvin Klein.

It h elps to hav e a historical perspective on current events. I try to pass that on to my students. I discussed the blitzes in London when I was teaching a couple of days after September 11. A number of students are now asking about the recession, for I am an alumnus of the Great Depression. I tell them that there is no comparing the two.

Trust me.

Smiljana Peros

I start e d at F I T on Sept. 10, 1958.

I was the second person hired to teach Fashion Buying and Merchandising, now FMM. The chairperson, Jeannette Jarnow, had started the program two years earlier, picking off 18 or 19 design students, kind of taking them aside and saying, “Hey, want to learn how to make some real money?”

Dr. Lawrence Bethel, then president of the college, had invited me to the Yale Club to interview for the position. We sat down, and a waiter came up and asked if I would like a drink. I figured, “Better play it safe,” and ordered a ginger ale. Dr. Bethel ordered a shot of bourbon. By the time we were done, he’d had two or three more, and the salary for the job was a couple of hundred dollars more than it was when the interview started!

Sloan reminisced recently over memorabilia at FIT.

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

7

Gold Standard

Sloan was a new teacher at FIT when the college’s first building (now the Marvin Feldman Center) opened on April 1, 1959. Shown, left to right, at the ribbon-cutting ceremony: Shirley Goodman (waving), longtime executive director of the Educational Foundation for the Fashion Industries; Lawrence L. Jarvie, president of FIT, 1966-70; Morris Haft, coat and suit manufacturer for whom the college auditorium is named, and chair of FIT Board of Trustees, 1953-68; Lawrence L. Bethel, president,1953-66.

Professor A.V. Sloan, Jr., talks about 50 years of teaching at FIT by Greg Herbowy

Du ring Wor l d War I I , I served in England with the Army’s decorated 445th Bombardment Group. I lost many good friends. I was a staff sergeant. Jimmy Stewart, the actor, was our squadron commander. He was a Princeton man, and I’d gone to Rutgers, so he razzed me about that. Two good things I remember about Stewart: He refused promotion until all of his lead pilots were promoted to first lieutenant, and even though he was allowed to choose his missions, he didn’t just pick the easy ones. He’d take every sixth or seventh mission that came up, whether it was dangerous or just some Mickey Mouse thing. The papers kept up with what Stewart was doing, so my parents could keep track of where I was.

6

hue | spring 2009

•

Photograph by Lee White.

September 2008, FIT’s 64th year, marked a half-century of teaching at the college for Dr. Alfred V. Sloan, Jr., professor of Fashion Merchandising Management and the longest-serving full-time faculty member in the institution’s history. During his tenure, Sloan has seen transformative growth at the college and in his program, which he joined in its early years, when it was called Fashion Buying and Merchandising. It is now FIT’s largest department, enrolling 28 percent of the college’s degree students.

Newton Godnick, FBM chair for 18 years until his 1992 retirement, credits Sloan as author of much of the department’s founding curriculum and a consummate teacher whose guidance goes beyond the discipline.

In 1968, Sloan founded the London Scholars program, FIT’s first study abroad offering; shortly thereafter, he started an FBM faculty exchange program between FIT and the University of Huddersfield in Yorkshire, England.

“Students aside, he’s been a counselor to countless fellow faculty,” Godnick says, “and I know for a fact he was considered umpteen times for senior administrative positions at SUNY. Every time, he chose to stay in the classroom.”

“A soldier’s place is in the trenches,” replies Sloan, a fourth-generation Manhattanite who served in the U.S. Army in World War II. This winter, the veteran professor shared some memories of his life and career—and of an ever-evolving FIT, as seen from the front lines.

“I travel a lot,” he says, “and I used to have to explain what I did. Now I don’t have to say anything except, ‘I teach at FIT.’”

Faculty of what was then called the Fashion Buying and Merchandising Department, Commencement, June 14, 1962.

Front row, left to right: Iris McQuistion, Stephanie Farrar, Jeannette Jarnow (chair), Muriel Landers, Ethel Graham, Bette Tepper.

Back row: Alfred Sloan, Nathan Axelrod, Arthur Winters, William Strasser, Stanley Koenig.

I n m y first y e ar at the college, FIT was on the top floor of the High School of Needle Trades. Our enrollment was maybe 450. I remember riding the elevator one day with Lawrence Jarvie, who at that time was SUNY vice chancellor for two-year colleges, but later became president of FIT. He made mention of the college’s imminent move to a big building all its own, now known as the Marvin Feldman Center. He said, “I hope you’ll be able to fill it!” Boy, did we ever.

•

T oday th e r e ar e something like 200 colleges in the U.S. teaching fashion merchandising, but I believe we were the first. It was like creating a discipline. A number of years ago, I took my family on vacation to Montana, and the housekeeper at the inn was studying fashion merchandising at her community college. So I asked to see her course catalogue. The college had copied FIT’s curriculum—word for word, comma for comma. Even the course numbers were the same! It was unbelievable.

I n th e l at e ’6 0 s , FIT had a baseball team. My son and I are big baseball fans, so we’d go to all the games. One year, a game against the Bronx campus of Hunter College [now Lehman] was scheduled over the Easter break. Only eight FIT guys showed up, and you need nine to play. So I volunteered, even though I was in my middle 40s. We lost. I wasn’t anything great, but I didn’t discredit myself.

I figure I must hold the record for the oldestever outfielder in a college baseball game.

•

How hav e th e students changed? Not a lot—they’re bright, respectful, middle-class kids with strong values. Today’s students are maybe weaker on the mechanics, but much stronger on social awareness. And the student body is much more diverse. In one class last year, I had 25 students from 11 different states, two Canadian provinces, and three foreign countries. At what other college do you get kids like this?

I teach Merchandise Planning and Control—which never changes; it’s like teaching Shakespeare—and Consumer Motivation in Fashion, which changes from minute to minute. I love teaching it to our foreign students, because you’re not just teaching them the course, you’re teaching them the American way of life.

Once, I had a Thai student who wrote such beautiful English, I thought she must’ve been raised with it at home. She told me her mother knew only two English words: Calvin Klein.

It h elps to hav e a historical perspective on current events. I try to pass that on to my students. I discussed the blitzes in London when I was teaching a couple of days after September 11. A number of students are now asking about the recession, for I am an alumnus of the Great Depression. I tell them that there is no comparing the two.

Trust me.

Smiljana Peros

I start e d at F I T on Sept. 10, 1958.

I was the second person hired to teach Fashion Buying and Merchandising, now FMM. The chairperson, Jeannette Jarnow, had started the program two years earlier, picking off 18 or 19 design students, kind of taking them aside and saying, “Hey, want to learn how to make some real money?”

Dr. Lawrence Bethel, then president of the college, had invited me to the Yale Club to interview for the position. We sat down, and a waiter came up and asked if I would like a drink. I figured, “Better play it safe,” and ordered a ginger ale. Dr. Bethel ordered a shot of bourbon. By the time we were done, he’d had two or three more, and the salary for the job was a couple of hundred dollars more than it was when the interview started!

Sloan reminisced recently over memorabilia at FIT.

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

7

Dress

8

hue | spring 2009

Cem Horada Textile Development and Marketing ’08

You’ve just landed a job as a fabric specialist with The Levy

You’re a member of the first class in a joint program with FIT

Group, due in part to an intense internship at Marc Jacobs

and Istanbul Technical University. How’s that work?

Collection last fall. What was a typical day on the job like there?

You spend the first two years at ITU, a summer at FIT, your third year

I ran around all day, from 9 in the morning until 6 or 7 at night. Marc

back in Turkey, and your fourth year here. It’s a bachelor’s program

Jacobs Collection dresses are produced here, so I’d go to midtown

with a diploma from both schools. ITU’s curriculum is more about

factories, trim stores….. Say they needed 50 yards of fabric. I’d source

the technical side. You visit knitting, spinning, and weaving mills,

it, get samples to show them, take it to the cutter, then to the manufac-

manufacturers.... It’s more about fashion and marketing here.

turer. If the factories ran out of waistbands or buttons, I’d find more.

The subway was the best part of my day. I’d sit down, sleep.

Istanbul, your hometown, is the world’s only transcontinental city.

How do you identify Turkey—European? Asian? Middle Eastern?

Local manufacture seems unusual for New York.

I wouldn’t categorize it as any of those. Sometimes they show pictures

I’m familiar with it, though, because Turkey—where I’m from—is a

of Turkey on TV here; I don’t know where they shoot those. They make

manufacturing country, known for textiles. It’s phasing out, because

it look like Iran. Turkey’s a democratic, secular country. The people

the country is going more high-wage, but I don’t think it will ever

are modern and open-minded. As a Jewish Turkish citizen, I’ve always

go away completely. Both of my parents are in textiles. My mom’s

been proud of living under the Turkish flag.

business does knitting and garment assembly; my dad has a yarn business. My grandfather was in the trade as well.

How do you feel about living long term in a foreign country?

You make your home wherever you can make money. It’s not like you

Matthew Septimus

American style draws comparisons to Jackie Kennedy. Last November, the red and black Narciso Rodriguez dress she wore on election night received a fair amount of attention. As it turns out, Rodriguez’s atelier director is Brenda Mikel, Patternmaking Technology ’92.

Mikel knew this satin and chiffon sheath well; she did the draping. “We do almost everything in-house here,” she says of the firm near Irving Place in Manhattan. “I work very closely with Narciso, and he’s very hands-on. We met eight years ago, when we were both working at Calvin Klein.” The striking red mosaic pattern was created by sewing together individual chiffon squares, then embroidering them onto the chiffon ground using silk floss.

Obama picked out the dress from Rodriguez’s fall ’08 collection and ordered a more modest version with a raised neckline and opaque skirt.

Critics noted that the cashmere shrug Obama wore over her shoulders affected the outfit’s proportions, but Mikel says the feedback she’s received has been positive and plentiful. Sarah Jessica Parker and Rachel Weisz have worn dresses she’s worked on, “but that was nothing like this. It was an overwhelming response—in a good way.”

Success is looming

Top to bottom: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images News. Joe Raedle, Getty Images News. Taylor Hill, FilmMagic.

Michelle Obama in Isabel Toledo, top, and Narciso Rodriguez, above. Jill Biden, right, wears Reem Acra.

f there’s a dress in the news, it’s a good bet that there’s an FIT connection. So it’s no surprise that the FIT stamp was all over the events surrounding the election and inauguration of President Barack Obama. The lemongrasscolored outfit Michelle Obama wore on inauguration day was by Isabel Toledo, who attended the college and will be the subject of an exhibition opening at The Museum at FIT in June. The dress and coat were made of Swiss wool lace, backed with netting for warmth and lined in French silk. The look scored raves. New York Times fashion writer Cathy Horyn called it “a canny choice for a First Lady…. She stood out against the sea of blue and red on the Capitol steps, and she also seemed to emphasize her husband’s speech: ‘We’re going to do things differently now.’”

Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joseph Biden, also got nods for her inauguration-day fashion picks, two of which were by FIT alumnae. For the day, her gray houndstooth dress was from Milly, a company launched in 2000 by designer Michelle Smith, Fashion Design ’92. At the inaugural balls, Mrs. Biden appeared in a resplendent strapless red gown by Reem Acra, Fashion Design ’86.

Fashion writers have frequently praised Mrs. Obama, whose confident

a student in first person

We Can!

can never go visit, or never have family visit you. But sometimes I miss my family and friends, speaking my native language. I miss the food.

Turkish breakfasts, you have fresh feta, olives. I’m tired of cornflakes.

9

Dress

8

hue | spring 2009

Cem Horada Textile Development and Marketing ’08

You’ve just landed a job as a fabric specialist with The Levy

You’re a member of the first class in a joint program with FIT

Group, due in part to an intense internship at Marc Jacobs

and Istanbul Technical University. How’s that work?

Collection last fall. What was a typical day on the job like there?

You spend the first two years at ITU, a summer at FIT, your third year

I ran around all day, from 9 in the morning until 6 or 7 at night. Marc

back in Turkey, and your fourth year here. It’s a bachelor’s program

Jacobs Collection dresses are produced here, so I’d go to midtown

with a diploma from both schools. ITU’s curriculum is more about

factories, trim stores….. Say they needed 50 yards of fabric. I’d source

the technical side. You visit knitting, spinning, and weaving mills,

it, get samples to show them, take it to the cutter, then to the manufac-

manufacturers.... It’s more about fashion and marketing here.

turer. If the factories ran out of waistbands or buttons, I’d find more.

The subway was the best part of my day. I’d sit down, sleep.

Istanbul, your hometown, is the world’s only transcontinental city.

How do you identify Turkey—European? Asian? Middle Eastern?

Local manufacture seems unusual for New York.

I wouldn’t categorize it as any of those. Sometimes they show pictures

I’m familiar with it, though, because Turkey—where I’m from—is a

of Turkey on TV here; I don’t know where they shoot those. They make

manufacturing country, known for textiles. It’s phasing out, because

it look like Iran. Turkey’s a democratic, secular country. The people

the country is going more high-wage, but I don’t think it will ever

are modern and open-minded. As a Jewish Turkish citizen, I’ve always

go away completely. Both of my parents are in textiles. My mom’s

been proud of living under the Turkish flag.

business does knitting and garment assembly; my dad has a yarn business. My grandfather was in the trade as well.

How do you feel about living long term in a foreign country?

You make your home wherever you can make money. It’s not like you

Matthew Septimus

American style draws comparisons to Jackie Kennedy. Last November, the red and black Narciso Rodriguez dress she wore on election night received a fair amount of attention. As it turns out, Rodriguez’s atelier director is Brenda Mikel, Patternmaking Technology ’92.

Mikel knew this satin and chiffon sheath well; she did the draping. “We do almost everything in-house here,” she says of the firm near Irving Place in Manhattan. “I work very closely with Narciso, and he’s very hands-on. We met eight years ago, when we were both working at Calvin Klein.” The striking red mosaic pattern was created by sewing together individual chiffon squares, then embroidering them onto the chiffon ground using silk floss.

Obama picked out the dress from Rodriguez’s fall ’08 collection and ordered a more modest version with a raised neckline and opaque skirt.

Critics noted that the cashmere shrug Obama wore over her shoulders affected the outfit’s proportions, but Mikel says the feedback she’s received has been positive and plentiful. Sarah Jessica Parker and Rachel Weisz have worn dresses she’s worked on, “but that was nothing like this. It was an overwhelming response—in a good way.”

Success is looming

Top to bottom: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images News. Joe Raedle, Getty Images News. Taylor Hill, FilmMagic.

Michelle Obama in Isabel Toledo, top, and Narciso Rodriguez, above. Jill Biden, right, wears Reem Acra.

f there’s a dress in the news, it’s a good bet that there’s an FIT connection. So it’s no surprise that the FIT stamp was all over the events surrounding the election and inauguration of President Barack Obama. The lemongrasscolored outfit Michelle Obama wore on inauguration day was by Isabel Toledo, who attended the college and will be the subject of an exhibition opening at The Museum at FIT in June. The dress and coat were made of Swiss wool lace, backed with netting for warmth and lined in French silk. The look scored raves. New York Times fashion writer Cathy Horyn called it “a canny choice for a First Lady…. She stood out against the sea of blue and red on the Capitol steps, and she also seemed to emphasize her husband’s speech: ‘We’re going to do things differently now.’”

Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joseph Biden, also got nods for her inauguration-day fashion picks, two of which were by FIT alumnae. For the day, her gray houndstooth dress was from Milly, a company launched in 2000 by designer Michelle Smith, Fashion Design ’92. At the inaugural balls, Mrs. Biden appeared in a resplendent strapless red gown by Reem Acra, Fashion Design ’86.

Fashion writers have frequently praised Mrs. Obama, whose confident

a student in first person

We Can!

can never go visit, or never have family visit you. But sometimes I miss my family and friends, speaking my native language. I miss the food.

Turkish breakfasts, you have fresh feta, olives. I’m tired of cornflakes.

9

by Greg Herbowy

Alumni infuse a new medium with art and craft

Is it belittling to compare computer animation to a handicraft? Whether it’s 1993’s Jurassic Park or last year’s Wall-E, computer-generated imagery (or CGI) is best known for its limitlessness, its ability to create wholly new, wholly convincing worlds. Yet visit a studio and watch its practitioners, and the work suddenly seems impossibly detailed. Faces close to the screen, hands at the mouse, they bend to their task like miniaturists.

In past centuries, they’d be illuminating manuscripts.

Today, they’re animating 3D rivers made of hair.

1 A backplate—composited footage upon which CGI is added—from “Wanderlust.”

2 The same scene, during the animation process. The blue shape is a render region, allowing animators to see an area of their work-in-progress as it would look completed.

The black shape is a splash effect in its early stages.

Such was the assignment for four recent Computer Animation and Interactive Media graduates —Susie Jang ’04, San Charoenchai ’07 and Nayoun Kim Charoenchai ’06 (husband and wife, they met at FIT), and Dan Uranowski ’07—who worked on “Wanderlust,” a 2008 music video by the Icelandic avant-pop singer Björk. Directed by Sean Hellfritsch and Isaiah Saxon (part of a filmmaking collective known as Encyclopedia Pictura), it’s a surreal travelogue through a mossy, mountainous landscape, following Björk as she rides a yak downstream, wrestles a muddy alter ego, and comes face to face with a mysterious god. The live-action elements of “Wanderlust” were created and filmed at a Long Island City studio, using puppets, choreographed gymnastics, and stop-motion animation. But for the river animation, other CGI effects, and postproduction work, the directors turned to UVPHactory, a Manhattan studio that’s designed animations and graphics for clients such as Miramax Films, MTV, and Nike. Jang, a 3D designer, and Charoenchai, a 3D designer and compositor, work there full time; Kim Charoenchai and Uranowski joined the project as freelancers.

The river was perhaps the single most important thematic element of the video, and the one most closely tied to Björk’s inspiration for the song. “She’d written ‘Wanderlust’ while

at sea,” Saxon explains, and he and Hellfritsch wanted to keep the “traveling along water” theme. “A river seemed to be the right metaphor for being swept into the future,” he says.

“We wanted to make sure you’d see it not as something you just register and forget about, but something that triggers a more complex response.” Accordingly, UVPHactory made an unorthodox choice: They would create the river using a module, or component, of the 3D animation software Softimage XSI, whose intended purpose is to render hair.

First, Tim Marinov, UVPHactory’s technical director, built a rig, or template, for the river.

The challenges involved were many and complicated, but essentially the solution was to use a conventional water simulation done with RealFlow software, with XSI hair draped over, and deformed by, its undulating surface. Jang and Charoenchai then worked with the rig to animate many of the video’s 37 river shots, improvising solutions to various problems as they arose, like a shot of a yak lapping at the water. Kim Charoenchai and Uranowski came on board to help create the splash effects, or “river skirts,” along the edges where the riverbanks and the yaks’ bodies met the water.

These were also done with RealFlow, and then embellished with stylized blobs, called

1 10

hue | spring 2009

2

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

11

by Greg Herbowy

Alumni infuse a new medium with art and craft

Is it belittling to compare computer animation to a handicraft? Whether it’s 1993’s Jurassic Park or last year’s Wall-E, computer-generated imagery (or CGI) is best known for its limitlessness, its ability to create wholly new, wholly convincing worlds. Yet visit a studio and watch its practitioners, and the work suddenly seems impossibly detailed. Faces close to the screen, hands at the mouse, they bend to their task like miniaturists.

In past centuries, they’d be illuminating manuscripts.

Today, they’re animating 3D rivers made of hair.

1 A backplate—composited footage upon which CGI is added—from “Wanderlust.”

2 The same scene, during the animation process. The blue shape is a render region, allowing animators to see an area of their work-in-progress as it would look completed.

The black shape is a splash effect in its early stages.

Such was the assignment for four recent Computer Animation and Interactive Media graduates —Susie Jang ’04, San Charoenchai ’07 and Nayoun Kim Charoenchai ’06 (husband and wife, they met at FIT), and Dan Uranowski ’07—who worked on “Wanderlust,” a 2008 music video by the Icelandic avant-pop singer Björk. Directed by Sean Hellfritsch and Isaiah Saxon (part of a filmmaking collective known as Encyclopedia Pictura), it’s a surreal travelogue through a mossy, mountainous landscape, following Björk as she rides a yak downstream, wrestles a muddy alter ego, and comes face to face with a mysterious god. The live-action elements of “Wanderlust” were created and filmed at a Long Island City studio, using puppets, choreographed gymnastics, and stop-motion animation. But for the river animation, other CGI effects, and postproduction work, the directors turned to UVPHactory, a Manhattan studio that’s designed animations and graphics for clients such as Miramax Films, MTV, and Nike. Jang, a 3D designer, and Charoenchai, a 3D designer and compositor, work there full time; Kim Charoenchai and Uranowski joined the project as freelancers.

The river was perhaps the single most important thematic element of the video, and the one most closely tied to Björk’s inspiration for the song. “She’d written ‘Wanderlust’ while

at sea,” Saxon explains, and he and Hellfritsch wanted to keep the “traveling along water” theme. “A river seemed to be the right metaphor for being swept into the future,” he says.

“We wanted to make sure you’d see it not as something you just register and forget about, but something that triggers a more complex response.” Accordingly, UVPHactory made an unorthodox choice: They would create the river using a module, or component, of the 3D animation software Softimage XSI, whose intended purpose is to render hair.

First, Tim Marinov, UVPHactory’s technical director, built a rig, or template, for the river.

The challenges involved were many and complicated, but essentially the solution was to use a conventional water simulation done with RealFlow software, with XSI hair draped over, and deformed by, its undulating surface. Jang and Charoenchai then worked with the rig to animate many of the video’s 37 river shots, improvising solutions to various problems as they arose, like a shot of a yak lapping at the water. Kim Charoenchai and Uranowski came on board to help create the splash effects, or “river skirts,” along the edges where the riverbanks and the yaks’ bodies met the water.

These were also done with RealFlow, and then embellished with stylized blobs, called

1 10

hue | spring 2009

2

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

11

to take the community ’ s pulse , as it were .

4 This camera tool allows animators to render or check their work from different points of view.

5 The incomplete waterfall animation has been added to the live-action footage.

3

4

5 12

hue | spring 2009

Metaballs, which helped maintain the graphic aesthetic, giving the splashes a Japanesewoodblock look. Charoenchai and Uranowski also worked on compositing—the layering of animation and live footage that creates the final piece—and Uranowski contributed on additional atmospherics, like fog effects.

The CGI work on “Wanderlust” was complicated by the unusual nature of the video’s live-action footage, which was shot in stereoscopic 3D. An illusionary technique dating to the mid-19th century, stereoscopic 3D filming uses two closely aligned cameras to capture the action from the hypothetical left- and right-eye points of view. When the film is screened, these two perspectives are overlapped. To the naked eye, this makes for a blurry mess. But with the aid of special glasses, the result is a surprisingly convincing 3D experience.

For the animators, this meant the CGI had to be done from both perspectives. The animation was completed for the right-eye perspective first, then offset to match the left eye’s point of view. “It took some time,” Charoenchai explains, “because we didn’t know what increments to use,” as the distance between cameras varied from shot to shot, depending on depth of field. To check their work, they screened the paired renderings in a stereoscopic viewer, dubbed “the Vizard,” specially built by Hellfritsch. Frame by frame, the animators tweaked any strands and splashes that weren’t properly synced with their left- or right-eye counterparts.

“It was incredibly detailed work,” says Damijan Saccio, a principal and co-owner of UVPHactory. “That’s why it was so time consuming.” All told, the animators’ job took six and a half months—an only slightly inflated timeline, as they were also working on other assignments. For a comparison, consider that preproduction and filming of the live-action footage—including puppet modeling, costume and set design, and choreography—took just nine weeks. Consider too that the alumni weren’t working alone. At certain points, as many as 25 people were contributing to the CGI and postproduction—including Hellfritsch and Saxon, who were closely involved throughout.

I don’t indulge in luxuries, so there’s nothing for me to stop buying.

Since its premiere last spring at Deitch Studios, a Long Island City gallery, “Wanderlust” has won considerable praise. Press coverage has spanned publications as varied as The New York Times, music website Pitchfork Media, and industry magazines like Digital Arts and Post. Its awards include a certificate of distinction at the 2008 Artfutura, an international digital and new media festival, and UK Music Video Awards for best art direction, best indie video, and video of the year.

Much of this acclaim has focused on Encyclopedia Pictura, and not without reason.

Björk’s song aside, the “Wanderlust” video is wholly their vision and aesthetic; the singer granted the directors complete control.

Where, then, does that place the animators?

As collaborators or as executors? Artists or technicians? Or is this a false distinction?

“The interesting thing [about the work] for me is there’s no right or wrong way to do something,” Charoenchai says. “The producer says, ‘I want you to make this thing work somehow,’ and you have to figure out how to make it work and come up with ideas on the fly.

And when it works, it’s unexpected, or fresh.”

For her part, Jang, who came to FIT for illustration but was lured into computer animation by its ever-growing possibilities, identifies more as an artist than a technician.

Both she and Charoenchai—now working together on animations and visual effects for a History Channel series on mythology—are interested in eventually branching into filmmaking, each as director of her or his own projects. Kim Charoenchai, now freelancing with CGI studio The Napoleon Group, hopes to design and create digital effects for movies.

“If you want to be more creatively involved,” she says, “you have to be a creative director.”

Uranowski, currently putting final touches on an animation for Armani Exchange, says for the time being, he’s just enjoying being immersed in the process and building his resume.

“Just the satisfaction of finishing a project” is rewarding, he says. “I like the idea of coming into the job, working as part of a team, and problem solving. I consider myself more of a craftsman.”

For the complete list of “Wanderlust”credits, visit www.uvph.com/bjork. To view the video, visit www.fitnyc.edu/hue.

–Joylene Ceballos, Visual Arts Management ’10

Starbucks green tea and coffee. It’s the only way I can start my day.

Even if my parents cut me off, I’ll keep buying Starbucks.

–Alyssa DeCicco, Fashion Merchandising Management ’12

MAC makeup. It’s a lasting product and the best quality I have used. I’ve tried other brands and they do not work as well.

–Jamie Mahoney, Fashion Merchandising Management ’12

There’s nothing I wouldn’t give up.

–Hermes Torres, technical supervisor, Student Life

Getting my hair colored and cut. You have to take care of your head and your feet. The rest you can get on sale!

–Ann Marie Napolitan, administrative assistant, Financial Aid

Bare Escentuals foundation powder.

It covers the redness on my skin, and it feels like I’m not wearing makeup. –Sohee Bae, Fashion Design ’09 Q u e sti o n:

What is one luxury you’ll keep on buying, no matter how bad the economy gets?

Coffee.

–Iris Taylor, Fashion Design ’09 Marie Antoinette collectibles and figurines. I have been buying them on eBay for eight years, since I was 14. No matter how bad the economy gets, I’ll keep buying them.

–Michael Wood, Interior Design ’10

All images courtesy of UVPHactory, Encylopedia Pictura, and One Little Indian Records.

3 A waterfall animation in progress.

The gray is the river’s shape, which is controlled by the surrounding black latticework. The colored sections consist of splines—lines that determine the pathways of the animated hairs.

one question, many answers

W e asked o n e q uestion on campus and at F I T events around town,

Food. I mean, like desserts and organic food and stuff.

I can buy regular fruits and veggies but I only buy hormone-free meat.

–Niurka Jimenez-Jailall, research assistant, Center for Professional Studies, Textile/Surface Design ’11

Crest toothpaste. I’ve tried the generic brands, but the flavor doesn’t last as long. With Crest, I can taste the rejuvenating magic.

Manis and pedis once a month.

It’s nice to be pampered and

–Charlie Brower, Advertising and Marketing Communications ’10

My calling cards, because I have to be able to talk to my mom who lives in Jamaica.

–Sageen Bair, Production Management ’09

‘me time’ is essential.

–Virginia Bishop, Advertising and Marketing Communications ’09

Cashmere socks! If your feet are happy the rest of you will follow.

I believe happiness begins from the ground up.

–Ann Denton, assistant professor, Textile Development and Marketing

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

13

to take the community ’ s pulse , as it were .

4 This camera tool allows animators to render or check their work from different points of view.

5 The incomplete waterfall animation has been added to the live-action footage.

3

4

5 12

hue | spring 2009

Metaballs, which helped maintain the graphic aesthetic, giving the splashes a Japanesewoodblock look. Charoenchai and Uranowski also worked on compositing—the layering of animation and live footage that creates the final piece—and Uranowski contributed on additional atmospherics, like fog effects.

The CGI work on “Wanderlust” was complicated by the unusual nature of the video’s live-action footage, which was shot in stereoscopic 3D. An illusionary technique dating to the mid-19th century, stereoscopic 3D filming uses two closely aligned cameras to capture the action from the hypothetical left- and right-eye points of view. When the film is screened, these two perspectives are overlapped. To the naked eye, this makes for a blurry mess. But with the aid of special glasses, the result is a surprisingly convincing 3D experience.

For the animators, this meant the CGI had to be done from both perspectives. The animation was completed for the right-eye perspective first, then offset to match the left eye’s point of view. “It took some time,” Charoenchai explains, “because we didn’t know what increments to use,” as the distance between cameras varied from shot to shot, depending on depth of field. To check their work, they screened the paired renderings in a stereoscopic viewer, dubbed “the Vizard,” specially built by Hellfritsch. Frame by frame, the animators tweaked any strands and splashes that weren’t properly synced with their left- or right-eye counterparts.

“It was incredibly detailed work,” says Damijan Saccio, a principal and co-owner of UVPHactory. “That’s why it was so time consuming.” All told, the animators’ job took six and a half months—an only slightly inflated timeline, as they were also working on other assignments. For a comparison, consider that preproduction and filming of the live-action footage—including puppet modeling, costume and set design, and choreography—took just nine weeks. Consider too that the alumni weren’t working alone. At certain points, as many as 25 people were contributing to the CGI and postproduction—including Hellfritsch and Saxon, who were closely involved throughout.

I don’t indulge in luxuries, so there’s nothing for me to stop buying.

Since its premiere last spring at Deitch Studios, a Long Island City gallery, “Wanderlust” has won considerable praise. Press coverage has spanned publications as varied as The New York Times, music website Pitchfork Media, and industry magazines like Digital Arts and Post. Its awards include a certificate of distinction at the 2008 Artfutura, an international digital and new media festival, and UK Music Video Awards for best art direction, best indie video, and video of the year.

Much of this acclaim has focused on Encyclopedia Pictura, and not without reason.

Björk’s song aside, the “Wanderlust” video is wholly their vision and aesthetic; the singer granted the directors complete control.

Where, then, does that place the animators?

As collaborators or as executors? Artists or technicians? Or is this a false distinction?

“The interesting thing [about the work] for me is there’s no right or wrong way to do something,” Charoenchai says. “The producer says, ‘I want you to make this thing work somehow,’ and you have to figure out how to make it work and come up with ideas on the fly.

And when it works, it’s unexpected, or fresh.”

For her part, Jang, who came to FIT for illustration but was lured into computer animation by its ever-growing possibilities, identifies more as an artist than a technician.

Both she and Charoenchai—now working together on animations and visual effects for a History Channel series on mythology—are interested in eventually branching into filmmaking, each as director of her or his own projects. Kim Charoenchai, now freelancing with CGI studio The Napoleon Group, hopes to design and create digital effects for movies.

“If you want to be more creatively involved,” she says, “you have to be a creative director.”

Uranowski, currently putting final touches on an animation for Armani Exchange, says for the time being, he’s just enjoying being immersed in the process and building his resume.

“Just the satisfaction of finishing a project” is rewarding, he says. “I like the idea of coming into the job, working as part of a team, and problem solving. I consider myself more of a craftsman.”

For the complete list of “Wanderlust”credits, visit www.uvph.com/bjork. To view the video, visit www.fitnyc.edu/hue.

–Joylene Ceballos, Visual Arts Management ’10

Starbucks green tea and coffee. It’s the only way I can start my day.

Even if my parents cut me off, I’ll keep buying Starbucks.

–Alyssa DeCicco, Fashion Merchandising Management ’12

MAC makeup. It’s a lasting product and the best quality I have used. I’ve tried other brands and they do not work as well.

–Jamie Mahoney, Fashion Merchandising Management ’12

There’s nothing I wouldn’t give up.

–Hermes Torres, technical supervisor, Student Life

Getting my hair colored and cut. You have to take care of your head and your feet. The rest you can get on sale!

–Ann Marie Napolitan, administrative assistant, Financial Aid

Bare Escentuals foundation powder.

It covers the redness on my skin, and it feels like I’m not wearing makeup. –Sohee Bae, Fashion Design ’09 Q u e sti o n:

What is one luxury you’ll keep on buying, no matter how bad the economy gets?

Coffee.

–Iris Taylor, Fashion Design ’09 Marie Antoinette collectibles and figurines. I have been buying them on eBay for eight years, since I was 14. No matter how bad the economy gets, I’ll keep buying them.

–Michael Wood, Interior Design ’10

All images courtesy of UVPHactory, Encylopedia Pictura, and One Little Indian Records.

3 A waterfall animation in progress.

The gray is the river’s shape, which is controlled by the surrounding black latticework. The colored sections consist of splines—lines that determine the pathways of the animated hairs.

one question, many answers

W e asked o n e q uestion on campus and at F I T events around town,

Food. I mean, like desserts and organic food and stuff.

I can buy regular fruits and veggies but I only buy hormone-free meat.

–Niurka Jimenez-Jailall, research assistant, Center for Professional Studies, Textile/Surface Design ’11

Crest toothpaste. I’ve tried the generic brands, but the flavor doesn’t last as long. With Crest, I can taste the rejuvenating magic.

Manis and pedis once a month.

It’s nice to be pampered and

–Charlie Brower, Advertising and Marketing Communications ’10

My calling cards, because I have to be able to talk to my mom who lives in Jamaica.

–Sageen Bair, Production Management ’09

‘me time’ is essential.

–Virginia Bishop, Advertising and Marketing Communications ’09

Cashmere socks! If your feet are happy the rest of you will follow.

I believe happiness begins from the ground up.

–Ann Denton, assistant professor, Textile Development and Marketing

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

13

Here’s FIT’s space, and that’s Brian Emery, assistant professor of Photography. He set up this virtual exhibition using real student work.

Second Chances

Sig Klaar (a.k.a. Hildy Gardner ’73), who teaches Fashion Design is here, too. She shows videos of her students’ work in the glass house she built.

Love her floating staircase!

An avatar tells you why you should check out virtual worlds Hi! I’m Rachel Dooley, avatar of Rachel Sullivan, AMC ’10. In 2007 I opened a clothing boutique in Second Life—an online 3D virtual world where people go for all kinds of experiences. They meet people, go to parties, hear music (and do some things I won’t go into). People buy lots of stuff here—“land,” houses, furniture. I know! It sounds crazy— real money for virtual stuff! The NY Times says people spend about $1.5 billion a year in virtual worlds. That means designers and businesspeople can find opportunities here.

I’m off to meet Shenlei Winkler ’06 in her place, Shengri-La. (Yes, avatars can fly.) Her business is way different from mine. Her company, Fashion Research Institute, has a multimillion-dollar contract with IBM to develop virtual worlds-based technology for the apparel industry to make the design cycle faster and greener. I mean, wow!

Shenlei can work in her office with her feet on the couch. She wants to make it possible for companies to work in virtual worlds producing real clothes for real people. They could cut sample costs by two-thirds and take a design from concept to prototype—every step but manufacturing. Now, let’s go play.

First you need an avatar—your virtual alter ego. You can give it any name and look you want. Most of us are hot! You can buy hair, nails— even a walk—and change them anytime. I’m a walking billboard for my boutique, Short and Sweet, so I always wear my designs, and people ask where I got my outfit. There are about 65,000 “residents” here at any time, so there are lots of potential customers.

In some ways, it’s like a real business. I pay rent—tiny compared to a brick-and-mortar store. I try to add a new outfit every week.

And I do promotions, like holiday events. Here I am with one of the models I hired to help launch my swimwear line.

14

hue | spring 2009

I shoot ads in my photo studio. I do a catalog, too. You can rent a billboard or buy space in the classifieds.It’s a lot of work to establish your brand, but it can be worth it. The real Rachel earns enough to feed her shoe addiction! But it’s not just businesspeople who come here. Artists show and sell their work in galleries. Suzanne Vega gave a concert.

Some colleges have even built virtual campuses.

There are tons of possibilities here. And Second Life is not the only virtual world. It’s just the best known right now. Life here can be complicated, and it takes time to get used to it. You might want to check it out. After all, like my designs, life is short—but also sweet. Bye!

Horseback riding is so relaxing! Shenlei does this to train new avatars— that’s part of her business. I just like it because her land is so peaceful and pretty, and it’s nice to watch the sunset and hear the seagulls. I don’t even have to take off my heels.

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

15

Here’s FIT’s space, and that’s Brian Emery, assistant professor of Photography. He set up this virtual exhibition using real student work.

Second Chances

Sig Klaar (a.k.a. Hildy Gardner ’73), who teaches Fashion Design is here, too. She shows videos of her students’ work in the glass house she built.

Love her floating staircase!

An avatar tells you why you should check out virtual worlds Hi! I’m Rachel Dooley, avatar of Rachel Sullivan, AMC ’10. In 2007 I opened a clothing boutique in Second Life—an online 3D virtual world where people go for all kinds of experiences. They meet people, go to parties, hear music (and do some things I won’t go into). People buy lots of stuff here—“land,” houses, furniture. I know! It sounds crazy— real money for virtual stuff! The NY Times says people spend about $1.5 billion a year in virtual worlds. That means designers and businesspeople can find opportunities here.

I’m off to meet Shenlei Winkler ’06 in her place, Shengri-La. (Yes, avatars can fly.) Her business is way different from mine. Her company, Fashion Research Institute, has a multimillion-dollar contract with IBM to develop virtual worlds-based technology for the apparel industry to make the design cycle faster and greener. I mean, wow!

Shenlei can work in her office with her feet on the couch. She wants to make it possible for companies to work in virtual worlds producing real clothes for real people. They could cut sample costs by two-thirds and take a design from concept to prototype—every step but manufacturing. Now, let’s go play.

First you need an avatar—your virtual alter ego. You can give it any name and look you want. Most of us are hot! You can buy hair, nails— even a walk—and change them anytime. I’m a walking billboard for my boutique, Short and Sweet, so I always wear my designs, and people ask where I got my outfit. There are about 65,000 “residents” here at any time, so there are lots of potential customers.

In some ways, it’s like a real business. I pay rent—tiny compared to a brick-and-mortar store. I try to add a new outfit every week.

And I do promotions, like holiday events. Here I am with one of the models I hired to help launch my swimwear line.

14

hue | spring 2009

I shoot ads in my photo studio. I do a catalog, too. You can rent a billboard or buy space in the classifieds.It’s a lot of work to establish your brand, but it can be worth it. The real Rachel earns enough to feed her shoe addiction! But it’s not just businesspeople who come here. Artists show and sell their work in galleries. Suzanne Vega gave a concert.

Some colleges have even built virtual campuses.

There are tons of possibilities here. And Second Life is not the only virtual world. It’s just the best known right now. Life here can be complicated, and it takes time to get used to it. You might want to check it out. After all, like my designs, life is short—but also sweet. Bye!

Horseback riding is so relaxing! Shenlei does this to train new avatars— that’s part of her business. I just like it because her land is so peaceful and pretty, and it’s nice to watch the sunset and hear the seagulls. I don’t even have to take off my heels.

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

15

Randy ❤s Brides

With Kleinfeld’s fashion director Randy Fenoli ’93 as matchmaker, each bride knows she’ll meet her perfect dress

by Linda Angrilli Photographs by Paul Whichloe

Randy Fenoli, left, says this ball gown-style dress by

Reem Acra ’86 reflects her love of luxurious fabrics and textures. “This graceful dress, with its delicate embroidery, is for a more youthful bride. It’s more of a princess look, with lots of sparkle and twinkle.”

Acra adds, “Each bride is special to me, so all my gowns are done by hand—the beading, the draping, the ruching and all the little details.”

The first thing you notice at Kleinfeld bridal is that everything is white—vanilla, eggshell, champagne, cream. Big, billowy dresses surround you, frosted with lace, beads, and sparkly crystals. It’s like being inside a very large, delectable cream puff. This romantic fantasyland is just what one of the world’s foremost bridal salons should be. And in the midst of it is fashion director Randy Fenoli, reed-slim in top-to-toe Gucci, ready to match every bride with her ideal gown.

Fenoli has worked with thousands of brides, but you’ll never hear him talk about Bridezillas.

He thrives on the drama of helping a woman (and her mother, best friend, grandma and whoever else comes along) prepare for one of the most important moments of her life. Every bride works with a consultant. Fenoli is often called in to provide expertise and close the sale. His position requires extensive knowledge of the stock, a precise understanding of what looks good on a particular figure, and boundless patience and sympathy.

Kleinfeld carries about 1,700 dresses by 75 designers—the largest selection in the country— ranging from about $1,800 to $30,000. The average cost of a wedding dress in the U.S. is $800; at Kleinfeld, it’s $4-5,000. Despite the economic downturn, Fenoli hasn’t noticed brides looking for cheaper dresses, though he says they’re more careful about sticking to their budget. For some, money isn’t a problem. “The other day a bride from Russia asked for our most expensive dress.

That was all she cared about, not even what it looked like.”

Fenoli was born on a farm in southern Illinois, the last of seven children. “My parents wanted a girl, and I did my best,” he says mischievously. One day, at home alone, he found a dress pattern and some fabric of his mother’s. When she came home, she was astonished to find that her young son had made the outfit, perfectly.

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

17

Randy ❤s Brides

With Kleinfeld’s fashion director Randy Fenoli ’93 as matchmaker, each bride knows she’ll meet her perfect dress

by Linda Angrilli Photographs by Paul Whichloe

Randy Fenoli, left, says this ball gown-style dress by

Reem Acra ’86 reflects her love of luxurious fabrics and textures. “This graceful dress, with its delicate embroidery, is for a more youthful bride. It’s more of a princess look, with lots of sparkle and twinkle.”

Acra adds, “Each bride is special to me, so all my gowns are done by hand—the beading, the draping, the ruching and all the little details.”

The first thing you notice at Kleinfeld bridal is that everything is white—vanilla, eggshell, champagne, cream. Big, billowy dresses surround you, frosted with lace, beads, and sparkly crystals. It’s like being inside a very large, delectable cream puff. This romantic fantasyland is just what one of the world’s foremost bridal salons should be. And in the midst of it is fashion director Randy Fenoli, reed-slim in top-to-toe Gucci, ready to match every bride with her ideal gown.

Fenoli has worked with thousands of brides, but you’ll never hear him talk about Bridezillas.

He thrives on the drama of helping a woman (and her mother, best friend, grandma and whoever else comes along) prepare for one of the most important moments of her life. Every bride works with a consultant. Fenoli is often called in to provide expertise and close the sale. His position requires extensive knowledge of the stock, a precise understanding of what looks good on a particular figure, and boundless patience and sympathy.

Kleinfeld carries about 1,700 dresses by 75 designers—the largest selection in the country— ranging from about $1,800 to $30,000. The average cost of a wedding dress in the U.S. is $800; at Kleinfeld, it’s $4-5,000. Despite the economic downturn, Fenoli hasn’t noticed brides looking for cheaper dresses, though he says they’re more careful about sticking to their budget. For some, money isn’t a problem. “The other day a bride from Russia asked for our most expensive dress.

That was all she cared about, not even what it looked like.”

Fenoli was born on a farm in southern Illinois, the last of seven children. “My parents wanted a girl, and I did my best,” he says mischievously. One day, at home alone, he found a dress pattern and some fabric of his mother’s. When she came home, she was astonished to find that her young son had made the outfit, perfectly.

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

17

Amsale Aberra ’82

This trumpet silhouette gown by Austin

says, “I originally started designing bridal gowns when I created my first one - for my own wedding!” This strapless A-line gown with organza and Alençon lace bodice has a natural waist accented by beaded flower detail. Randy says, “What’s beautiful about Amsale dresses is the proportion and magnificent attention to detail.

Her look is a little quiet, understated. This dress is fresh, light, and fashion forward. It would look good in a garden.”

Scarlett ’99,

designer and creative director for Kenneth Pool, features 3D silk organza flowers and petals, and Swarovski crystals. Randy says, “Austin is definitely one for dramatics. His stuff really glows. His dresses are goddess-y show stoppers, very heavy on embroidery and beading. Not for the understated bride.”

Bridal is the closest thing to couture we have. It’s the only place to make money doing fantasy dresses.

–Randy Fenoli

18

hue | spring 2009

It was hard growing up gay and creative in a place where boys cared mostly about sports and hunting. At 16, Randy ran away to live with his brother and sister-in-law in New Orleans. There he discovered female impersonation, and became an accomplished performer, wearing elaborate gowns that he designed and made himself. The pinnacle of his drag career was winning the Miss Gay America title in 1990. That year, he applied to FIT, using his costumes for his portfolio, and the money he had earned paid his way through school.

Says Professor Linda Tain, who first met him when he showed up in her office with a garment bag full of beaded, fringed dresses, “He had wonderful ideas; he just had to learn professional construction. And he can sell anything. He makes clothes sound like dessert.”

After graduating in ’93, he began designing wedding dresses, and was soon one of the country’s premier bridal designers. After September 11, Fenoli left the industry and moved back to New Orleans, returning to New York in 2007 for the Kleinfeld job.

Vision in White

Douglas Hannant ’94

Douglas Hannant introduces his first bridal collection

created this strapless honeycomb-pleated gown for his first bridal collection.

“It’s cut on the bias, like Vionnet’s. A bride wants to be sexy but it’s not appropriate to be too sexy,” he says.

Though he no longer impersonates celebrities, he’s becoming a star as himself, on TLC’s reality show, Say Yes to the Dress. Each episode traces the gown quest of several Kleinfeld brides. Fenoli is in his element amid the big, puffy dresses, anxious brides, and TV cameras. He rushes around, plucking gowns from racks, soothing frazzled nerves, shedding the occasional tear at a heartwarming moment. He clearly adores all of it.

No wonder brides love him. He’s designed fabulous gowns and he’s worn them, so he understands style and fit. He knows what flatters each woman’s figure—and he wants her to be happy. In fact, he gives clients his cell phone number in case of a bridal emergency. Sometimes a bride who has already bought her gown will call him late at night, unsure of her choice. If she really can’t live with the dress, he’ll do whatever he can to make it right. But sometimes it’s just jitters. “I tell her, ‘It’s like finding the right man: Once you’re engaged, you can’t go back to the singles bar.’”

I’ve been in the high-end couture business for 11 years, but I launched my first bridal collection this spring. In doing bridal, I didn’t want to do a Disney princess gown. My lady doesn’t want to look like Cinderella. She wants something no one has seen before, something sophisticated and chic. My designs are young and slim, great for destination weddings.

I’m influenced by the ’30s, especially ’30s eveningwear, and I’m always attracted to soft fabrics and bias cut. A good design should be classic and modern at the same time. Traditional is boring.

In this economy, some of my ladies are cutting back on daywear. But they might attend two or three black-tie events a week, and a woman won’t wear a dress twice, especially once she’s been photographed in it.

I’m lucky to have a personal relationship with my clients, and there’s a certain type of client who orders her wardrobe from me no matter what.

RIGHT: Fenoli says the inside construction of Hannant’s bridal designs is notable.

The silk charmeuse bustier of this strapless gown is lined with point d’esprit lace and secured with encased boning, so the top doesn’t buckle. “Silk charmeuse is much more luxurious than the fabric in most gowns— it feels good on the skin,” Fenoli says.

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

19

Amsale Aberra ’82

This trumpet silhouette gown by Austin

says, “I originally started designing bridal gowns when I created my first one - for my own wedding!” This strapless A-line gown with organza and Alençon lace bodice has a natural waist accented by beaded flower detail. Randy says, “What’s beautiful about Amsale dresses is the proportion and magnificent attention to detail.

Her look is a little quiet, understated. This dress is fresh, light, and fashion forward. It would look good in a garden.”

Scarlett ’99,

designer and creative director for Kenneth Pool, features 3D silk organza flowers and petals, and Swarovski crystals. Randy says, “Austin is definitely one for dramatics. His stuff really glows. His dresses are goddess-y show stoppers, very heavy on embroidery and beading. Not for the understated bride.”

Bridal is the closest thing to couture we have. It’s the only place to make money doing fantasy dresses.

–Randy Fenoli

18

hue | spring 2009

It was hard growing up gay and creative in a place where boys cared mostly about sports and hunting. At 16, Randy ran away to live with his brother and sister-in-law in New Orleans. There he discovered female impersonation, and became an accomplished performer, wearing elaborate gowns that he designed and made himself. The pinnacle of his drag career was winning the Miss Gay America title in 1990. That year, he applied to FIT, using his costumes for his portfolio, and the money he had earned paid his way through school.

Says Professor Linda Tain, who first met him when he showed up in her office with a garment bag full of beaded, fringed dresses, “He had wonderful ideas; he just had to learn professional construction. And he can sell anything. He makes clothes sound like dessert.”

After graduating in ’93, he began designing wedding dresses, and was soon one of the country’s premier bridal designers. After September 11, Fenoli left the industry and moved back to New Orleans, returning to New York in 2007 for the Kleinfeld job.

Vision in White

Douglas Hannant ’94

Douglas Hannant introduces his first bridal collection

created this strapless honeycomb-pleated gown for his first bridal collection.

“It’s cut on the bias, like Vionnet’s. A bride wants to be sexy but it’s not appropriate to be too sexy,” he says.

Though he no longer impersonates celebrities, he’s becoming a star as himself, on TLC’s reality show, Say Yes to the Dress. Each episode traces the gown quest of several Kleinfeld brides. Fenoli is in his element amid the big, puffy dresses, anxious brides, and TV cameras. He rushes around, plucking gowns from racks, soothing frazzled nerves, shedding the occasional tear at a heartwarming moment. He clearly adores all of it.

No wonder brides love him. He’s designed fabulous gowns and he’s worn them, so he understands style and fit. He knows what flatters each woman’s figure—and he wants her to be happy. In fact, he gives clients his cell phone number in case of a bridal emergency. Sometimes a bride who has already bought her gown will call him late at night, unsure of her choice. If she really can’t live with the dress, he’ll do whatever he can to make it right. But sometimes it’s just jitters. “I tell her, ‘It’s like finding the right man: Once you’re engaged, you can’t go back to the singles bar.’”

I’ve been in the high-end couture business for 11 years, but I launched my first bridal collection this spring. In doing bridal, I didn’t want to do a Disney princess gown. My lady doesn’t want to look like Cinderella. She wants something no one has seen before, something sophisticated and chic. My designs are young and slim, great for destination weddings.

I’m influenced by the ’30s, especially ’30s eveningwear, and I’m always attracted to soft fabrics and bias cut. A good design should be classic and modern at the same time. Traditional is boring.

In this economy, some of my ladies are cutting back on daywear. But they might attend two or three black-tie events a week, and a woman won’t wear a dress twice, especially once she’s been photographed in it.

I’m lucky to have a personal relationship with my clients, and there’s a certain type of client who orders her wardrobe from me no matter what.

RIGHT: Fenoli says the inside construction of Hannant’s bridal designs is notable.

The silk charmeuse bustier of this strapless gown is lined with point d’esprit lace and secured with encased boning, so the top doesn’t buckle. “Silk charmeuse is much more luxurious than the fabric in most gowns— it feels good on the skin,” Fenoli says.

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

19

Two women writers visit FIT

Clinton Praises FIT’s Green Plan

20

hue | spring 2009

million monthly visitors; its worth has been estimated between $60 and $200 million; and its scoops—like reporting then-Senator Obama’s

“You know those fairy tales with the helpful

characterization of working-class voters as

animals?” Maybe not an expected question for

“bitter” during the 2008 Democratic primaries—

the 160 women gathered in the David Dubinsky

have driven the news narrative.

Student Center on November 12 for “An Evening

with Arianna Huffington.” But Huffington—

interviewer and friend Claudia Cividino,

author, web mogul, guest of a thousand talk

Fashion Design ’94 and Executive Women in

shows—wasn’t indulging in childish nostalgia.

Fashion advisory board member. Huffington

To her, those fairy-tale animals embody actual

spoke about her life and career (“I am where

benevolent forces in the world. “The universe,”

I want to be. I don’t want another stage!”),

she said, “supports boldness.”

her books (one of which, On Becoming Fearless,

was given to attendees), and memories of her

It certainly supports hers. Born in Greece,

Joining Huffington on stage was her

educated at Cambridge, presently of Los

mother’s role as a mentor in both her and

Angeles, Huffington’s varied public lives include

her daughters’ lives (“I come from a culture

stints as conservative commentator, political

where we revere older people”). Above all,

comedienne, and gubernatorial candidate. She’s

she advocated a well-balanced life, praising the

now best known for The Huffington Post, a left-

virtues of sleep and cautioning against envy

leaning news site combining original reporting,

of others’ successes.

web links, and a roster of high-profile bloggers

that includes basketball legend Kareem Abdul-

“That’s a very male way of thinking.”

“Life is not a zero-sum game,” she said.

Jabbar and pollster John Zogby. HuffPost, as she calls it, was derided upon its 2005 launch (LA Weekly called it “the sort of failure that is simply unsurvivable”), but quickly became an immense

Lucky Child A survivor of Cambodian genocide speaks

The event was hosted by Executive Women in Fashion, a program offered through FIT’s Center for Executive Education that provides information and resources for women in fashion, retail, and marketing.

From 1975 to 1979, the ruling Khmer

Rouge communist party terrorized the Cambodian people with grueling forced labor, city evacuations, and mass murders numbering in the millions, all with the goal of resetting

Illustrations: Stephen Gardner. Lucky Child cover courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers.

In February, former President Bill Clinton invited FIT President Joyce F. Brown to join him at a press conference that concluded this year’s Clinton Global Initiative University conference, held in Austin, TX. CGIU brings together higher education students and presidents from around the world to address international humanitarian challenges. All represented institutions were required to craft and commit to initiatives addressing issues such as poverty, health care, human rights, and climate change. At the press conference, President Clinton singled out Dr. Brown’s proposal, which focuses on sustainability at FIT, for its broad, interdisciplinary scope.

The college’s initiative, FIT Goes Green: Infusing Sustainability into Our Culture, sets six goals: the development of a new master’s degree program in sustainable interior design, to start September 2010; a database tracking sustainable practices taught in the classroom; the installation of green roofs for the Shirley Goodman Resource and David Dubinsky Student centers; student competitions in the design, production, and marketing of eco-conscious goods; the establishment of a college-wide council to recommend and promote green initiatives and administer a $15,000 grant fund for employees’ sustainability proposals; and a student-run campaign raising awareness of energy savings, climate change, and recycling.

“CGIU was really inspiring,” Dr. Brown says. “There were about 1,000 students from all over the world, and their passion about getting involved in global issues infused the atmosphere with excitement. My hope, now, is to get our students as deeply involved as possible.”

success. Last fall, it averaged more than four

Insights from Arianna Huffington

steps toward a sustainable future

“ This generation of students came of age after 9/11, and there’s a gloomy aspect to their world view that’s perfectly realistic. But I want to undercut it with great poetry because there’s that, too. One of my favorite poets to teach is John Donne. ‘A Valediction Forbidding Mourning,’ from 1611, is about a man who’s leaving behind a loved one and going to France—which wasn’t just a hop on a plane back then. Donne uses the most wonderful metaphors for separating; there’s a line about gold stretching and stretching, but it doesn’t break. My Jewelry Design students love that. He also compares himself to the arm of a compass that circles its fixed point and then ‘grows erect’ when he returns home. I tell the class that any double-entendres are not accidental. By this point, the students are silent—not because they’re texting, but because they’re connected to someone from another time and place. When we’re studying the poem

by Gerard Manley Hopkins that begins, ‘Glory be to God for dappled things….,’ I ask the students to look at the sky. I say, ‘Is it dappled today?’ I want them to look at the sky. I want them to remember to look up. That’s what I think great poetry does. It causes people to look up from their feet, from their work. From their fretting.”

Matthew Septimus

insights from the classroom and beyond

Barbara Janoff, Associate professor, English and Speech

Muse of the News

Chris Carson

Life Lines

“English is not

civilization at “Year Zero.” Though the conflict

my first language—it

has long been over, mass graves continue to

is my fourth,” writer

be excavated and remaining landmines—

and activist Loung Ung

“slow-motion weapons of mass destruction,”

announced to an

Ung called them—have claimed thousands of

audience of students

noncombatants, many of them children, as

and faculty in the Katie

victims. Having escaped all this for a self-

Murphy Amphitheatre

described “privileged” American existence,

this past fall. “And

Ung has dedicated herself to spreading aware-

when I speak about

ness of Cambodia’s recent history—through

things that are dear to my heart, I tend to forget

her bestselling memoirs First They Killed My

the grammar.”

Father and Lucky Child—and working on human

rights campaigns against domestic violence,

It was a humble admission and a warning

against the harrowing talk to follow. Ung was

landmines, and the recruitment of child

the featured speaker of the inaugural Dean’s

soldiers. Recalling the guilt she later felt over

Forum for the Liberal Arts, sponsored by the

years spent “trying to leave Cambodia behind—

School of Liberal Arts and the Presidential

curling my hair like Farrah Fawcett, dating cute

Scholars honors program, invited to speak on

guys,” all while neglecting a correspondence

her childhood experience living in Cambodia

with her lone surviving sister, who still lived in

under the Khmer Rouge regime. She described a

their homeland, Ung urged the students to also

hellish, four-year ordeal—in which she lost both

serve a greater cause.

parents and two of her three sisters—followed

by relocation to the U.S. and a bumpy assimila-

responsibility to exemplify ‘man’s humanity

tion into American life.

to man.’”

“Privileged people,” she said, “have a

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

21

Two women writers visit FIT

Clinton Praises FIT’s Green Plan

20

hue | spring 2009

million monthly visitors; its worth has been estimated between $60 and $200 million; and its scoops—like reporting then-Senator Obama’s

“You know those fairy tales with the helpful

characterization of working-class voters as

animals?” Maybe not an expected question for

“bitter” during the 2008 Democratic primaries—

the 160 women gathered in the David Dubinsky

have driven the news narrative.

Student Center on November 12 for “An Evening

with Arianna Huffington.” But Huffington—

interviewer and friend Claudia Cividino,

author, web mogul, guest of a thousand talk

Fashion Design ’94 and Executive Women in

shows—wasn’t indulging in childish nostalgia.

Fashion advisory board member. Huffington

To her, those fairy-tale animals embody actual

spoke about her life and career (“I am where

benevolent forces in the world. “The universe,”

I want to be. I don’t want another stage!”),

she said, “supports boldness.”

her books (one of which, On Becoming Fearless,

was given to attendees), and memories of her

It certainly supports hers. Born in Greece,

Joining Huffington on stage was her

educated at Cambridge, presently of Los

mother’s role as a mentor in both her and

Angeles, Huffington’s varied public lives include

her daughters’ lives (“I come from a culture

stints as conservative commentator, political

where we revere older people”). Above all,

comedienne, and gubernatorial candidate. She’s

she advocated a well-balanced life, praising the

now best known for The Huffington Post, a left-

virtues of sleep and cautioning against envy

leaning news site combining original reporting,

of others’ successes.

web links, and a roster of high-profile bloggers

that includes basketball legend Kareem Abdul-

“That’s a very male way of thinking.”

“Life is not a zero-sum game,” she said.

Jabbar and pollster John Zogby. HuffPost, as she calls it, was derided upon its 2005 launch (LA Weekly called it “the sort of failure that is simply unsurvivable”), but quickly became an immense

Lucky Child A survivor of Cambodian genocide speaks

The event was hosted by Executive Women in Fashion, a program offered through FIT’s Center for Executive Education that provides information and resources for women in fashion, retail, and marketing.

From 1975 to 1979, the ruling Khmer

Rouge communist party terrorized the Cambodian people with grueling forced labor, city evacuations, and mass murders numbering in the millions, all with the goal of resetting

Illustrations: Stephen Gardner. Lucky Child cover courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers.

In February, former President Bill Clinton invited FIT President Joyce F. Brown to join him at a press conference that concluded this year’s Clinton Global Initiative University conference, held in Austin, TX. CGIU brings together higher education students and presidents from around the world to address international humanitarian challenges. All represented institutions were required to craft and commit to initiatives addressing issues such as poverty, health care, human rights, and climate change. At the press conference, President Clinton singled out Dr. Brown’s proposal, which focuses on sustainability at FIT, for its broad, interdisciplinary scope.

The college’s initiative, FIT Goes Green: Infusing Sustainability into Our Culture, sets six goals: the development of a new master’s degree program in sustainable interior design, to start September 2010; a database tracking sustainable practices taught in the classroom; the installation of green roofs for the Shirley Goodman Resource and David Dubinsky Student centers; student competitions in the design, production, and marketing of eco-conscious goods; the establishment of a college-wide council to recommend and promote green initiatives and administer a $15,000 grant fund for employees’ sustainability proposals; and a student-run campaign raising awareness of energy savings, climate change, and recycling.

“CGIU was really inspiring,” Dr. Brown says. “There were about 1,000 students from all over the world, and their passion about getting involved in global issues infused the atmosphere with excitement. My hope, now, is to get our students as deeply involved as possible.”

success. Last fall, it averaged more than four

Insights from Arianna Huffington

steps toward a sustainable future

“ This generation of students came of age after 9/11, and there’s a gloomy aspect to their world view that’s perfectly realistic. But I want to undercut it with great poetry because there’s that, too. One of my favorite poets to teach is John Donne. ‘A Valediction Forbidding Mourning,’ from 1611, is about a man who’s leaving behind a loved one and going to France—which wasn’t just a hop on a plane back then. Donne uses the most wonderful metaphors for separating; there’s a line about gold stretching and stretching, but it doesn’t break. My Jewelry Design students love that. He also compares himself to the arm of a compass that circles its fixed point and then ‘grows erect’ when he returns home. I tell the class that any double-entendres are not accidental. By this point, the students are silent—not because they’re texting, but because they’re connected to someone from another time and place. When we’re studying the poem

by Gerard Manley Hopkins that begins, ‘Glory be to God for dappled things….,’ I ask the students to look at the sky. I say, ‘Is it dappled today?’ I want them to look at the sky. I want them to remember to look up. That’s what I think great poetry does. It causes people to look up from their feet, from their work. From their fretting.”

Matthew Septimus

insights from the classroom and beyond

Barbara Janoff, Associate professor, English and Speech

Muse of the News

Chris Carson

Life Lines

“English is not

civilization at “Year Zero.” Though the conflict

my first language—it

has long been over, mass graves continue to

is my fourth,” writer

be excavated and remaining landmines—

and activist Loung Ung

“slow-motion weapons of mass destruction,”

announced to an

Ung called them—have claimed thousands of

audience of students

noncombatants, many of them children, as

and faculty in the Katie

victims. Having escaped all this for a self-

Murphy Amphitheatre

described “privileged” American existence,

this past fall. “And

Ung has dedicated herself to spreading aware-

when I speak about

ness of Cambodia’s recent history—through

things that are dear to my heart, I tend to forget

her bestselling memoirs First They Killed My

the grammar.”

Father and Lucky Child—and working on human

rights campaigns against domestic violence,

It was a humble admission and a warning

against the harrowing talk to follow. Ung was

landmines, and the recruitment of child

the featured speaker of the inaugural Dean’s

soldiers. Recalling the guilt she later felt over

Forum for the Liberal Arts, sponsored by the

years spent “trying to leave Cambodia behind—

School of Liberal Arts and the Presidential

curling my hair like Farrah Fawcett, dating cute

Scholars honors program, invited to speak on

guys,” all while neglecting a correspondence

her childhood experience living in Cambodia

with her lone surviving sister, who still lived in

under the Khmer Rouge regime. She described a

their homeland, Ung urged the students to also

hellish, four-year ordeal—in which she lost both

serve a greater cause.

parents and two of her three sisters—followed

by relocation to the U.S. and a bumpy assimila-

responsibility to exemplify ‘man’s humanity

tion into American life.

to man.’”

“Privileged people,” she said, “have a

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

21

2

Direct marketing brings targeted messages straight to the consumer

1

DM Goes Luxe Upscale brands have begun to capitalize on direct marketing’s ability to target desired consumers 1 Don’t call them “coupons”: Steinway’s “value certificates” offer up to $1,000 on a piano trade-in.

2 Real estate, unreal prices: The Grand Madison, a landmark building in the Flatiron District, invited prospective buyers to see condos ranging from $1.2–3.4 million.

3 Not your mother’s mail-order catalogue: Tiffany & Co. sent selected customers a catalogue featuring millions of dollars in jewelry. This diamond and sapphire brooch sells for $110,000, the bracelet for $75,000.

22

hue | spring 2009

For many people, direct marketing is the unsolicited mail that goes directly into the circular file. That makes it one of the most underestimated and misunderstood forms of marketing communications. In fact, direct marketing (DM) has evolved from bulk mailings that no one seemed to want to targeted promotions that deliver relevant messages to responsive consumers. Along the way it has grown up from poor stepchild of mainstream media advertising to become its overachieving peer.

How far has it come? Consider that 50 years ago Columbia Record Club was using DM to sell records at eight for a penny to anyone with a mailbox, and in 2008, Tiffany & Co. direct-mailed a sumptuous catalogue featuring millions of dollars worth of jewelry to selected customers. What’s different is the relevance of the approach to the consumer—the first effort is random; the latter is targeted. FIT is the only college in the country to offer a bachelor’s degree program in Direct and Interactive Marketing. As Jessica Hamilton ’09 puts it: “DM is trying to sell people what they actually want, instead of trying to create that want in people.”

DM is almost a no-brainer for anyone in the business of selling anything from a toaster to a four-year stint in the Marines. The mountains of money spent on television and print campaigns can be hard to justify. Roberta Elins, chair of the department, says, “Companies and clients want to see a return on their investment for each and every marketing effort. Only DM can provide an accurate response rate on any given marketing communications activity. Especially in an economic downturn, companies can’t afford to guess whether something has worked.”

But it’s important to note, says Terrance Fiore, assistant professor and former chair of the department, “DM is about more than selling stuff; it’s also about selling ideas. Think political campaigns, which are highly targeted now. Both parties have huge voter databases with demographic and psychographic data. Look at the Obama campaign’s masterful use of email and the internet. Also think of social advocacy—everything from the Southern Poverty Law Center to the ACLU to the NRA. They’re not always asking for money, they’re asking you to take a stand, sign a petition, write your congressman.”

This “call to action” is a key element of DM. The consumer’s response, whether it’s placing an order, requesting more information, or attending an event, gives marketing executives specific numbers they can use to evaluate promotional efforts, and more accurately

Alex Bitar

by Lang Phipps and Linda Angrilli

project ROI (return on investment) for future campaigns. The choice comes down to expensive and scattershot vs. lean, focused, and measurable. This is why many marketers are turning to DM, and why direct mail made up 60 percent of the 212 billion pieces of mail delivered by the U.S. Postal Service in 2008.

Direct marketing also makes use of that key concept of the information age, interactivity. Technology has enhanced DM’s ability to find an individual with a track record of buying a particular product and communicate with a targeted message. This is one reason the discipline is often called relationship marketing.

Another reason is that DM can be used just to keep in contact with the consumer, though money may not change hands. For instance, the Obama campaign asked volunteers in key districts to hold election night parties in their homes; email messages were sent to supporters, who could then attend a party in their own neighborhood. A new and growing part of relationship marketing is social marketing—fan club pages on Facebook or reviewing a book on Amazon.com. Though no response is immediately generated, the consumer stays involved with the brand.

Lester Wunderman, founder of the global direct marketing colossus Wunderman Worldwide, coined the name direct marketing in 1961. He believes that even relationship marketing doesn’t accurately describe what he calls the “era of personal satisfaction;” he prefers personal marketing.

Loyalty campaigns are an example of how DM can personally relate to individual consumers. Elins says, “Starbucks is only one example of companies that are using loyalty campaigns to increase business. A $25 Starbucks black card gives customers ten percent off all purchases, and the card is registered online so the customer’s buying habits are noted and special targeted offers can be made.”

The accuracy of the targeting can make or break a campaign. Fiore says, “Ford Explorer sent out an excellent DM piece— good creative, good graphics—inviting people to come to a test track in New Jersey and have a terrific, fun experience driving this SUV. They also had a rock-climbing wall, and they showed this good-looking, shirtless young guy climbing it. The problem was, this piece was sent to my 50-year-old wife, who’s a lawyer living on the Upper East Side

3

of Manhattan. She is not the Explorer customer. Ford paid for that mailing list, and paid to send the piece to the wrong people.”

But when the creative matches the consumer, a relationship can blossom. Fiore described a friend who received a BMW direct-mail piece inviting him to visit a showroom to claim a free gift: “He’s a business executive in his 40s, living in an upper-middle-class Connecticut suburb, and he’s driving a four-year-old Saab. He wanted to know how BMW had found him.”

Fiore couldn’t say for sure, but he speculated that they probably went to a computer service bureau that provided useful data.

“They can tell you the profile of residents in a given area. For instance, more than 50 percent of residents in that zip code make more than $75,000. They’re in management or high tech or they’re professors. So my friend can afford a BMW, he has a Saab, so he likes a European sport sedan—and his car is four years old, so it’s probably time to trade it in. He’s a perfect prospect.”

The cold science behind DM’s personal interactivity happens in the area of database analytics, which has an über-geeky ring to it but is also where some of the discipline’s killer techniques can be found. These include prospect modeling, regression modeling, and CHAID analysis. Stifle your yawns: these database analyses are staggeringly effective

at finding the proverbial target needle in the vast market haystack.

Whereas technological advances have worked against traditional broadcast advertising—as TiVo and DVRs let consumers fast-forward through the ads, and newspapers lose readers to electronic media—they are a natural partner with DM. Lori Laybourne ’04, who manages the customer marketing insights department for Saks Fifth Avenue, has seen technology transform the field. “I grew up shopping out of catalogues, but now I can shop from my cell phone by scanning a bar code on an ad in a store window.”

Marketing for mobile devices gives DM and digital advertising a new canvas to work on. Their ads are popping up on your iPhones and Blackberrys all the time now, and camera phones have been used for promotions for several years. In 2005, Pontiac asked customers to shoot G6 sedans they saw on the street; when they sent in their photos, they were automatically entered in a milliondollar drawing.

Wunderman, who in a sense had the first word on DM, has the last here. He believes that today more than ever, “the customer is king and the medium, whether it’s mass-media newspapers or mobile phones, takes a back seat to the message.”

And when the message goes to the right consumer, it’s marketing magic. www.fitnyc.edu/hue

23

2

Direct marketing brings targeted messages straight to the consumer

1

DM Goes Luxe Upscale brands have begun to capitalize on direct marketing’s ability to target desired consumers 1 Don’t call them “coupons”: Steinway’s “value certificates” offer up to $1,000 on a piano trade-in.

2 Real estate, unreal prices: The Grand Madison, a landmark building in the Flatiron District, invited prospective buyers to see condos ranging from $1.2–3.4 million.

3 Not your mother’s mail-order catalogue: Tiffany & Co. sent selected customers a catalogue featuring millions of dollars in jewelry. This diamond and sapphire brooch sells for $110,000, the bracelet for $75,000.

22

hue | spring 2009

For many people, direct marketing is the unsolicited mail that goes directly into the circular file. That makes it one of the most underestimated and misunderstood forms of marketing communications. In fact, direct marketing (DM) has evolved from bulk mailings that no one seemed to want to targeted promotions that deliver relevant messages to responsive consumers. Along the way it has grown up from poor stepchild of mainstream media advertising to become its overachieving peer.

How far has it come? Consider that 50 years ago Columbia Record Club was using DM to sell records at eight for a penny to anyone with a mailbox, and in 2008, Tiffany & Co. direct-mailed a sumptuous catalogue featuring millions of dollars worth of jewelry to selected customers. What’s different is the relevance of the approach to the consumer—the first effort is random; the latter is targeted. FIT is the only college in the country to offer a bachelor’s degree program in Direct and Interactive Marketing. As Jessica Hamilton ’09 puts it: “DM is trying to sell people what they actually want, instead of trying to create that want in people.”

DM is almost a no-brainer for anyone in the business of selling anything from a toaster to a four-year stint in the Marines. The mountains of money spent on television and print campaigns can be hard to justify. Roberta Elins, chair of the department, says, “Companies and clients want to see a return on their investment for each and every marketing effort. Only DM can provide an accurate response rate on any given marketing communications activity. Especially in an economic downturn, companies can’t afford to guess whether something has worked.”

But it’s important to note, says Terrance Fiore, assistant professor and former chair of the department, “DM is about more than selling stuff; it’s also about selling ideas. Think political campaigns, which are highly targeted now. Both parties have huge voter databases with demographic and psychographic data. Look at the Obama campaign’s masterful use of email and the internet. Also think of social advocacy—everything from the Southern Poverty Law Center to the ACLU to the NRA. They’re not always asking for money, they’re asking you to take a stand, sign a petition, write your congressman.”

This “call to action” is a key element of DM. The consumer’s response, whether it’s placing an order, requesting more information, or attending an event, gives marketing executives specific numbers they can use to evaluate promotional efforts, and more accurately

Alex Bitar

by Lang Phipps and Linda Angrilli

project ROI (return on investment) for future campaigns. The choice comes down to expensive and scattershot vs. lean, focused, and measurable. This is why many marketers are turning to DM, and why direct mail made up 60 percent of the 212 billion pieces of mail delivered by the U.S. Postal Service in 2008.

Direct marketing also makes use of that key concept of the information age, interactivity. Technology has enhanced DM’s ability to find an individual with a track record of buying a particular product and communicate with a targeted message. This is one reason the discipline is often called relationship marketing.

Another reason is that DM can be used just to keep in contact with the consumer, though money may not change hands. For instance, the Obama campaign asked volunteers in key districts to hold election night parties in their homes; email messages were sent to supporters, who could then attend a party in their own neighborhood. A new and growing part of relationship marketing is social marketing—fan club pages on Facebook or reviewing a book on Amazon.com. Though no response is immediately generated, the consumer stays involved with the brand.

Lester Wunderman, founder of the global direct marketing colossus Wunderman Worldwide, coined the name direct marketing in 1961. He believes that even relationship marketing doesn’t accurately describe what he calls the “era of personal satisfaction;” he prefers personal marketing.

Loyalty campaigns are an example of how DM can personally relate to individual consumers. Elins says, “Starbucks is only one example of companies that are using loyalty campaigns to increase business. A $25 Starbucks black card gives customers ten percent off all purchases, and the card is registered online so the customer’s buying habits are noted and special targeted offers can be made.”

The accuracy of the targeting can make or break a campaign. Fiore says, “Ford Explorer sent out an excellent DM piece— good creative, good graphics—inviting people to come to a test track in New Jersey and have a terrific, fun experience driving this SUV. They also had a rock-climbing wall, and they showed this good-looking, shirtless young guy climbing it. The problem was, this piece was sent to my 50-year-old wife, who’s a lawyer living on the Upper East Side

3

of Manhattan. She is not the Explorer customer. Ford paid for that mailing list, and paid to send the piece to the wrong people.”

But when the creative matches the consumer, a relationship can blossom. Fiore described a friend who received a BMW direct-mail piece inviting him to visit a showroom to claim a free gift: “He’s a business executive in his 40s, living in an upper-middle-class Connecticut suburb, and he’s driving a four-year-old Saab. He wanted to know how BMW had found him.”

Fiore couldn’t say for sure, but he speculated that they probably went to a computer service bureau that provided useful data.

“They can tell you the profile of residents in a given area. For instance, more than 50 percent of residents in that zip code make more than $75,000. They’re in management or high tech or they’re professors. So my friend can afford a BMW, he has a Saab, so he likes a European sport sedan—and his car is four years old, so it’s probably time to trade it in. He’s a perfect prospect.”

The cold science behind DM’s personal interactivity happens in the area of database analytics, which has an über-geeky ring to it but is also where some of the discipline’s killer techniques can be found. These include prospect modeling, regression modeling, and CHAID analysis. Stifle your yawns: these database analyses are staggeringly effective

at finding the proverbial target needle in the vast market haystack.

Whereas technological advances have worked against traditional broadcast advertising—as TiVo and DVRs let consumers fast-forward through the ads, and newspapers lose readers to electronic media—they are a natural partner with DM. Lori Laybourne ’04, who manages the customer marketing insights department for Saks Fifth Avenue, has seen technology transform the field. “I grew up shopping out of catalogues, but now I can shop from my cell phone by scanning a bar code on an ad in a store window.”

Marketing for mobile devices gives DM and digital advertising a new canvas to work on. Their ads are popping up on your iPhones and Blackberrys all the time now, and camera phones have been used for promotions for several years. In 2005, Pontiac asked customers to shoot G6 sedans they saw on the street; when they sent in their photos, they were automatically entered in a milliondollar drawing.

Wunderman, who in a sense had the first word on DM, has the last here. He believes that today more than ever, “the customer is king and the medium, whether it’s mass-media newspapers or mobile phones, takes a back seat to the message.”

And when the message goes to the right consumer, it’s marketing magic. www.fitnyc.edu/hue

23

sy robin, millinery design,

designs

The Twinkle Business

Andrew Petronio, Textile Development and Marketing ’97

sloan mandell , fashion

Wenlan Chia, Fashion Design

merchandising management,

for his own Sy Robin, Ltd., based

is managing partner of

in Wilton Manors, FL. Robin

Exhibitionist, the ornate

sells his work to retailers via his

jewelry line by Michael

website and accepts custom

Spirito, Jewelry Design ’95.

orders—he’s even done headpieces

Mandell oversees the

for Muslim brides. Robin worked

business’s finances, PR,

for a number of prominent

website, and Lower East

milliners in New York before serving in the Korean War,

Side store. Exhibitionist

after which he reentered the business, first as indepen-

recently signed with

dent hat-maker, then as millinery buyer for Allied Stores.

Designer’s Management

He began designing jewelry in the 1980s.

Agency, which represents

carmela agosto sutera , fashion illustration,

is

Photo by Cezar Ferreira

1979

1967

marypaul yates, textile design,

runs Yates Design, a

owner of Carmela Sutera

consulting firm for interior

Designs, a bridal gown

furnishing companies. She

studio whose dresses are

helps textile mills, fabric

sold in boutiques through-

wholesalers, and furniture

A principal of KA Design Group, Andrew Petronio is a master creator of lush, livable

out the U.S., Canada, Hong

manufacturers enter new

nests. Whether it’s a Wedgewood-blue-carpeted Hamptons home or a golden-walled,

Kong, and Japan. The

markets and manage ac-

Greek-columned Manhattan apartment, the firm’s elegant cocoons embody the good life.

Italian-born Sutera started

quisitions, directing their

“I think now more than ever people are using their homes as a retreat,” Petronio says.

the business in Manhattan

long-term development

“To recharge spiritually, it’s really important to have a beautiful space.”

in 1988, after 20-plus years

efforts and business strate-

of designing eveningwear

gies. She’s also the author

their participation, asking for photographs of spaces that they like (or even dislike) and

and ready-to-wear for

of Textiles: A Handbook for

involving them in fabric and furniture selection. “It’s not that we complete this beautiful

various companies. She

Designers and Fabrics: A

design, and clients insert themselves into it,” he says.

relocated to her hometown

Guide for Interior Designers

of Paramus, NJ, in 2001.

and Architects.

to single guys to celebrities like Mary Tyler Moore and Kelsey Grammer—trust us to

holly wayne, interior design,

Pittsburgh, PA. Inspired by

To ensure that his designs reflect clients’ tastes and needs, Petronio encourages

“I don’t know how other decorators operate, but our clients—from young families

Petronio and his partner, Kenneth Alpert, worked on design projects together

ten-percent commercial.

and watch parts, and Meta-

lar, a proprietary metallic

An avid traveler, Petronio seeks inspiration globally. He describes the beautiful iron

doors he saw on a trip to Bucharest, which he had replicated for a project in Aspen, CO.

resin she developed herself.

“When in doubt, go back to the past,” he says. “There are very few firsts in the world. It’s

She also uses Metalar in

how you blend past with present that makes a design different and noteworthy.”

her design work, like in the

Gallitzen Tunnel by Holly Wayne.

for the outer sanctuary of Pittsburgh’s Temple Sinai.

1993

1992

designer for Mattel’s Barbie Collector line. Zuckerman—

sarah conrad, fashion buying and merchandising ,

is director

sharon zuckerman, toy design, fashion design ’91, is

who interned with the California-based company as a

of retail training solutions for the National Retail Federa-

student and has worked there since graduation—and three

tion, a trade association for retailers of all types and sizes.

co-designers create about 30 collector-edition Barbie dolls

Conrad works within the group’s NRF Foundation, which

per year. Past designs include Titanic and I Love Lucy char-

creates and administers certification programs in cus-

acters, Harley Davidson bikers, and one-offs for charities

tomer service, sales, management, and more. She’s also on

and special events, like a Teri Hatcher doll for the 2007

the Fashion Merchandising Management advisory board,

Dream Halloween, a fundraiser for the Children Affected

pursuing joint NRF/FIT educational offerings.

by AIDS Foundation.

hue | spring 2009

—Andrea K. Hammer

a principal

The Hard Rock Cafe Barbie, designed by Sharon Zuckerman.

mass market opportunities.

2001

2002 teaches at

cheryl greenblatt, accessories design,

will soon be moving

the Art Institute of Miami,

Maizee G, her home-based

in Florida. Blackwood

boutique accessories studio

has also designed in both

in Centerville, OH, into its

New York and Florida for

own retail space. Greenblatt’s

Wearing her handmade knits to design and patternmaking classes in 1998-99, Wenlan

companies such as Zanadi,

handmade wares include

Chia caught the eye of friends and strangers alike, who stopped on the street to ask

Bejeweled, and Tail, work-

totes and baby quilts. She

about pieces like her funnel-neck sleeveless tunic and shirt-tailed pullover with a red-

ing in men’s, women’s, and

plans to introduce a limited

cross design. “I knitted sweaters that I wanted to wear but could not buy anywhere,”

children’s wear.

line of pet accessories.

says Chia, who got a master’s in art administration from NYU before coming to FIT for

david hart, fashion design,

complications later on. Petronio estimates the firm’s workload as 90-percent residential,

ed metals, like sparkplugs

large-scale production and

2004

“It goes way beyond decorating,” he adds, noting KA’s willingness to help with table

with their 28 employees, and stress early attention to detail to avoid unanticipated

history, her art uses discard-

by Exhibitionist.

A look from Chia’s fall ’08 collection, left, and a design from her book, Twinkle’s Weekend Knits.

fashion design.

for two years before opening KA in 2001. They alternate playing “good and bad cop”

her hometown’s Steel City

Sterling sacred heart pendant,

and Heidi Klum, to pursue

fashion design,

industry. Responding at any given time is paramount.”

and a fine artist, based in

stars like Michael Kors

rasheedah brown blackwood,

settings and flowers for clients’ parties or make weekend house calls. “Ours is a service

is both an interior designer

lighted panels she designed

A Southhampton, NY, cabana, modeled after a pool house designer Andrew Petronio visited in Capri, Italy.

execute their homes and how they want to live.

1982

24

1999

MATTEL, BARBIE and associated trademarks and trade dress are owned by Mattel, Inc. © 2009 Mattel, Inc. All Rights Reserved. © 2008 Hard Rock Cafe International (USA), Inc. All Rights Reserved.

news from your classmates

bridal jewelry and headpieces

NESTING INSTINCTS

Encouraged by the interest, Chia started her own knitwear business, Twinkle, in

1999. Her work quickly attracted the attention of stylish New Yorkers and stars like Kate is

Hudson and Scarlett Johansson, and in 2000 she expanded to include a complete ready-

the designer and owner of

to-wear line with whimsical dresses and feminine separates in chiffons, tweeds, and

David Hart & Co., a necktie

cashmeres, priced from $120 to $800. She added a jewelry line, Twinkle Jewels, in 2004,

line. The Annapolis, MD,

and 2006 saw the launch of Twinkle Living, a home-décor collection. Her French bulldog,

native designed for Anna

Milan, provided inspiration for witty black-and-white cutout rugs.

Sui and worked in licensing

for Tommy Hilfiger before

furnishing patterns, 85 percent of which are produced and delivered to 350 boutiques

starting the business in 2007.

and specialty stores (including Nordstrom and Bio) in North America, Europe, Oceania,

Hart’s neckties are hand-

and Asia. Twinkle employs six full-timers, as well as part-timers and interns. “I like to be

made by Italian, English,

surrounded by fresh ideas, and I get inspired by my employees,” Chia says.

and American tailors and

range in design and material

active participant in many social and political movements in Taiwan. The liberal culture

from tartan on Scottish wool

bred my interest in creativity and the arts.” Her business today reflects that background,

to sock-monkey patterns

as seen in some of Twinkle Living’s Asian-inspired floral print bedding items. She also

on Italian silk. They may be

created Dancing Unicorn and Daring Fox designs in intarsia (a knitting technique that

Jeremy Nelson

1951

bought at Bergdorf Goodman and online.

Each year, Chia conceives 400 ready-to-wear styles, 50 jewelry pieces, and 20 home-

“My upbringing was pretty free-spirited,” she says. “I wrote, painted, and was an

resembles mosaic) on sweaters and throws.

Chia has published three books, including Twinkle’s Town & Country Knits: 30

Designs for Sumptuous Living, her latest. The books are set against the backdrop of various glamorous locations and encourage the same D.I.Y. ethic that helped launch the designer’s career.

“I knew exactly what kind of clothes I wanted to create; I just did not know how

to make them,” she says. “FIT helped me turn the clothes in my head into reality.”

—Andrea K. Hammer

David Hart’s Sci-fi Robots tie.

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

25

sy robin, millinery design,

designs

The Twinkle Business

Andrew Petronio, Textile Development and Marketing ’97

sloan mandell , fashion

Wenlan Chia, Fashion Design

merchandising management,

for his own Sy Robin, Ltd., based

is managing partner of

in Wilton Manors, FL. Robin

Exhibitionist, the ornate

sells his work to retailers via his

jewelry line by Michael

website and accepts custom

Spirito, Jewelry Design ’95.

orders—he’s even done headpieces

Mandell oversees the

for Muslim brides. Robin worked

business’s finances, PR,

for a number of prominent

website, and Lower East

milliners in New York before serving in the Korean War,

Side store. Exhibitionist

after which he reentered the business, first as indepen-

recently signed with

dent hat-maker, then as millinery buyer for Allied Stores.

Designer’s Management

He began designing jewelry in the 1980s.

Agency, which represents

carmela agosto sutera , fashion illustration,

is

Photo by Cezar Ferreira

1979

1967

marypaul yates, textile design,

runs Yates Design, a

owner of Carmela Sutera

consulting firm for interior

Designs, a bridal gown

furnishing companies. She

studio whose dresses are

helps textile mills, fabric

sold in boutiques through-

wholesalers, and furniture

A principal of KA Design Group, Andrew Petronio is a master creator of lush, livable

out the U.S., Canada, Hong

manufacturers enter new

nests. Whether it’s a Wedgewood-blue-carpeted Hamptons home or a golden-walled,

Kong, and Japan. The

markets and manage ac-

Greek-columned Manhattan apartment, the firm’s elegant cocoons embody the good life.

Italian-born Sutera started

quisitions, directing their

“I think now more than ever people are using their homes as a retreat,” Petronio says.

the business in Manhattan

long-term development

“To recharge spiritually, it’s really important to have a beautiful space.”

in 1988, after 20-plus years

efforts and business strate-

of designing eveningwear

gies. She’s also the author

their participation, asking for photographs of spaces that they like (or even dislike) and

and ready-to-wear for

of Textiles: A Handbook for

involving them in fabric and furniture selection. “It’s not that we complete this beautiful

various companies. She

Designers and Fabrics: A

design, and clients insert themselves into it,” he says.

relocated to her hometown

Guide for Interior Designers

of Paramus, NJ, in 2001.

and Architects.

to single guys to celebrities like Mary Tyler Moore and Kelsey Grammer—trust us to

holly wayne, interior design,

Pittsburgh, PA. Inspired by

To ensure that his designs reflect clients’ tastes and needs, Petronio encourages

“I don’t know how other decorators operate, but our clients—from young families

Petronio and his partner, Kenneth Alpert, worked on design projects together

ten-percent commercial.

and watch parts, and Meta-

lar, a proprietary metallic

An avid traveler, Petronio seeks inspiration globally. He describes the beautiful iron

doors he saw on a trip to Bucharest, which he had replicated for a project in Aspen, CO.

resin she developed herself.

“When in doubt, go back to the past,” he says. “There are very few firsts in the world. It’s

She also uses Metalar in

how you blend past with present that makes a design different and noteworthy.”

her design work, like in the

Gallitzen Tunnel by Holly Wayne.

for the outer sanctuary of Pittsburgh’s Temple Sinai.

1993

1992

designer for Mattel’s Barbie Collector line. Zuckerman—

sarah conrad, fashion buying and merchandising ,

is director

sharon zuckerman, toy design, fashion design ’91, is

who interned with the California-based company as a

of retail training solutions for the National Retail Federa-

student and has worked there since graduation—and three

tion, a trade association for retailers of all types and sizes.

co-designers create about 30 collector-edition Barbie dolls

Conrad works within the group’s NRF Foundation, which

per year. Past designs include Titanic and I Love Lucy char-

creates and administers certification programs in cus-

acters, Harley Davidson bikers, and one-offs for charities

tomer service, sales, management, and more. She’s also on

and special events, like a Teri Hatcher doll for the 2007

the Fashion Merchandising Management advisory board,

Dream Halloween, a fundraiser for the Children Affected

pursuing joint NRF/FIT educational offerings.

by AIDS Foundation.

hue | spring 2009

—Andrea K. Hammer

a principal

The Hard Rock Cafe Barbie, designed by Sharon Zuckerman.

mass market opportunities.

2001

2002 teaches at

cheryl greenblatt, accessories design,

will soon be moving

the Art Institute of Miami,

Maizee G, her home-based

in Florida. Blackwood

boutique accessories studio

has also designed in both

in Centerville, OH, into its

New York and Florida for

own retail space. Greenblatt’s

Wearing her handmade knits to design and patternmaking classes in 1998-99, Wenlan

companies such as Zanadi,

handmade wares include

Chia caught the eye of friends and strangers alike, who stopped on the street to ask

Bejeweled, and Tail, work-

totes and baby quilts. She

about pieces like her funnel-neck sleeveless tunic and shirt-tailed pullover with a red-

ing in men’s, women’s, and

plans to introduce a limited

cross design. “I knitted sweaters that I wanted to wear but could not buy anywhere,”

children’s wear.

line of pet accessories.

says Chia, who got a master’s in art administration from NYU before coming to FIT for

david hart, fashion design,

complications later on. Petronio estimates the firm’s workload as 90-percent residential,

ed metals, like sparkplugs

large-scale production and

2004

“It goes way beyond decorating,” he adds, noting KA’s willingness to help with table

with their 28 employees, and stress early attention to detail to avoid unanticipated

history, her art uses discard-

by Exhibitionist.

A look from Chia’s fall ’08 collection, left, and a design from her book, Twinkle’s Weekend Knits.

fashion design.

for two years before opening KA in 2001. They alternate playing “good and bad cop”

her hometown’s Steel City

Sterling sacred heart pendant,

and Heidi Klum, to pursue

fashion design,

industry. Responding at any given time is paramount.”

and a fine artist, based in

stars like Michael Kors

rasheedah brown blackwood,

settings and flowers for clients’ parties or make weekend house calls. “Ours is a service

is both an interior designer

lighted panels she designed

A Southhampton, NY, cabana, modeled after a pool house designer Andrew Petronio visited in Capri, Italy.

execute their homes and how they want to live.

1982

24

1999

MATTEL, BARBIE and associated trademarks and trade dress are owned by Mattel, Inc. © 2009 Mattel, Inc. All Rights Reserved. © 2008 Hard Rock Cafe International (USA), Inc. All Rights Reserved.

news from your classmates

bridal jewelry and headpieces

NESTING INSTINCTS

Encouraged by the interest, Chia started her own knitwear business, Twinkle, in

1999. Her work quickly attracted the attention of stylish New Yorkers and stars like Kate is

Hudson and Scarlett Johansson, and in 2000 she expanded to include a complete ready-

the designer and owner of

to-wear line with whimsical dresses and feminine separates in chiffons, tweeds, and

David Hart & Co., a necktie

cashmeres, priced from $120 to $800. She added a jewelry line, Twinkle Jewels, in 2004,

line. The Annapolis, MD,

and 2006 saw the launch of Twinkle Living, a home-décor collection. Her French bulldog,

native designed for Anna

Milan, provided inspiration for witty black-and-white cutout rugs.

Sui and worked in licensing

for Tommy Hilfiger before

furnishing patterns, 85 percent of which are produced and delivered to 350 boutiques

starting the business in 2007.

and specialty stores (including Nordstrom and Bio) in North America, Europe, Oceania,

Hart’s neckties are hand-

and Asia. Twinkle employs six full-timers, as well as part-timers and interns. “I like to be

made by Italian, English,

surrounded by fresh ideas, and I get inspired by my employees,” Chia says.

and American tailors and

range in design and material

active participant in many social and political movements in Taiwan. The liberal culture

from tartan on Scottish wool

bred my interest in creativity and the arts.” Her business today reflects that background,

to sock-monkey patterns

as seen in some of Twinkle Living’s Asian-inspired floral print bedding items. She also

on Italian silk. They may be

created Dancing Unicorn and Daring Fox designs in intarsia (a knitting technique that

Jeremy Nelson

1951

bought at Bergdorf Goodman and online.

Each year, Chia conceives 400 ready-to-wear styles, 50 jewelry pieces, and 20 home-

“My upbringing was pretty free-spirited,” she says. “I wrote, painted, and was an

resembles mosaic) on sweaters and throws.

Chia has published three books, including Twinkle’s Town & Country Knits: 30

Designs for Sumptuous Living, her latest. The books are set against the backdrop of various glamorous locations and encourage the same D.I.Y. ethic that helped launch the designer’s career.

“I knew exactly what kind of clothes I wanted to create; I just did not know how

to make them,” she says. “FIT helped me turn the clothes in my head into reality.”

—Andrea K. Hammer

David Hart’s Sci-fi Robots tie.

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

25

2005

Magnificent Seven

jennifer attigliato, fashion

FIT grads on tiffany creative team

design,

combines her

sources of inspiration

background as a bridal seamstress with her FIThoned drawing skills to

Don’t Fear the Reaper

produce fashion art cards and invitations through her company, Fashionable Occasions. Attigliato

Svetlana Ponorovsky

news from your classmates

inks a figure on each card,

Fashion Buying and Merchandising ’93

then sews on up to 4,000 glass beads, sequins, and Swarovski crystals to mimic the look of real couture.

My toy shop, Brain Candy, is for ages

2006

0 to 99. It’s for anyone who can see

annemarie bologna , fashion merchandising management,

things the way a kid does—without

landed an assistant production coordinator job at private-

barriers to their thoughts. I have two

label lingerie manufacturer Vandale Industries (Victoria’s

girls, ages 7 and 4, and they definitely

Secret, Frederick’s, Urban Outfitters, etc.) through FIT’s

Last fall, during an interview for his alumni note, Patrick Space, Advertising Design

Career Services. She’s now director of fabric production,

’98, Communication Design ’96, let slip that six of his ten coworkers were also FIT

inspire me when I do my buying for

responsible for sourcing and ordering fabrics, communi-

grads. Disbelief ensued, evidence was requested, and now—proof! Behold, seven-

the store. One toy we sell is by an

cating with overseas suppliers, and visiting fabric shows

elevenths of Tiffany & Co.’s creative services team, responsible for signage and design

in Europe.

for windows, special events, and in-store displays. Clockwise from top left: Space, at

Italian artist who calls himself Tokidoki. The figure, Adios, is a

Tiffany since 2002, is signage and graphics designer. Bevin Murphy, Graphic Design britney frady-williams,

working with Space on graphics. She was hired after an interview at the Graphic

in Hell, then got kicked out for being

New York, which offers

Design Department’s 2006 industry portfolio review. Sharon Martin, Restoration ’06,

her handmade clothing,

too good-natured. He roams the

Display and Exhibit Design ’04, is coordinator of show windows. She got the job in

corsetry, and accessories

part through a friend who worked at Tiffany—in security. Effie Katechis, Dispay and

inspired by historical eras

Exhibit Design ’99, works in creative services for vitrines, table settings, holiday décor,

and fantasy, with a special-

and events and was recently hired full time after three months’ freelancing. Reiko

live in a grave-loft. The concept is a

ty in beadwork-accented

Ishida, Display and Exhibit Design ’03, is assistant manager for creative services.

little scary, but my kids don’t see it

pieces. She also uses scrap

Like Katechis, she began as a freelancer. Like Martin, she was tipped off by a friend

and discarded materials,

in the know—in this case, Anne Kong, assistant professor of Visual Presentation and

as morbid. I want the merchandise in

like making a pillbox hat

Exhibition Design. Debbie Bensberg Miele, Display and Exhibit Design ’99, works on

out of a plastic collar pro-

show windows; the nine-year Tiffany veteran scaled back from a managerial position

differently. We import from all over

tector and CD case. Berít

to part-time hours after becoming a mother two years ago. Jill Albino, Display and

the world—toys, art, books, anything

New York is sold at online

Exhibit Design and Fashion Buying and Merchandising ’99, is manager of creative

marketplaces like Etsy and

services worldwide. Assisted by Ishida, she designs and manages traveling exhibits,

that sparks your imagination. There’s

Dawanda.

promotions, and events for all Tiffany & Co. stores.

designs for the

high-end floor-covering company Patterson, Flynn and Martin. Gualtieri creates rugs for Patterson showrooms across the country, as well as custom creations for interior designers.

Patterson, Flynn and Martin’s Boulevard Collection.

The middle design is Loretta Gualtieri’s.

hue | spring 2009

cheryl palacios, international

esha soni, fashion design,

trade and marketing for the

designs handbags for

fashion industries,

works

afterlife with his girlfriend Ciao Ciao and their cat Skeletrino, and they all

my shop to inspire people to think

only one restriction: I don’t carry anything that requires batteries.

Svetlana Ponorovsky’s store, Brain Candy, is located in Ridgewood, NJ.

Michael Kors and jewelry

as sales and marketing

for her own business,

coordinator for the Enlight-

Experiment. She created

ened-Swarovski Elements

the industrial-looking line,

gemstone brand at Swarovski

which uses mixed metals

North America. Palacios,

and custom-cut stones,

who plans to enroll in FIT’s

on an extended visit to her

Global Fashion Management

native Mumbai, India, in

MPS program, handles PR,

2007, using craftsmen

sets up tradeshow events, and helps with “Gem

recommended by her mother, Silver and copper necklace with also a designer. Experiment custom-cut onyx, by Experiment.

Visions” trend-forecasting

first showed at Manhattan’s

presentations to clients.

début, and is now at Sucre, on Bleecker Street.

Drawing and photograph by Isabella Tooth, age 8.

loretta gualtieri, textile /surface design,

owns Berít

Ali Hussein

Justin T. Shockley

fashion design,

26

grim-reaper type who spent 500 years

’06, Communication Design ’04, Photography ’03, is coordinator for creative services,

What inspires you?

Email the editors at hue@fitnyc.edu

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

27

2005

Magnificent Seven

jennifer attigliato, fashion

FIT grads on tiffany creative team

design,

combines her

sources of inspiration

background as a bridal seamstress with her FIThoned drawing skills to

Don’t Fear the Reaper

produce fashion art cards and invitations through her company, Fashionable Occasions. Attigliato

Svetlana Ponorovsky

news from your classmates

inks a figure on each card,

Fashion Buying and Merchandising ’93

then sews on up to 4,000 glass beads, sequins, and Swarovski crystals to mimic the look of real couture.

My toy shop, Brain Candy, is for ages

2006

0 to 99. It’s for anyone who can see

annemarie bologna , fashion merchandising management,

things the way a kid does—without

landed an assistant production coordinator job at private-

barriers to their thoughts. I have two

label lingerie manufacturer Vandale Industries (Victoria’s

girls, ages 7 and 4, and they definitely

Secret, Frederick’s, Urban Outfitters, etc.) through FIT’s

Last fall, during an interview for his alumni note, Patrick Space, Advertising Design

Career Services. She’s now director of fabric production,

’98, Communication Design ’96, let slip that six of his ten coworkers were also FIT

inspire me when I do my buying for

responsible for sourcing and ordering fabrics, communi-

grads. Disbelief ensued, evidence was requested, and now—proof! Behold, seven-

the store. One toy we sell is by an

cating with overseas suppliers, and visiting fabric shows

elevenths of Tiffany & Co.’s creative services team, responsible for signage and design

in Europe.

for windows, special events, and in-store displays. Clockwise from top left: Space, at

Italian artist who calls himself Tokidoki. The figure, Adios, is a

Tiffany since 2002, is signage and graphics designer. Bevin Murphy, Graphic Design britney frady-williams,

working with Space on graphics. She was hired after an interview at the Graphic

in Hell, then got kicked out for being

New York, which offers

Design Department’s 2006 industry portfolio review. Sharon Martin, Restoration ’06,

her handmade clothing,

too good-natured. He roams the

Display and Exhibit Design ’04, is coordinator of show windows. She got the job in

corsetry, and accessories

part through a friend who worked at Tiffany—in security. Effie Katechis, Dispay and

inspired by historical eras

Exhibit Design ’99, works in creative services for vitrines, table settings, holiday décor,

and fantasy, with a special-

and events and was recently hired full time after three months’ freelancing. Reiko

live in a grave-loft. The concept is a

ty in beadwork-accented

Ishida, Display and Exhibit Design ’03, is assistant manager for creative services.

little scary, but my kids don’t see it

pieces. She also uses scrap

Like Katechis, she began as a freelancer. Like Martin, she was tipped off by a friend

and discarded materials,

in the know—in this case, Anne Kong, assistant professor of Visual Presentation and

as morbid. I want the merchandise in

like making a pillbox hat

Exhibition Design. Debbie Bensberg Miele, Display and Exhibit Design ’99, works on

out of a plastic collar pro-

show windows; the nine-year Tiffany veteran scaled back from a managerial position

differently. We import from all over

tector and CD case. Berít

to part-time hours after becoming a mother two years ago. Jill Albino, Display and

the world—toys, art, books, anything

New York is sold at online

Exhibit Design and Fashion Buying and Merchandising ’99, is manager of creative

marketplaces like Etsy and

services worldwide. Assisted by Ishida, she designs and manages traveling exhibits,

that sparks your imagination. There’s

Dawanda.

promotions, and events for all Tiffany & Co. stores.

designs for the

high-end floor-covering company Patterson, Flynn and Martin. Gualtieri creates rugs for Patterson showrooms across the country, as well as custom creations for interior designers.

Patterson, Flynn and Martin’s Boulevard Collection.

The middle design is Loretta Gualtieri’s.

hue | spring 2009

cheryl palacios, international

esha soni, fashion design,

trade and marketing for the

designs handbags for

fashion industries,

works

afterlife with his girlfriend Ciao Ciao and their cat Skeletrino, and they all

my shop to inspire people to think

only one restriction: I don’t carry anything that requires batteries.

Svetlana Ponorovsky’s store, Brain Candy, is located in Ridgewood, NJ.

Michael Kors and jewelry

as sales and marketing

for her own business,

coordinator for the Enlight-

Experiment. She created

ened-Swarovski Elements

the industrial-looking line,

gemstone brand at Swarovski

which uses mixed metals

North America. Palacios,

and custom-cut stones,

who plans to enroll in FIT’s

on an extended visit to her

Global Fashion Management

native Mumbai, India, in

MPS program, handles PR,

2007, using craftsmen

sets up tradeshow events, and helps with “Gem

recommended by her mother, Silver and copper necklace with also a designer. Experiment custom-cut onyx, by Experiment.

Visions” trend-forecasting

first showed at Manhattan’s

presentations to clients.

début, and is now at Sucre, on Bleecker Street.

Drawing and photograph by Isabella Tooth, age 8.

loretta gualtieri, textile /surface design,

owns Berít

Ali Hussein

Justin T. Shockley

fashion design,

26

grim-reaper type who spent 500 years

’06, Communication Design ’04, Photography ’03, is coordinator for creative services,

What inspires you?

Email the editors at hue@fitnyc.edu

www.fitnyc.edu/hue

27

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hue | spring 2009