Hue Spring 2011 by Fashion Institute of Technology

Alumni Magazine of the Fashion Institute of Technology

volume 4 | number 2 | spring 2011

Features 6 Shelf Help Meet the VP of planning and allocation at Brooks Brothers, Linda Rooney ’84

Departments 4 Hue’s News Recent developments at and related to FIT

9 Faculty of the Future How will we teach in 2020?

8 Faculty On… What's a "creative misuse of technology?"

14 Her Career’s in the Toilet (But That’s a Good Thing) This alumna creates outrageous ads for Iconix

8 Footprint A hot new book on eco-fashion by a faculty member

16 Hello, Gorgeous Luscious pieces by Jewelry Design alumni, lusciously shot by two alums 21 Naked Truth Confronting cancer with a book and documentary

12 27/7 What will faculty and students be like in the future? 20 I Contact A student articulates what mumblecore is 28 Alumni notes Find out what your classmates are up to

22 An Embarrassment of Riches Don’t lick the pages! Utter yumminess from FIT’s Special Collections

31 Sparks This Illustration alumna’s creativity has gone to the birds

Sitings Hue is the alumni magazine of the Fashion Institute of Technology, a State University of New York college of art and design, business and technology. It is published three times a year by the Division of Communications and External Relations, Seventh Alumni Magazine of the Fashion Institute of Technology

Avenue at 27 Street, Room B905, New York, NY  10001-5992, 212 217.4700. Email: hue@fitnyc.edu

volume 4 | number 2 | spring 2011

Address letters to the editors, Hue magazine.

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

Editor Linda Angrilli

On FIT’s website, fitnyc.edu Front: “Der Paradiesvogel” (Bird of Paradise) (1920)

Continuing and Professional Studies:

by Walter Schnackenberg. See story, pp. 22-27.

Managing Editor Alex Joseph

fitnyc.edu/continuinged FIT job openings: fitnyc.edu/jobs

Back: Pauline Rochas ’98, left, and Carole Beaupré ’91

Editorial Assistant Vanessa Machir

Gladys Marcus Library: fitnyc.edu/library

examine an image for “Hello, Gorgeous” (pp. 16-19)

The Museum at FIT: fitnyc.edu/museum

at Coolife, their Brooklyn studio. They have worked

Art Direction and Design Empire Design Studio

To view videos about the college, go to:

exclusively with digital cameras and technology

youtube.com/aboutfit

since founding Coolife in 2000; they specialize in

Hue magazine on the web: fitnyc.edu/hue

On our covers:

high-definition product photography for advertising

Email the FIT Alumni Association:

and editorial. “We want the viewer to desire the

victoria_guranowski@fitnyc.edu

object,” they say. They enjoy “playing with smears,

Go to fitnyc.edu/hue to answer The Ask, tell us what

textures, powders, drippings” in their images. Their

inspires you for Sparks, or update your alumni info.

greatest challenge? “To give the product life.”

ﬁtnyc.edu/hue

Features 6 Shelf Help Meet the VP of planning and allocation at Brooks Brothers, Linda Rooney ’84

Departments 4 Hue’s News Recent developments at and related to FIT

9 Faculty of the Future How will we teach in 2020?

8 Faculty On… What's a "creative misuse of technology?"

14 Her Career’s in the Toilet (But That’s a Good Thing) This alumna creates outrageous ads for Iconix

8 Footprint A hot new book on eco-fashion by a faculty member

16 Hello, Gorgeous Luscious pieces by Jewelry Design alumni, lusciously shot by two alums 21 Naked Truth Confronting cancer with a book and documentary

12 27/7 What will faculty and students be like in the future? 20 I Contact A student articulates what mumblecore is 28 Alumni notes Find out what your classmates are up to

22 An Embarrassment of Riches Don’t lick the pages! Utter yumminess from FIT’s Special Collections

31 Sparks This Illustration alumna’s creativity has gone to the birds

Avenue at 27 Street, Room B905, New York, NY  10001-5992, 212 217.4700. Email: hue@fitnyc.edu

volume 4 | number 2 | spring 2011

Address letters to the editors, Hue magazine.

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

Editor Linda Angrilli

On our covers:

On FIT’s website, fitnyc.edu Continuing and Professional Studies:

Front: “Der Paradiesvogel” (Bird of Paradise) (1920) by Walter Schnackenberg. See story, pp. 22-27.

Managing Editor Alex Joseph

fitnyc.edu/continuinged FIT job openings: fitnyc.edu/jobs

Back: Pauline Rochas ’98, left, and Carole Beaupré ’91

Editorial Assistant Vanessa Machir

Gladys Marcus Library: fitnyc.edu/library

examine an image for “Hello, Gorgeous” (pp. 16-19)

The Museum at FIT: fitnyc.edu/museum

at Coolife, their Brooklyn studio. They have worked

Art Direction and Design Empire Design Studio

To view videos about the college, go to:

exclusively with digital cameras and technology

youtube.com/aboutfit

since founding Coolife in 2000; they specialize in

Hue magazine on the web: fitnyc.edu/hue

Email the FIT Alumni Association: victoria_guranowski@fitnyc.edu

high-definition product photography for advertising and editorial. “We want the viewer to desire the object,” they say. They enjoy “playing with smears,

Go to fitnyc.edu/hue to answer The Ask, tell us what

textures, powders, drippings” in their images. Their

inspires you for Sparks, or update your alumni info.

greatest challenge? “To give the product life.”

ﬁtnyc.edu/hue

The Brown Shoe Company and FN (Footwear News) launched the second season of the FN Shoe Star competition, a web-based reality series at FIT. Pop star Fergie, who is launching her own shoe collection, hosted the first episode. The series puts six Accessories Design and Fabrication BFA students to the test for a chance to win a job as an associate designer with Brown Shoe. Watch weekly webisodes and read blogs about the contestants and challenges at fnshoestar.com. The winner will be announced in June.

Westwood’s black leather and wood “Rocking Horse” boot, from the Harris Tweed collection, fall 1986.

Vivienne Westwood, 1980-89, at The Museum at FIT The Museum at FIT and the college’s MA program in Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice present Vivienne Westwood, 1980-89— the first exhibition to focus on Westwood’s transformation from “street” provocateur to acclaimed fashion designer. Featuring more than 40 objects, including clothing, photographs, magazines, and videos, the exhibition explores changes in the designer’s aesthetic and press coverage. Iconic ensembles from her Pirates, Buffalo, and Time Machine collections are on

display. The show closes April 2. The MA program offers a unique practicum, in which students create an exhibition in collaboration with museum staff, serving as conservators, curators, educators, exhibition designers, publicists, and researchers. Graduates go on to careers as curators, collections managers, conservators, and historians in the field of dress studies. Program alumni are invited to a reception and curator-led tour of the exhibition on March 16. RSVP at WestwoodRSVP@gmail.com

Are you thinking green? How? Are you wearing— or designing with— sustainable fibers? Do you shop differently? Or have you published something related to sustainability? See Footprint, p. 8 Email hue@fitnyc.edu Submissions will be considered for publication in a future issue.

hue | spring 2011

In January, Jeffrey Williams, Fashion Design ’09, was one of three finalists to compete on season two of Bravo’s The Fashion Show: Ultimate Collection, with Isaac Mizrahi and Iman. Williams rose above the rest, winning $125,000 to launch his own collection. For the show’s final episode, the Development and Alumni Relations Office threw a party at a pub near FIT, where a sizable crowd of alumni cheered him on. To find out about future alumni events, go to fitnyc.edu/alumni.

Banksy Movie Distributor Visits Exit Through the Gift Shop, a nominee for Best Documentary at the 2011 Academy Awards, was screened last fall in the Katie Murphy Amphitheatre for the Liberal Arts Dean’s Forum. An unconventional documentary, Exit begins as a chronicle of graffiti artists by Thierry Guetta, an amateur videographer. But midway through, Guetta and Banksy—a hugely successful, highly secretive street artist—swap places, Banksy taking over the filmmaking and Guetta taking up art, both to surprising success. A Q&A with the film’s distributor, John Sloss, followed the screening. Sloss discussed Exit’s marketing, mentioning that he’d screened it for actor and influential Twitter user Ashton Kutcher, hoping he’d spread the word. (Kutcher, thinking the movie a hoax, did not.) The event was also sponsored by the Presidential Scholars honors program. For additional Banksy images, visit fitnyc.edu/hue.

“ Beauty destabilizes everyone in some way,” said Deborah Willis, chair of the department of photography and imaging at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She gave as one example an 1863 poster of a runaway slave, which included the seemingly irrelevant description of the fugitive as “good-looking.” Willis, winner of MacArthur, Guggenheim, and Fletcher fellowships, spoke in February as part of the Dean’s Dialogue. Her talk explored the ways in which African-American beauty is defined, exploited, manipulated, and marketed. The event was sponsored by the School of Art and Design, The Office of Educational Opportunity Programs, and FIT’s Photo Club. Above: model Pat Evans.

Mysterious artist Banksy, in Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010). “I’ve never met him,” says the film’s distributor.

>> FIT’s fifth annual Sustainable Business and Design Conference will be held April 12, 2011, in the John E. Reeves Great Hall. The theme is “The Liquid Planet,” focusing on water as one of our most precious resources. Speakers will include Mark Dorfman, naturalist with the Green Chemistry Institute, and Joshua Onysko, founder and CEO of Pangea Organics. The event is free and open to the public. See fitnyc.edu/ sustainability for information or to register. >> The annual gala sponsored by FIT and The Educational Foundation for the Fashion Industries will be held May 11, honoring Tim and Johnny Belk of Belk department stores. For tickets, email victoria_guranowski@fitnyc.edu. >> In January, for the first time, Business and Technology faculty and students staffed a booth to provide info about FIT at the Big Show, the National Retail Federation’s convention and expo, at the Jacob Javits Center. FIT students were also selected to attend the first NRF Student Association, sponsored by the NRF Foundation. >> Drawing on FIT’s expertise in apparel construction, Wacoal, a leading intimate apparel company, asked faculty to develop and conduct a comprehensive product test of a new shapewear garment. The study, completed last fall, reflected FIT’s standing as an industry resource. >> Deirdre Quinn, president and co-founder of Lafayette 148 New York, the $100 million women’s clothing brand, was appointed to FIT’s Board of Trustees on March 7, 2011. She has served as VP of operations for Liz Claiborne and VP of production and sourcing for Escada.

Anthony Barboza

The Exhibit Designers and Producers Association sponsored a competition for FIT’s Exhibition Design MA students to design its booth for the 2011 Euroshop trade show in Düsseldorf, Germany. Winner Leslie Ann Chiu won a trip to the event, where the booth promoted the EDPA and served as a meeting place for members.

Alumnus Wins The Fashion Show

Lorenzo Ciniglio

For those who want to start their own business or bring fresh ideas to existing companies, FIT offers a BS in Entrepreneurship for the Fashion and Design Industries. This is a two-year program for students with an AAS from FIT or equivalent credits from another institution. For more information, go to fitnyc.edu.

>> The Merchandising Society’s 50th anniversary will be celebrated at a breakfast on April 7. Former members are invited. RSVP: fitnyc.edu/ breakfast.

The innovative, new Sustainable Interior Environments MA degree provides expertise in the responsible creation of interiors that are environmentally, socially, and economically sound. This

evening and weekend program is for established professionals and educators in such areas as interior design, architecture, facilities planning, and management, with at least three years’ experience and a bachelor’s degree in their field.

QUICK READ

NBC Universal

As part of its mission to meet the rapidly changing needs of students and industry, FIT is offering three new degree options. A one-year online Fashion Merchandising Management AAS option is now available for students who have earned the required liberal arts credits. The complete two-year AAS program will be available online next year.

MFIT

what’s happening on campus

FN Launches Second “Shoe Star” Competition at FIT

what’s happening on campus

New Degree Programs Offered

In February, six student designs won awards at the Femmy gala at Cipriani 42nd Street. Between 600 and 800 industry professionals from the intimate apparel industry attended and awarded $10,000 in prizes to student winners. The Femmy student design contest is sponsored by the Underfashion Club, a group of industry professionals in the intimate apparel industry. Above: Amy Bittner, Fashion Design ’11, won the $4,000 first prize at the Femmy Awards.

>> On January 24, President Joyce F. Brown hosted a roundtable discussion at FIT between Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and fashion industry stakeholders and leaders about how government and the private sector can work together to preserve and promote this critical economic segment in New York City. >> SUNY’s $3 Billion Challenge, a fundraising initiative throughout the university’s 64 campuses, successfully concluded last summer. The funds, some of which came from SUNY’s 2.4 million living alumni, will aid tens of thousands of students and assist in recruiting and retaining world-class faculty.

ﬁtnyc.edu/hue

Westwood’s black leather and wood “Rocking Horse” boot, from the Harris Tweed collection, fall 1986.

hue | spring 2011

Mysterious artist Banksy, in Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010). “I’ve never met him,” says the film’s distributor.

Anthony Barboza

Alumnus Wins The Fashion Show

Lorenzo Ciniglio

>> The Merchandising Society’s 50th anniversary will be celebrated at a breakfast on April 7. Former members are invited. RSVP: fitnyc.edu/ breakfast.

The innovative, new Sustainable Interior Environments MA degree provides expertise in the responsible creation of interiors that are environmentally, socially, and economically sound. This

QUICK READ

NBC Universal

MFIT

what’s happening on campus

FN Launches Second “Shoe Star” Competition at FIT

what’s happening on campus

New Degree Programs Offered

ﬁtnyc.edu/hue

Shelf Help L i n da Ro on e y, Fa sh ion Bu y i ng a n d M e rc h a n di si ng ’84 , i s t h e V P for pl a n n i ng a n d a l l o c at ion at Bro ok s Bro t h e r s

was a heady moment for Linda Rooney when The Oprah Winfrey Show informed its viewers that Brooks Brothers had the best no-iron white shirts for women. “We were all excited and elated,” recalls Rooney, vice president for planning and allocation at Brooks Brothers, who watched the 2008 broadcast with other executives in a company conference room. Then came the challenge. Suddenly, “we were selling tens of thousands of the shirts rather than just a thousand,” Rooney says. “It was that kind of exponential growth.” Rooney was soon in the thick of the action as Brooks Brothers planners, buyers, and vendors scrambled to keep up with the runaway shirt sales. Her role was “giving guidance about how to get it all done,” she says. “It was a very collaborative exercise and a lot of fun. Within a very reasonable time, we were able to fulfill all the demand.” Getting the right items to stores on time is crucial to Rooney as head of planning and allocation for the company’s domestic market, which includes 117 retail and 103 factory outlet stores. The 193-year-old retailer pioneered men’s ready-to-wear suits and today does 85 percent of its business in traditional menswear. Working closely with Brooks Brothers buyers, Rooney sets budgets for the company’s seasonal clothing lines up to a year in advance of their arrival in stores. She also monitors sales once the season begins to determine what to reorder for individual locations. The job calls for “a blend of art and science,” says Rooney, who checks the buyers’ vision of what will be hot against past sales of similar items

hue | spring 2011

throughout the Brooks Brothers chain. “If cashmere or a particular sweater program is going to be important,” she says, “we look at what worked or didn’t work in each store and region and that becomes the assortment” for the upcoming season. Rooney’s colleagues rely on her financial savvy. “We can create the most beautiful product in the world, but if it’s not planned and allocated properly, it’s not going to work,” says Claudia Scala, vice president for women’s merchandising at Brooks Brothers. “Linda and

“ T o do this job well, you have to feel good about the product— and the customer,” Rooney says. “It’s not just about numbers and technology.” her team are kind of like our checkbook. They keep us in line.” New pinpoint technology tells Rooney precisely how items have sold in the past and are selling in season, right down to the sizes and colors in each Brooks Brothers store. Using sophisticated software, “I can come in and look at what was sold over the weekend and what’s in the distribution

center,” she says, “and with a few clicks have items shipped to the store location. So within an hour you can do all the work that would have taken at least a day or two [in the past].” The new software is the same that FIT students use to gain hands-on experience of professional tools. It’s also a far cry from the green analysis pads and pencils that Rooney used as a continuing education student at FIT while working as an account executive for Liz Claiborne in the early 1980s. Rooney’s own career has paralleled the evolution of fashion buying in U.S. department stores. Before the 1990s, she says, buyers did everything from picking out products to planning how much to order for stores. But the job became too big for any one person as mergers magnified the number of a company’s stores, creating behemoths like the 800-store Federated—now Macy’s—group. Meanwhile, new sales-tracking technology was becoming available. “So if you were mathematically savvy and could do analytics and liked that part of the business,” the chance to be a planner was wide open to you, she says. Rooney joined Macy’s in 1990, just as the buyer and planner roles were splitting apart. “I liked

Leo Sorel

BY JOHN GREENWALD

fashion and I knew I had an aptitude for the analytical part of it,” she says. She became one of Macy’s first planning-team members and stayed for 15 years before joining Brooks Brothers in 2005. Her tidy office on the 10th floor of Brooks Brothers’ Madison Avenue headquarters and flagship store sports a calendar featuring glossy pictures of cocker spaniels as a reminder of her own dog— a female named Macy. Along with her taste for fashion, Rooney strives to lead a healthy life. She joins after-hours sessions with yoga and Pilates

instructors that Brooks Brothers brings into the midtown site. “It keeps us active and helps reduce stress at the end of the day,” she says. Among her current challenges is supervising planning for Brooks Brothers’ distinct retail and factory outlet stores. Each has its own customers and selling patterns, she says. Outlet clothing typically features different fabrics and trim as compared with retail apparel, and the outlets are busiest in the summer “when everyone is out shopping,” especially over the Memorial Day and Fourth of July weekends.

Rooney’s team uses the same software to plan and allocate goods for both types of stores. “Allocators look at sweaters for retail one day and for outlet the next,” she says. “It makes [business] more broad-based.” Also challenging is the long lead time between planning and taking delivery of a seasonal line, since Brooks Brothers designs its own clothing and outsources most of the production to plants around the world. The exceptions are the company’s neckties, made in its factory in Long Island, and some men’s shirts and suits produced in

its plants in Massachusetts and North Carolina. The extended lead time means that Rooney must often plan for the next year without much data from currentyear sales. “We’ll begin spring [2012] purchases in the next month or two when we’ve hardly begun the [current] spring season,” she says in a January interview. So she combines initial results for the current season with sales from the yearago period to help forecast trends. Basing future plans on past performance has its limits, of course. “Everything is sort of a best guess,” Rooney says. “But we feel that many types of information that we get are very reliable.” In cities with large Asian populations like San Francisco or Vancouver, Canada, for example, “we would need more small and medium sizes” since shoppers there tend to be smaller. The fact that the software reports unique patterns of sales by size per store, Rooney adds, “enables us to evaluate, plan, and react to these patterns more specifically.” Besides crunching numbers, her team stays in touch with store managers for insights into local goings on. “You may have a manager in New Orleans saying that 10,000 doctors are coming to town in the next couple of months, and we think that is the kind of customer base [that will like our company],” Rooney says. “We would build inventory there with the thought that we want to capture that business.” Does Rooney have any tips for success in her line of work? It comes down to loving what you do, she says. “I like the business of it all—the merchandising, the fashions, the people aspect. To be in this business you’ve got to like all of it and you’ve got to like people, because it’s truly a people business.”

ﬁtnyc.edu/hue

Shelf Help L i n da Ro on e y, Fa sh ion Bu y i ng a n d M e rc h a n di si ng ’84 , i s t h e V P for pl a n n i ng a n d a l l o c at ion at Bro ok s Bro t h e r s

hue | spring 2011

Leo Sorel

BY JOHN GREENWALD

ﬁtnyc.edu/hue

insights from the classroom and beyond

steps toward a sustainable future

Black and White and Green All Over Faculty member Sass Brown spotlights sustainable fashion in a new book Until recently, fashionistas on the prowl for Earth-friendly garb had limited options. “The only place you could buy hemp clothing was in a head shop, where they sell bongs,” explains eco-pundit Sass Brown, director of FIT’s study-abroad program in Florence (Polimoda) and assistant professor of Fashion Design. “It was like, do I smoke this or wear it?” The sustainable

Faculty

of the

Future

How will FIT teach in 2020?

apparel movement is still trying to outlive its crunchy reputation, while playing catch-up to other creative fields. “Fashion is quite late to the party. It lags behind architecture, fragrance, interior decoration, and many other disciplines in which companies have embraced sustainable business models. Designers have just started to understand the significant

BY Alex joseph Illustrations by Mara CESPON, Illustration ’11

impact they can have on the planet’s ecology.” Luckily, the industry has come a long way in the last few years, with chic labels like Ciel, Noir, Céline Faizant, and Linda

Erica Lansner

Loudermilk now tailoring hemp and banana fibers into refined

Click, Click, Undo C.J. Yeh, assistant professor, Communication Design I only took one computer course in my life. They handed me a manual and said, “Read it.” It would take three hours to figure something out, and I’d think, “Can’t someone just tell me?” These days, if students just want a manual, they can watch online tutorials; it’s cheaper. But if you only do what the manual says, you won’t do anything creative. When it comes to playing with technology, my generation is still afraid they’re going to break something. But my students are “digital natives”; for them, there’s always an “undo” button. They just keep clicking until they get the result they want. When you give a toy to a kid, first they play with it the way they’re supposed to. Then they get bored and take it apart, figure out what’s inside. That’s what I want my students to do. I call it “creative misuse of technology.” We talk about “thinking outside the box,” but before we can do that, we need to teach what’s inside the box. For example, in Photoshop, there’s a color mode called LAB, which separates images into tonal value—“Light”—and the two halves of the color spectrum, “Alpha” and “Beta.” I tell students to experiment: take the Alpha from the image of an apple and apply it to an orange, or just invert Alpha and Beta completely. If they mess around, who knows what they can come up with? The only way to make yourself creative is to challenge things. I tell my students, “When Steve Jobs tells you to do something, ask, ‘Why?’” Our students are great consumers of technology, but I want them to be producers, too.

garments that rival the sophistication and innovation of anything trotted out at Fashion Week. Brown spotlights such environmentally (and sartorially) savvy lines in her new book, Eco Fashion (Laurence King Publishers), featuring talents from across the globe. “I finally felt that there was enough groundbreaking work worth promoting,” says Brown of her impetus to write the book. The turning point? “Rather than activists and non-governmental organizations creating clothes out of

and non-classroom faculty, academic

years. The experience taught me that the developing world is

By the time you finish reading this paragraph, some version of all the following could have happened: A colleague posts a “must-read” article about China’s developing luxury goods market to your Facebook wall. A noted fashion journalist you follow on Twitter “tweets” a picture of a hot look from a Milan runway show. Your daughter texts you to ask permission to download a Hindi language textbook to her Kindle. If you’re under a certain age—say, 30—you may integrate such events into your daily life with relative ease. If you’re not, you might never reach the next paragraph.

the only place left where high-end fashion designers can still

Globalization and advancing

Gretchen Bataille, interim vice presi-

concerns for the future.

source handicrafts like crochet, knitting, and lacemaking. It’s

technology are hardly news, but

dent for Academic Affairs. Faculty of

Later in the month, Hue convened

the end of the line.” And the beginning of a more conscien-

educational institutions are pondering

the Future, an initiative spearheaded

a roundtable discussion to draw out some

their implications for the classroom.

by Dr. Brown, addresses the new reality

of these ideas. We asked members of the

Multitasking may challenge student

by exploring criteria to strengthen

December conference’s plenary panel to

attention spans, but the next generation

academics and promote excellence in

participate: President Brown; Ron Amato,

will undoubtedly bring new skills to the

teaching over the next decade.

assistant professor, Photography; Ellen

table as well. As FIT President Joyce

The initiative emerged from the

Goldstein, Accessories Design professor

F. Brown points out, “The freshmen of

college’s strategic plan, 2020: FIT at 75,

and president of FIT’s Faculty Senate;

2020 are third graders today—yet they

Bringing the Future into Focus. During

Juliette Romano, professor and counselor,

can fix your computer for you if it

the process of filling 40 new faculty

Career and Internship Center, and presi-

breaks.” When these tech-savvy, diverse,

positions, the question arose of which

dent of FIT’s union; and Celeste Weins,

globally aware young people arrive at

skill sets will matter most as the 21st

Student Association president. Bataille

college, how will faculty reach them?

century progresses. To find out, the

moderated. Some highlights are offered

“The student of tomorrow dictates

college engaged in a yearlong process

here. For more on the initiative, go to:

a different faculty of tomorrow,” says

of consulting with full-time, adjunct,

fitnyc.edu/facultyofthefuture.

organic fabrics, aesthetes finally started embracing ecological production”—from sourcing sustainable textiles to partnering with fair-trade cooperatives. The latter is something Brown understands firsthand, having spent years laboring in women’s co-ops throughout Latin America during teaching breaks. “I literally showed up one day and said, ‘Hi, I’m here! Put me to work!’ They charged me with mundane tasks like answering emails and calculating weights for shipping, and later helping with production and logistics. I went back every summer and winter break for five

tious—and better-dressed—future.

—Jen Renzi

Check out Brown’s blog: www.ecofashiontalk.com

Designer Leila Hafzi, featured in Brown’s book, established an eco-conscious,

hue | spring 2011

ethical fashion company in Nepal. A network of local craftspeople paint (right) and drape the silk garments (left).

deans, and department chairs. This collaboration generated a list of proposed competencies, such as a global perspective, flexible teaching styles, and technological literacy, which were presented during a daylong faculty conference about the initiative in December 2010. At an industry breakfast in January, leaders from design, retail, and manufacturing confirmed that issues raised at the conference were consistent with their

ﬁtnyc.edu/hue

insights from the classroom and beyond

steps toward a sustainable future

Faculty

of the

Future

How will FIT teach in 2020?

BY Alex joseph Illustrations by Mara CESPON, Illustration ’11

impact they can have on the planet’s ecology.” Luckily, the industry has come a long way in the last few years, with chic labels like Ciel, Noir, Céline Faizant, and Linda

Erica Lansner

Loudermilk now tailoring hemp and banana fibers into refined

and non-classroom faculty, academic

years. The experience taught me that the developing world is

the only place left where high-end fashion designers can still

Globalization and advancing

Gretchen Bataille, interim vice presi-

concerns for the future.

source handicrafts like crochet, knitting, and lacemaking. It’s

technology are hardly news, but

dent for Academic Affairs. Faculty of

Later in the month, Hue convened

the end of the line.” And the beginning of a more conscien-

educational institutions are pondering

the Future, an initiative spearheaded

a roundtable discussion to draw out some

their implications for the classroom.

by Dr. Brown, addresses the new reality

of these ideas. We asked members of the

Multitasking may challenge student

by exploring criteria to strengthen

December conference’s plenary panel to

attention spans, but the next generation

academics and promote excellence in

participate: President Brown; Ron Amato,

will undoubtedly bring new skills to the

teaching over the next decade.

assistant professor, Photography; Ellen

table as well. As FIT President Joyce

The initiative emerged from the

Goldstein, Accessories Design professor

F. Brown points out, “The freshmen of

college’s strategic plan, 2020: FIT at 75,

and president of FIT’s Faculty Senate;

2020 are third graders today—yet they

Bringing the Future into Focus. During

Juliette Romano, professor and counselor,

can fix your computer for you if it

the process of filling 40 new faculty

Career and Internship Center, and presi-

breaks.” When these tech-savvy, diverse,

positions, the question arose of which

dent of FIT’s union; and Celeste Weins,

globally aware young people arrive at

skill sets will matter most as the 21st

Student Association president. Bataille

college, how will faculty reach them?

century progresses. To find out, the

moderated. Some highlights are offered

“The student of tomorrow dictates

college engaged in a yearlong process

here. For more on the initiative, go to:

a different faculty of tomorrow,” says

of consulting with full-time, adjunct,

fitnyc.edu/facultyofthefuture.

tious—and better-dressed—future.

—Jen Renzi

Check out Brown’s blog: www.ecofashiontalk.com

Designer Leila Hafzi, featured in Brown’s book, established an eco-conscious,

hue | spring 2011

ethical fashion company in Nepal. A network of local craftspeople paint (right) and drape the silk garments (left).

ﬁtnyc.edu/hue

Gadgets, the Internet, and Learning

New Models for Teaching, and “The Human Touch”

Celeste weins

t the Faculty of the Future conference, Amato proposed

instill in students an intellectual

a photography assignment, a concept for integrating

curiosity that will enable them

technology into the classroom: “Students would

to transcend the latest trend and

make one photograph a day for 100 days with whatever

fleeting technology.”

device they carry in their pocket, and upload it to

One example of how this

Twitter. All the students in the class would be able

can be accomplished is a simple adjustment that faculty member

to see and comment on the photographs from anywhere. It would create an immediacy that wasn’t previously possible, and would allow commu-

do a PowerPoint presentation that

Mark Higden made in his Creative

nication with their instructor and peers that isn’t bound by the walls

for us takes five minutes. We just

Fashion Presentations class and

of a classroom.”

slap it together and they’re like

described at the December

President JOyce f. Brown

The World Is Getting Smaller

conference, C.J. Yeh, assistant

Ellen Goldstein

professor of Communication

The expectation of immediacy

Design, observed,

challenges the traditional hierarchy

“If the students want to know some-

of teacher/student interactions. Many

thing, they don’t need me; they go

parents and children now treat each

to Google.” That doesn’t mean the

other like peers, Yarrow said, and this

teacher’s role is obsolete. On the

change has affected attitudes toward

oday’s students bring to the classroom a diversity of

contrary, he said. “Learning online

authority figures; at the same time,

backgrounds that were unrepresented a generation ago.

is hard, confusing.” He described

having absorbed messages promoting

Goldstein noted, “You don’t walk into a class and see

instructional videos for advanced

their self-esteem, they have difficulty

only students from the tristate area. The international

software that could be found on

with criticism and crave personalized

presence enriches everything, because they bring in their

YouTube, but were impossible

attention. Amato said it’s important to

culture and its ideas.” Even for students without direct

to follow. “I’m in the classroom to

strike a balance. “Believe me, I want

international experience, the internet has so flattened the world that

facilitate, give guidance,” he said.

to be respected in my classes. The

walls that once limited people’s experiences no longer exist, as writer

The new paradigm for teachers,

faculty should have an authoritative

Amato’s proposal was both creative and timely. Technology has

‘Oh, my God.’” Dr. Brown noted

conference. Traditionally, students

permeated every aspect of education, from smart boards in classrooms

the importance of adaptation:

turned in trend reports on 8.5-by-

to courses and entire degrees—like FIT’s AAS in Fashion Merchandising

“As wonderful as we are at FIT,

11-inch paper, but last spring, he

Management—being offered online. According to Tamara Cupples,

people are not going to [enroll]

had them create a blog and post the

executive director of FIT’s Office of Online Learning, 5.6 million

if we are stuck in five years ago.”

research online instead. Students

Americans took online courses in 2009.

Fortunately, because of resources

created video for the assignment

The photography assignment has additional value because it

like the college’s Center for

and linked to other sites, but the

addresses today’s students in a mode they can relate to. Raised on the

Excellence in Teaching, we’re

change went far beyond technol-

latest gadgets, these “digital natives” might not respond to the traditional

not. The CET provides dozens

ogy. Higden said his relationship

Thomas Friedman wrote in his best-selling book The World Is Flat.

he said, is “master learners,” who

presence, but they should also listen to

two-hour lecture. Goldstein said she’s already observed such changes

of workshops to keep faculty up

to the students became less hierar-

At FIT, in part as a reflection of the international nature of fashion

relate to their students a bit like a

what students are saying. There needs

in her students: “They want to be entertained; they want something that

to date. Current offerings include

chical: “They brought in sites and

and the related industries (products designed in New York, manufactured

tour guide: “We’re on this journey

to be a spirit of collaboration and open

excites them.”

tutorials on blogs, wikis, and

references that surprised me. The

in Turkey or China, and shipped around the globe), an awareness of the

together,” he said.

communication.” Romano pointed

Consumer psychologist Kit Yarrow spoke at the conference about

podcasting, and a walk-in tech-

whole dynamic in the discussion

college’s position in the wider world affects learning. Weins said that,

At the roundtable, Dr. Brown

out that this dynamic isn’t necessarily

the impact of technology on Generation Y—those born between 1978 and

nology clinic.

was much more fluid.” Further, the

from the students’ perspective, one result is a sense of competitiveness:

amplified Yarrow’s ideas about

replicated on the job. “It’s hard for

2000. They are far more easily bored, more visually oriented, and they

The consensus seems to be

conversation extended beyond the

“The competition isn’t just in the classroom or city; you are competing on

how Gen Y thinks. “For us, problem

students to understand what will be

prize innovation, she said. The immediate availability of information on

that to engage students, innovation

classroom when students’ friends,

the global stage. A professor will say, ‘Oh, you think you can do this really

solving is about identifying and

expected of them in the work place.

the internet leads them to expect interactivity in class. Furthermore, the

must be fearlessly embraced when-

family, and even a few strangers

well? I bet a kid in China can do it ten times faster.’” Industries that the

analyzing all the various aspects of a

They might get bored with a training

all-consuming nature of technology has potentially troubling consequences

ever appropriate. The internet

began following the blogs. Months

college serves are noticing the disparity, too. Dr. Brown remarked that,

situation. For them, it’s about multi-

program after six hours, but they’re

for relationships: “Eleven percent of Generation Y will even stop having

and the various devices that

later, some of the students are still

at the meeting about the Faculty of the Future, industry leaders said they

tasking—tweeting and emailing and

going to be dealing with supervisors

sex to text,” Yarrow said.

convey it have, like the printing

blogging. Higden said gearing the

see a difference when international students are brought into their firms.

going on blogs and getting opinions

who are baby boomers.”

At the same time, there’s a learning curve when it comes to established

press, changed the means by

assignment to the way they think

They have more focus and take more pride in their work. “The American

from a lot of different people—and

In order to meet the challenges

faculty and their familiarity with new (and always newer) tools. Roundtable

which we absorb information,

made it a real-world, experiential

students were not quite as grounded in what they were doing,” she added.

probably losing interest a lot more

facing them in the real world, young

participants spoke about a technology-related generation gap. Weins, a

but the wisdom of the educator,

exercise for them. They’re not

At the same time, roundtable participants wondered whether countries

Graphic Design student, said, “Professors are blown away when students

and the thirst for knowledge, still

just studying the subject, he says,

would always compete with each other. Goldstein said, “Is it always going

quickly than it would take us to come people need what many faculty are calling “the human touch”—that is, to what we consider a reasonable,

matter. In his speech, Amato went

“they’re living it.”

to be us against them, or is it going to be us as a total industry?”

well-thought-out conclusion.”

empathy, a sense of connection. With

on to say that, “If faculty model

For FIT, the question of globalization translates into, for one, a need

so much information from so many

the ability to absorb, synthesize,

for greater diversity among faculty. Amato said increasing diversity in

sources arriving via technology, it’s

and contextualize new informa-

the Photography Department has given students “permission” to pursue

easy for young people to feel alienated—

tion and technologies, we can

work that is meaningful to them, because “they can now identify a

and that’s where faculty can make a

faculty member who’s a role model.” Dr. Brown added that diversity is

difference. Romano said, “Blogs and

one important factor in hiring new faculty—“professionals who have

tweets are wonderful, but you want to

something different to bring to the classroom and community. It is

be able to sit down with a counselor or

inherently added value and a critical component for any enterprise.”

faculty member or financial aid person,

Another aspect of globalism is adjusting to other cultures. The process

face to face.”

of learning, and then interviewing for a job, is different in different

In years to come, the college will

countries. Juliette Romano, career counselor, said Student Services

continue to evolve in response to global

professionals can be key players in helping both American and interna-

change. Embracing innovation while

tional students navigate “expectations about eye contact, speaking up,”

meeting the needs of students and

and other behaviors.

industry: that’s the FIT of today, and

ROn AMATO

Gretchen Bataille

JULIette Romano

t the December

hue | spring 2011

the FIT of the future.

ﬁtnyc.edu/hue

Gadgets, the Internet, and Learning

New Models for Teaching, and “The Human Touch”

Celeste weins

t the Faculty of the Future conference, Amato proposed

instill in students an intellectual

a photography assignment, a concept for integrating

curiosity that will enable them

technology into the classroom: “Students would

to transcend the latest trend and

make one photograph a day for 100 days with whatever

fleeting technology.”

device they carry in their pocket, and upload it to

One example of how this

Twitter. All the students in the class would be able

can be accomplished is a simple adjustment that faculty member

to see and comment on the photographs from anywhere. It would create an immediacy that wasn’t previously possible, and would allow commu-

do a PowerPoint presentation that

Mark Higden made in his Creative

nication with their instructor and peers that isn’t bound by the walls

for us takes five minutes. We just

Fashion Presentations class and

of a classroom.”

slap it together and they’re like

described at the December

President JOyce f. Brown

The World Is Getting Smaller

conference, C.J. Yeh, assistant

Ellen Goldstein

professor of Communication

The expectation of immediacy

Design, observed,

challenges the traditional hierarchy

“If the students want to know some-

of teacher/student interactions. Many

thing, they don’t need me; they go

parents and children now treat each

to Google.” That doesn’t mean the

other like peers, Yarrow said, and this

teacher’s role is obsolete. On the

change has affected attitudes toward

oday’s students bring to the classroom a diversity of

contrary, he said. “Learning online

authority figures; at the same time,

backgrounds that were unrepresented a generation ago.

is hard, confusing.” He described

having absorbed messages promoting

Goldstein noted, “You don’t walk into a class and see

instructional videos for advanced

their self-esteem, they have difficulty

only students from the tristate area. The international

software that could be found on

with criticism and crave personalized

presence enriches everything, because they bring in their

YouTube, but were impossible

attention. Amato said it’s important to

culture and its ideas.” Even for students without direct

to follow. “I’m in the classroom to

strike a balance. “Believe me, I want

international experience, the internet has so flattened the world that

facilitate, give guidance,” he said.

to be respected in my classes. The

walls that once limited people’s experiences no longer exist, as writer

The new paradigm for teachers,

faculty should have an authoritative

Amato’s proposal was both creative and timely. Technology has

‘Oh, my God.’” Dr. Brown noted

conference. Traditionally, students

permeated every aspect of education, from smart boards in classrooms

the importance of adaptation:

turned in trend reports on 8.5-by-

to courses and entire degrees—like FIT’s AAS in Fashion Merchandising

“As wonderful as we are at FIT,

11-inch paper, but last spring, he

Management—being offered online. According to Tamara Cupples,

people are not going to [enroll]

had them create a blog and post the

executive director of FIT’s Office of Online Learning, 5.6 million

if we are stuck in five years ago.”

research online instead. Students

Americans took online courses in 2009.

Fortunately, because of resources

created video for the assignment

The photography assignment has additional value because it

like the college’s Center for

and linked to other sites, but the

addresses today’s students in a mode they can relate to. Raised on the

Excellence in Teaching, we’re

change went far beyond technol-

latest gadgets, these “digital natives” might not respond to the traditional

not. The CET provides dozens

ogy. Higden said his relationship

Thomas Friedman wrote in his best-selling book The World Is Flat.

he said, is “master learners,” who

presence, but they should also listen to

two-hour lecture. Goldstein said she’s already observed such changes

of workshops to keep faculty up

to the students became less hierar-

At FIT, in part as a reflection of the international nature of fashion

relate to their students a bit like a

what students are saying. There needs

in her students: “They want to be entertained; they want something that

to date. Current offerings include

chical: “They brought in sites and

and the related industries (products designed in New York, manufactured

tour guide: “We’re on this journey

to be a spirit of collaboration and open

excites them.”

tutorials on blogs, wikis, and

references that surprised me. The

in Turkey or China, and shipped around the globe), an awareness of the

together,” he said.

communication.” Romano pointed

Consumer psychologist Kit Yarrow spoke at the conference about

podcasting, and a walk-in tech-

whole dynamic in the discussion

college’s position in the wider world affects learning. Weins said that,

At the roundtable, Dr. Brown

out that this dynamic isn’t necessarily

the impact of technology on Generation Y—those born between 1978 and

nology clinic.

was much more fluid.” Further, the

from the students’ perspective, one result is a sense of competitiveness:

amplified Yarrow’s ideas about

replicated on the job. “It’s hard for

2000. They are far more easily bored, more visually oriented, and they

The consensus seems to be

conversation extended beyond the

“The competition isn’t just in the classroom or city; you are competing on

how Gen Y thinks. “For us, problem

students to understand what will be

prize innovation, she said. The immediate availability of information on

that to engage students, innovation

classroom when students’ friends,

the global stage. A professor will say, ‘Oh, you think you can do this really

solving is about identifying and

expected of them in the work place.

the internet leads them to expect interactivity in class. Furthermore, the

must be fearlessly embraced when-

family, and even a few strangers

well? I bet a kid in China can do it ten times faster.’” Industries that the

analyzing all the various aspects of a

They might get bored with a training

all-consuming nature of technology has potentially troubling consequences

ever appropriate. The internet

began following the blogs. Months

college serves are noticing the disparity, too. Dr. Brown remarked that,

situation. For them, it’s about multi-

program after six hours, but they’re

for relationships: “Eleven percent of Generation Y will even stop having

and the various devices that

later, some of the students are still

at the meeting about the Faculty of the Future, industry leaders said they

tasking—tweeting and emailing and

going to be dealing with supervisors

sex to text,” Yarrow said.

convey it have, like the printing

blogging. Higden said gearing the

see a difference when international students are brought into their firms.

going on blogs and getting opinions

who are baby boomers.”

At the same time, there’s a learning curve when it comes to established

press, changed the means by

assignment to the way they think

They have more focus and take more pride in their work. “The American

from a lot of different people—and

In order to meet the challenges

faculty and their familiarity with new (and always newer) tools. Roundtable

which we absorb information,

made it a real-world, experiential

students were not quite as grounded in what they were doing,” she added.

probably losing interest a lot more

facing them in the real world, young

participants spoke about a technology-related generation gap. Weins, a

but the wisdom of the educator,

exercise for them. They’re not

At the same time, roundtable participants wondered whether countries

Graphic Design student, said, “Professors are blown away when students

and the thirst for knowledge, still

just studying the subject, he says,

would always compete with each other. Goldstein said, “Is it always going

quickly than it would take us to come people need what many faculty are calling “the human touch”—that is, to what we consider a reasonable,

matter. In his speech, Amato went

“they’re living it.”

to be us against them, or is it going to be us as a total industry?”

well-thought-out conclusion.”

empathy, a sense of connection. With

on to say that, “If faculty model

For FIT, the question of globalization translates into, for one, a need

so much information from so many

the ability to absorb, synthesize,

for greater diversity among faculty. Amato said increasing diversity in

sources arriving via technology, it’s

and contextualize new informa-

the Photography Department has given students “permission” to pursue

easy for young people to feel alienated—

tion and technologies, we can

work that is meaningful to them, because “they can now identify a

and that’s where faculty can make a

faculty member who’s a role model.” Dr. Brown added that diversity is

difference. Romano said, “Blogs and

one important factor in hiring new faculty—“professionals who have

tweets are wonderful, but you want to

something different to bring to the classroom and community. It is

be able to sit down with a counselor or

inherently added value and a critical component for any enterprise.”

faculty member or financial aid person,

Another aspect of globalism is adjusting to other cultures. The process

face to face.”

of learning, and then interviewing for a job, is different in different

In years to come, the college will

countries. Juliette Romano, career counselor, said Student Services

continue to evolve in response to global

professionals can be key players in helping both American and interna-

change. Embracing innovation while

tional students navigate “expectations about eye contact, speaking up,”

meeting the needs of students and

and other behaviors.

industry: that’s the FIT of today, and

ROn AMATO

Gretchen Bataille

JULIette Romano

t the December

hue | spring 2011

the FIT of the future.

ﬁtnyc.edu/hue

Students of the future will be more. one question, many answers

–Michael Cokkinos, associate professor, Advertising and Marketing Communications Creative, collaborative, thoughtful, and tech savvy. They will have to think critically on many levels in order to adapt to the speed at which the industry is changing—fast! They will also keep in mind the planet on which we live. –Naomi Gross, associate professor, Fashion Merchandising Management I envision intense and self-aware students in the future, with a talent range very similar to our present-day students. –Eli Kince, associate professor, Graphic Design

Much more adept at multitasking. –Albert Romano, associate professor, Advertising and Marketing Communications

They will have to be faster and better.

They will be super-beings. Their brains will be laser brains that are sharper and more cutting edge. –Ruben Cruz, assistant professor, Fashion Design

I don't think Illustration students will use a sketchbook. Maybe some sort of tablet. –Kam Mak, associate professor, Illustration

They will demand a quicker path to success— for example, choosing courses for a ‘customized curriculum’ for their degree, like On Demand TV. –Janice Messinger, assistant professor, Fashion Merchandising Management

Very tall—

they seem to be getting taller every year!

–Mark Goldblatt, associate professor, Educational Skills

What will the students of the future be like? 12

one question, many answers

More diverse. More empowered. More mobile. More responsible.

hue | spring 2011

All their information-gathering will come from a chip in their heads or something. –Christine Helm, coordinator, Enterprise Center They will be more global than ever and more curious about everything. They will come from many places and travel many places when they leave here. –Yasemin Celik Levine, chair, Social Sciences

They’ll be healthy, physically fit, and well-informed. Their brains will be wirelessly connected to a knowledge repository; a threedimensional, virtual imagining system; and to a three-dimensional printing device—all they will have to do is to think creatively.

What will the faculty of the future be like?

–Grazyna Pilatowicz, chair, Sustainable Interior Environments Students of the future will study, research, and learn in ways that we cannot even imagine. Fifty years ago, we couldn’t have imagined podcasting, VoiceThread, iPads, and the other kinds of interactive technologies we're familiar with today. Regardless of how students learn in the future, they'll have the same desire to be taught and mentored by experts. –David Drogin, acting chair, History of Art

They may be invisible. They may

never set foot on a brick-and-mortar campus. There may not be any brick-and-mortar campuses (think of bookshops and record stores). The students' thoughts and ideas may exist only in a cloud to which we, as professors, will have access (I hope). I miss my real students already. –Patrick Knisley, assistant professor, English and Speech

Awesome, because it will be us. –Danielle Grochowicz, Advertising Design ’14

They’ll be very tired. Because of the bleak state of the world—war, recession, environmental deterioration—the coming generation will arrive at college with a lot of questions and concerns. –Heather Viggiani, Advertising and Marketing Communications ’10

FIT will be even more diverse,

so the professors should understand globalization and be open to multiculturalism. –Dyne Kim, Fashion Merchandising Management ’11

Professors are always going to act the same. –John Ersing, Advertising and Marketing Communications ’12

Robots!

–Kate Maldjian, Communication Design ’11

A little nicer. Sometimes when you go into their offices … they have this gloomy face. They should smile! –Beryl Wong, Fashion Design ’12

We’re coming into the digital world— texts, Facebook, etc. I don’t think their social skills will be as developed. I don’t think they’ll be able to present themselves as well in front of class. –Katherine Denisi, Illustration ’11

They will be more laid back

and will speak equally with students. They will still hold authority, but there will be more of a connection. –Kristen Miller, Illustration ’14 I would hope that the departments will learn how to teach in an interdisciplinary way. –Josh Bennett, Menswear ’12

Hopefully no longer underpaid! Oh, and jetpacks. –Emily M. Smith, Photography and the Digital Image ’12

I believe computers and technology will take the place of faculty. I am not looking forward to this because, as a student who has had both online and in-class instruction, I prefer the physical teacher/classroom setting. –Amanda DePolo, Textile Development and Marketing ’11

ﬁtnyc.edu/hue

Students of the future will be more. one question, many answers

Much more adept at multitasking. –Albert Romano, associate professor, Advertising and Marketing Communications

They will have to be faster and better.

They will be super-beings. Their brains will be laser brains that are sharper and more cutting edge. –Ruben Cruz, assistant professor, Fashion Design

I don't think Illustration students will use a sketchbook. Maybe some sort of tablet. –Kam Mak, associate professor, Illustration

Very tall—

they seem to be getting taller every year!

–Mark Goldblatt, associate professor, Educational Skills

What will the students of the future be like? 12

one question, many answers

More diverse. More empowered. More mobile. More responsible.

hue | spring 2011

What will the faculty of the future be like?

They may be invisible. They may

Awesome, because it will be us. –Danielle Grochowicz, Advertising Design ’14

FIT will be even more diverse,

so the professors should understand globalization and be open to multiculturalism. –Dyne Kim, Fashion Merchandising Management ’11

Professors are always going to act the same. –John Ersing, Advertising and Marketing Communications ’12

Robots!

–Kate Maldjian, Communication Design ’11

A little nicer. Sometimes when you go into their offices … they have this gloomy face. They should smile! –Beryl Wong, Fashion Design ’12

They will be more laid back

Hopefully no longer underpaid! Oh, and jetpacks. –Emily M. Smith, Photography and the Digital Image ’12

ﬁtnyc.edu/hue

H e r C a r e e r’s IN TH E TO IL ET

In 1997, Dari Marder was trying to stir up interest in Candie’s, the line of women’s shoes and accessories owned by her boss, Neil Cole. Marder, now the chief marketing officer of Cole’s Iconix Brand Group, Inc., which owns and licenses 26 brands ranging from London Fog to Rocawear, was doing a test shoot with a photographer and a model in a New York brownstone. She walked past a bathroom, and creative lightning struck: why not put the model on the toilet? “The photographer said, ‘Let’s do it!’” recalls Marder, who liked the results so much that she pitched the idea to Jenny McCarthy. The finished ads, which showed the former Playboy centerfold and MTV host on the john, her underwear around her ankles and a pair of classic Candie’s slides on her feet, appeared in magazines from YM to Spin. They were beautifully shot, extremely controversial—and highly effective. “It was a very provocative shot that made people uncomfortable,” says Marder, who is tall, lean, and sophisticated—the epitome of a successful New York marketing executive. “You would not believe the letters we got—from the moms, of course. The girls loved it.” The buzz those ads generated helped revitalize the once-flagging brand, and consumers of a certain age still think of McCarthy when they hear the name Candie’s. Marder reinforced the association by putting McCarthy back on the toilet in 2004, this time with singer Kelly Clarkson in a bathtub, wearing nothing but jewelry and her Candie’s. The McCarthy ads were not Marder’s first brush with notoriety. Ever since she made Donna Rice the spokeswoman for Cole’s No Excuses jeans in 1987— just after revelations of Rice’s affair with Senator Gary Hart hit the tabloids, derailing the senator’s presidential aspirations—Marder has created promotional campaigns that push both boundaries and buttons.

, ( but That s a Good Thing)

Dari Marder, Advertising and Communications ’84, creates scandalous ads for Iconix By Alexander Gelfand

Claudio Papapietro

In the late 1980s, when acid-washed

hue | spring 2011

jeans were all the rage, Marder needed a way to distinguish Cole’s version from the competition. Major media outlets were clamoring for interviews with Rice, including Playboy, where Marder previously worked as assistant to the fashion editor (a position attained through an FIT internship). She used her old contacts at the magazine to get the name of Rice’s agent, and the resulting campaign, which included a TV spot with a sultry Rice saying, “I make no excuses; I only wear them,” continues to be cited in marketing textbooks. Marder found the tools she picked up at FIT were directly applicable to her work at Cole’s. The first time

LEFT:In 2004, Marder revisited the notorious Jenny McCarthy Candie’s campaign, this time with singer Kelly Clarkson, right. “I’m a big believer in ‘sexy sells,’ but I’m often marketing to young girls,” says Marder, who has three children of her own. “I don’t want to be offensive, but I want to provoke, and create a conversation.” ABOVE:the Hudgens campaign. she sat down to write a press release, she realized she knew what its components needed to be because she’d learned them in class. The provocative nature of her work is her own, though: a 2009 campaign for London Fog showed pregnant supermodel Gisele Bündchen naked in a half-open trench coat, her nipples barely concealed under a slender corporate logo. The ads were too racy to appear in China and Dubai, but they attracted plenty of attention in the United States—which was, after all, the point. “I don’t want to be offensive,” Marder says, “but I want to provoke, and create a conversation.” These days, that conversation often takes place online, with fans—and haters—voicing their opinions on blogs and social media sites. As a marketer, Marder is both attuned to digital media—she will, she says, spend hours reading “pages and pages” of online comments about the company’s brands, and the celebrities who represent them—and determined to capitalize on its growing importance as a means of communicating with consumers. For example, Marder says she learned a lot about fans of tabloid fixture Britney Spears, who has been the somewhat controversial face of Candie’s for the past two years, by reading their Twitter posts. In fact, Candie’s spring 2011 campaign, featuring High School Musical star Vanessa

Hudgens, was inspired by the spontaneity and candor of Twitter. Rather than presenting a formal, full-page shot of Hudgens in her Candie’s gear, Marder opted for a fold-out ad with 15 photos, many annotated with Hudgens’s off-the-cuff remarks. In one picture, Hudgens stands on the counter of a diner, making a goofy face for the camera. In another, she appears in front of a clothes rack full of the stylist’s picks; the handwritten caption says, “I took this look home with me.” The entire series, which will appear in Vogue, recalls the sense of intimacy and insider access that consumers get from a celebrity’s Twitter feed or Facebook page.

As digita l media, and social networking in particular, become more important, Marder sees them taking a more prominent role in marketing. “It’s totally changed everything we do,” she says. Marder makes sure her staff of marketing and public relations professionals saves materials from every campaign she oversees for possible distribution across social media. And she is eager to leverage the large online followings that many celebrities bring with them to the brands they represent. Those fans can be useful in many contexts. Last November, for instance, Marder tapped

Bristol Palin, Sarah Palin’s daughter, and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, of MTV’s reality show Jersey Shore, to star in an online video for The Candie’s Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing teen pregnancy. (Palin, who had a son out of wedlock as a teenager, is a spokesperson for the group.) Both Palin and Sorrentino have legions of online followers, and the piece, which was both humorous and edgy—at one point, Sorrentino offers Palin, who promotes abstinence, a Trojan Magnum, “just in case”—immediately went viral. Thus far, it has registered nearly one billion views. This spring, Marder hopes to have Spears introduce Hudgens to her ten million Facebook friends and Twitter followers as the new face of Candie’s, even before the story breaks in more traditional media. There’s nothing controversial in this move: Hudgens is as clean-cut a starlet as one might find. But as Marder is quick to point out, controversy is not an end unto itself, but only a tool for attracting attention. “Our whole job here is to drive to retail, and to have people buy our brands,” she says. That goal is best served by using the right tools for the job, given the brand that she is working with and the demographic that she wants to reach. And if toilets, half-naked pregnant women, and pumped-up Jersey guys just happen to be the right tools, then so be it. ﬁtnyc.edu/hue

H e r C a r e e r’s IN TH E TO IL ET

, ( but That s a Good Thing)

Dari Marder, Advertising and Communications ’84, creates scandalous ads for Iconix By Alexander Gelfand

Claudio Papapietro

In the late 1980s, when acid-washed

hue | spring 2011

Hello, Gorgeous

J ewe l ry + photogra phy = Alu mni E x travaga nz a

SCOTT KAY

BY GREG HERBOWY

Y U P A D E E ’ 9 7 (she prefers to

you want to get Scott Kay worked up, suggest to him that jewelry is, as a personal

use her first name only) has been

statement, secondary to clothes. “I put a lot of attention into making my work worthwhile

interested in jewelry since her

and meaningful,” says the 26-year veteran designer, who studied at FIT. “I am not in the

childhood in Bangkok, where her

afterthought business.”

parents took her to Buddhist and Hindu temples. She was fascinated

In that spirit, Hue decided to present a feature showcasing jewelry alone, a selection

with the jewelry on the representa-

of precious objects as individual as the five alumni who created them. To ensure the work was as brilliant

tions of the gods—“nose rings, arm

on the page as in person, we turned to Carole Beaupré, Advertising Design ’91, and Pauline Rochas,

bands, bracelets. I was curious why

Photography ’98, whose business, Coolife Studio, specializes in high-definition product imagery for

they wore all this.” Fittingly, her

clients like Estée Lauder, Moët & Chandon, and Reebok.

award-winning work, available via Connecticut’s Grünberger Jewelers,

As different in aesthetics and methods as these designers are, they nonetheless share

aspires to otherworldliness. What

more than an alma mater. All have exacting standards; all evince pride in their craftsmanship.

does she design? “Anything I haven’t

At his Brooklyn studio, Joseph Murray shapes each wax model of his earrings, necklaces,

seen done before.” She also likes to

and bracelets himself, while at Donna Distefano’s Manhattan atelier, customers

mix “common” and “refined”

browse finished pieces as she and her employees tend to works-in-progress

materials, as in the ring seen here.

behind the counters.

Abalone shell ring with Tahitian

This creativity and obsessiveness spill over into their other

pearls, pavé diamonds, and platinum

endeavors. The designer Yupadee arrived at Coolife wearing a

beads; yupadeedesigns.com.

chain-link scarf she’d knit herself, a design so flawlessly executed that strangers have asked where they could buy one. Geoffrey Good does his own product photography; rarely do someone else’s images satisfy him. And Kay recently spent a vacation in Naples, Italy, studying the art of cameo sculpture—relief carvings on small pieces of shell or stone—at the elbow of renowned craftsmen.

S C O T T K A Y studied at FIT in the late ’70s and apprenticed with designer Henry Dunay before starting his own business in 1984. His rings,

“I came back so inspired,” he says, “I had shells shipped

cufflinks, and bracelets can be gothic, refined, or biker-chic; if given only

home and started sculpting immediately. I can’t hold a candle

one material to work with, he says he’d choose silver. Often credited with

to those guys—not yet—but that’s what makes it special. I’ll keep working at it.”

reviving platinum’s popularity, which had fallen after a WWII-era ban

YUPADEE

on nonmilitary use, he’s recently promoted two more affordable metals, palladium and cobalt: “Precious commodities are the enemy of art.”

PHOTOGRAPHY “ Guardian” hand-engraved stainless steel bracelet; hand-engraved stainless steel ring, with hand-set diamonds and black sapphires, from

Carole Beaupré and Pauline Rochas, Coolife Studio

hue | spring 2011

the Faith collection; scottkay.com.

ﬁtnyc.edu/hue

Hello, Gorgeous

J ewe l ry + photogra phy = Alu mni E x travaga nz a

SCOTT KAY

BY GREG HERBOWY

Y U P A D E E ’ 9 7 (she prefers to

you want to get Scott Kay worked up, suggest to him that jewelry is, as a personal

use her first name only) has been

statement, secondary to clothes. “I put a lot of attention into making my work worthwhile

interested in jewelry since her

and meaningful,” says the 26-year veteran designer, who studied at FIT. “I am not in the

childhood in Bangkok, where her

afterthought business.”

parents took her to Buddhist and Hindu temples. She was fascinated

In that spirit, Hue decided to present a feature showcasing jewelry alone, a selection

with the jewelry on the representa-

of precious objects as individual as the five alumni who created them. To ensure the work was as brilliant

tions of the gods—“nose rings, arm

on the page as in person, we turned to Carole Beaupré, Advertising Design ’91, and Pauline Rochas,

bands, bracelets. I was curious why

Photography ’98, whose business, Coolife Studio, specializes in high-definition product imagery for

they wore all this.” Fittingly, her

clients like Estée Lauder, Moët & Chandon, and Reebok.

award-winning work, available via Connecticut’s Grünberger Jewelers,

As different in aesthetics and methods as these designers are, they nonetheless share

aspires to otherworldliness. What

more than an alma mater. All have exacting standards; all evince pride in their craftsmanship.

does she design? “Anything I haven’t

At his Brooklyn studio, Joseph Murray shapes each wax model of his earrings, necklaces,

seen done before.” She also likes to

and bracelets himself, while at Donna Distefano’s Manhattan atelier, customers

mix “common” and “refined”

browse finished pieces as she and her employees tend to works-in-progress

materials, as in the ring seen here.

behind the counters.

Abalone shell ring with Tahitian

This creativity and obsessiveness spill over into their other

pearls, pavé diamonds, and platinum

endeavors. The designer Yupadee arrived at Coolife wearing a

beads; yupadeedesigns.com.

S C O T T K A Y studied at FIT in the late ’70s and apprenticed with designer Henry Dunay before starting his own business in 1984. His rings,

“I came back so inspired,” he says, “I had shells shipped

cufflinks, and bracelets can be gothic, refined, or biker-chic; if given only

home and started sculpting immediately. I can’t hold a candle

one material to work with, he says he’d choose silver. Often credited with

to those guys—not yet—but that’s what makes it special. I’ll keep working at it.”

reviving platinum’s popularity, which had fallen after a WWII-era ban

YUPADEE

on nonmilitary use, he’s recently promoted two more affordable metals, palladium and cobalt: “Precious commodities are the enemy of art.”

PHOTOGRAPHY “ Guardian” hand-engraved stainless steel bracelet; hand-engraved stainless steel ring, with hand-set diamonds and black sapphires, from

Carole Beaupré and Pauline Rochas, Coolife Studio

hue | spring 2011

the Faith collection; scottkay.com.

ﬁtnyc.edu/hue

D o n n a D i ste fa n o ’ 8 2 used to replicate jewelry masterworks as a Metropolitan Museum of Art senior goldsmith, and looks to the past for her design cues. Many of her gems are rose cut rather than brilliant cut, for a classic, less flashy look, and she even incorporates images from Renaissance paintings into her work—the face on the pendant here is from Ghirlandaio’s Portrait of a Lady. No surprise, then, that her business is also known for restoration. In 2010, New York magazine named her best for jewelry repair. Multicolored sapphire and 18-karat gold “Romano” bracelet; 22-karat gold “Portrait of a Lady” pendant; pink sapphire, rose-cut diamond, and 18-karat gold “Christine” ring; donnadistefanoltd.com.

J oseph M urray

D o n n a D i ste f a n o

G E O FF E R Y G O O D

J oseph M urray ’8 2 is new to entrepreneurship but an old hand at design. For years he was a staff and freelance designer, gathering knowledge of the industry’s business side along the way. He launched his signature line—elegant, ocean-inspired pieces in 18-karat gold and a variety of gems—in 2004. Three years later, he received the

G E O FF R E Y G O O D ’95 was a “flailing” student at a Virginia

Jewelers of America’s Mort Abelson New Designer of the Year Award.

university until he stumbled upon jewelry design in a glassworks class.

Going solo “changed my life,” Murray says. “The other jobs paid great,

He made a piece for future wife Shauna Hammer, Fashion Merchandis-

but this is what I’m passionate about.”

ing Management, and people raved. Good pursues his craft with an omnivorous appetite—he’ll as soon work with agate and wood as he

South Sea pearl, diamond, and 18-karat gold necklace and earrings;

will with diamonds and gold—and a perfectionism he calls “a kind of

josephmurrayjewelry.com.

sickness.” FIT hopes it’s contagious: Good is also an associate professor of Jewelry Design. Sliced agate, rose-cut diamond, and 18-karat white gold-palladium “Hex Agate” necklace; chalcedony and hand-carved black ebony “Swirl” ring; geoffreygood.com.

hue | spring 2011

ﬁtnyc.edu/hue

J oseph M urray

D o n n a D i ste f a n o

G E O FF E R Y G O O D

G E O FF R E Y G O O D ’95 was a “flailing” student at a Virginia

Jewelers of America’s Mort Abelson New Designer of the Year Award.

university until he stumbled upon jewelry design in a glassworks class.

Going solo “changed my life,” Murray says. “The other jobs paid great,

He made a piece for future wife Shauna Hammer, Fashion Merchandis-

but this is what I’m passionate about.”

ing Management, and people raved. Good pursues his craft with an omnivorous appetite—he’ll as soon work with agate and wood as he

South Sea pearl, diamond, and 18-karat gold necklace and earrings;

will with diamonds and gold—and a perfectionism he calls “a kind of

josephmurrayjewelry.com.

hue | spring 2011

ﬁtnyc.edu/hue

COMING INTO FOCUS a student in first person

Julia Volonts Advertising and Marketing Communications ’11 Graduation’s coming. Any post-college plans? I’d like to work in film. I’ve had three film internships, one in distribution and two in production, and I’ve done some freelance transcribing and subtitling for documentaries. Right now I’m a freelance production assistant. Last fall I worked on a video for the National Museum of Hip-Hop. I helped with casting and wrote the call sheets, which list everyone who needs to be on set, when they need to be there, and their contact information. What sorts of movies do you like? I like Todd Solondz. He made Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness. I like watching old Bollywood clips on YouTube. I like mumblecore. Mumblecore? Mumblecore films are, like, movies about people just out of college trying to figure out what to do with their lives, and usually they don’t figure it out. I heard you went to Latvia last summer. I’ve been there four times. My dad’s Latvian and has family in Riga, the capital. He’s also an administrator for BOCES*,

Naked Truth

so when he found out there was an international conference in Riga on teaching children with special needs, he

Meredith Gray ’79 chronicled her experience with cancer in a film and a book By Robin Catalano

was like, “Let’s go!” We conducted a session. What was it about? The importance of hands-on learning. I have attention

deficit disorder and in high school my dad suggested I take a BOCES fashion merchandising and design course, and I really liked it. It’s frustrating, because I think American public education doesn’t always provide the resources to let kids who venture from the norm, kids who are awesome and creative and have so much to contribute, grow. What’s your history with ADD been like? I was diagnosed in second grade—the teacher called me the Happy Wanderer, because I was always daydreaming— and I took medication until I was 12, when I decided to just be myself. I’ve gone to FIT-ABLE, FIT’s Office of Disability Support Services, a couple of times to talk about possible test-taking accommodations, like more time or a room to myself. But my attention deficit is manageable. I don’t see it as a bad thing. It’s never kept me from doing anything, and I’ve got a lot of interests. Such as? I’ve played the cello since I was six. I really like ambient

juliavolonts.tumblr.com. *Boards of Cooperative Educational Services, a New York State initiative providing career training, professional development programs, and services for students with disabilities.

hue | spring 2011

Claudia Hehr

where I post my collage art and stop-motion films. It’s

Matthew Septimus

sound and classical and electronic music. And I keep a blog

eredith Gray remembers the day she received her second

Gray through the many surgical consultations, the seemingly endless phone

diagnosis of breast cancer. She says, “The nurses told me not

calls with her new insurance company, four surgeries (including bilateral

to leave and not to put my clothes on. They took me into the

mastectomy and reconstruction), five grueling months of chemotherapy, and,

radiologist’s office, and I felt like I was being sent to the

most personal for her, the loss of her hair. Through it all, she is defiant and

principal’s office.”

almost relentlessly upbeat. “She’s so strong and positive,” Hehr says. “She

After learning that she had developed aggressive HER2+ cancer in the

made a decision not to feel sorry for herself. She joked all the way until they

left breast, Gray broke down in tears—not because she feared death, but

closed the door to the operating room.”

because she had lost her health insurance and knew she faced a steep uphill

Both the documentary and especially the book, which features sensitive,

battle. Having allowed herself to be passively led through treatment three

evocative black-and-white images, put a different face on breast cancer, and

years before, during her first experience with cancer (a noninvasive form, in

allow Gray and her collaborators to examine cultural definitions of beauty.

the right breast), she got proactive in a rather unusual way.

She explains, “You see how women are put on pedestals because of their

Gray, a journalist and fashion stylist, has worked at prestigious fashion

bodies and how much their physical attributes play a role in our society.

publications, including Vogue, Glamour, and Harper’s Bazaar, with the likes

Women’s breasts are everywhere. . . I helped perpetuate that for years.

of Marc Jacobs and Hervé Léger. From 1989 to 1996, she served as editor in

A girl comes to the set with no makeup on and she’s flat-chested, but by the

chief of Vogue Patterns, a home-sewing reference, and later was a freelance

time she’s done, she’s reconstructed.”

stylist for catalog clients such as Macy’s and White House|Black Market.

Gray completed her treatment in December 2009 and is now cancer-free,

“I started researching and calling everyone,” she says. “I knew what could

feeling great, and using her experiences—through public speaking, mentoring,

be done if you spread the word.” She kicked into investigative gear, enlisting

and her website, naked-documentary.com—to inspire other women to take

the help of Claudia Hehr, a German-born photographer based in New York

charge of their health care and redefine beauty. “I’m in better shape now than

City. Gray contacted a variety of filmmakers, and ultimately chose Roynn Lisa

I was at 25,” she laughs. “It’s treating the whole—body, mind, and soul. When

Simmons, an eight-time Emmy Award winner, to document her journey. The

you bring all of that together, it’s like you’re creating yourself.” She pauses in

resulting film and book are both called Naked.

thought, then finishes, “That’s not to say that it won’t come back. And I’m

The film, which appeared on Lifetime on Demand, and the book follow

fully prepared for it if it does.”