alumni notes Alexis Mazza, Accessories Design, Jewelry Design ’13, is a sixth-generation jewelry designer who vaulted into the industry when her line, LexiMazz Designs, won the 2017 Emerging Designer Competition at the Centurion Jewelry Show in Scottsdale, Arizona. She favors minimalistic loops of gold studded with diamonds and long, slender chains that drape elegantly down the chest and back. She’s twice been featured in British Vogue and showed at London Fashion Week in February. The jewelers in her family are notable enough that Assistant Professor Michael Coan mentioned them in a jewelry history course. Mazza recalls, “My friend turned to me and said, ‘Alexis, that’s you!’”
Emily Newcomen, Direct and Interactive Marketing, Illustration ’15, assists in managing Marvel Comics’ variant cover program, in which she works with comic artists to create special edition covers for retailers. The most popular heroes for variant covers are SpiderMan, Venom, Cosmic Ghost Rider, and the X-Men. When The Amazing SpiderMan relaunched with issue number one in summer 2018, Newcomen’s team produced a whopping 80 variants.
TAKING IT OUTSIDE
Melissa Brasier, Interior Design ’10, and James DeSantis, Interior Design ’10
Courtesy of Bravo
2015
Brasier, Magee, and DeSantis meet with a client.
A 14K gold and diamond ear climber from Mazza’s award-winning Holy Chic collection.
2016 Michelle Moore, Textile/Surface Design, is a freelance surface designer based in Kingston, New York. When a design studio gives her an inspiration board, she creates five- to eight-piece collections using watercolors, mixed media, or an iPad. She’s paid when a pattern is sold. Her most successful repeats contain multiple motifs, so that one design can be broken up for numerous applications. “It’s very rewarding for a little doodle to turn into something in the mass market,” she says.
Newcomen helped produce this variant cover illustration, by Russell Dauterman with colors by Matthew Wilson, for the February 2019 issue of Marvel’s Love Romances.
2017 Alfeya Valrina, Accessories Design, designs and produces an eponymous line of structured handbags with a small team of artisans in her home country of Indonesia. The collection, which began as a class project, is inspired by the baskets carried by mbok jamu, traditional Indonesian herbalists who peddle their remedies on foot. She sells the bags through her website and the Brooklyn boutique Sincerely, Tommy.
The roster of alumni making it big on reality TV just grew by two. Backyard Envy, an addictive unscripted show that debuted January 17 on Bravo, follows the Manscapers, a three-person New York City landscape design firm, as they meet with clients, work their magic on derelict gardens and barren rooftops, and confront disasters, large and small. At the end of each episode, the transformed spaces are revealed in a series of extremely satisfying before-and-after shots. Melissa Brasier and James DeSantis met in the Interior Design program at FIT and have been best friends and business partners ever since. DeSantis also worked as a senior project manager for Ralph Lauren designing store interiors. In 2014, they teamed up with close friend Garrett Magee, a graphic designer and budding horticulturist, and the Manscapers was born. Today, Brasier oversees construction, DeSantis handles the client relations, and Magee is the plant expert. Hue caught up with Brasier and DeSantis during their publicity tour for the show. Hue: You’re trained as interior designers. How did you make the transition outside? Brasier: The three of us were doing work on James’s backyard in Brooklyn, and people said, “Why don’t you do this for money?” It started off as a side project. Within a year and a half, we transitioned to full time. Was it hard to learn landscape design? DeSantis: It helped that we had drawing, rendering, and presentation skills from FIT. We still use those on a daily basis. Only two of you are men. Why are you called the Manscapers? DeSantis: We started as a gay-focused company hiring almost exclusively gay men to execute our labor, and we marketed toward a gay fashion and design clientele in New York City. We’ve obviously since expanded. A name change is a possibility … but stay tuned. How did the show come about? DeSantis: A British producer friend of mine knew about our business and how we worked together. He said, “I think this is a TV show.” There weren’t any outdoor design shows that are interesting and cool. Gardening is so granny. We had one meeting with Bravo, and they loved it and developed the series. The pilot did really well in focus group testing. It took almost two years to get the show made, but every step was a yes. What has the response been so far? Brasier: We’ve been flooded with people reaching out to hire us. DeSantis: Our producers are World of Wonder, who do RuPaul’s Drag Race. They have a team that monitors all the social media, and they were like, “Oh my god, the response on Twitter is the nicest we’ve seen from any show.” People are
Moore’s watercolor Leafy Greens was used on a pillow by Lemon Head Prints.
The Joe Joe Bag is crafted from scrap leather pieces.
usually vicious on Twitter. To me, that’s a win. —JONATHAN VATNER
30 Spring 2019
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