Hue Magazine Spring Issue

VOLUME 14 | NUMBER 2 | SPRING 2021

The Magazine of the Fashion Institute of Technology

2020: THE YEAR IN PICTURES

On the Cover Student Maiya Imani Wright ’21 captured this photograph as a protester was being treated by student doctors and nurses after being pepper-sprayed by police in Brooklyn in May 2020.

“I witnessed everyone jumping in with first-aid kits, student doctors and nurses all coming together,” she says. “I see it as ‘Look what they are doing to us Black people and our allies, peacefully protesting, trying to make a change.’ And, ‘Look how the young people can all come together to protect each other, regardless of race.’” The photo was published in New York magazine. For more photographs that document last year’s struggles, turn to page 16 for “2020: The Year in Pictures.”

The Magazine of the Fashion Institute of Technology Hue is for alumni and friends of FIT, a college of art and design, business and technology. It is published three times a year by the Division of Communications and External Relations, 227 West 27th Street, Room B905, New York, NY 10001-5992, (212) 217-4700.

Vice President for Communications and External Relations Loretta Lawrence Keane

Assistant Vice President for Communications Carol Leven

Editorial Director Linda Angrilli

Chief Storyteller Alex Joseph MA ’15

Managing Editor Jonathan Vatner

Copyeditor Laura Hatmaker

Photography Coordinator Smiljana Peros

Art Direction and Design Gary Tooth/Empire Design Studio Hue online: hue.fitnyc.edu Email: hue@fitnyc.edu FIT Newsroom: news.fitnyc.edu

Bookmark us!

Check out the redesigned Hue online (hue.fitnyc.edu) to see the current issue plus web-only extras—including the archive of Hue Live, a series of revealing conversations with prominent alumni. If you missed the episodes with illustrator Sam Kalda MFA ’14; Kae Burke, Fashion Design ’08, co-founder of the House of Yes; and Tanya Meléndez-Escalante MA ’04, senior curator of education and public programs at The Museum at FIT, head to the website to watch them.

Like the FIT Alumni page on Facebook and follow @FITAlumni on Twitter and Instagram. Use #FITAlumni when posting.

Email the Office of Alumni Engagement and Giving at alumnirelations@fitnyc.edu and let us know what you’ve been up to.

Printed by Grand Meridian Printing on Rolland Enviro Print This paper is: Ancient Forest Friendly Made with 100 percent postconsumer waste Processed Chlorine Free Produced using biogas energy Environmental savings as compared to paper using 100 percent virgin fiber: 136 trees preserved 131,195 gallons of water saved 13,422 lbs of waste not generated 44,099 lbs of CO2 not generated 113 MMBTUs of energy not consumed 57 lbs of nitrous oxide gas prevented Please recycle or share this magazine.

You Spoke

We Listened

We love hearing your responses to Hue stories—but we don’t get enough!

Email, social media, even snail mail—they’re all welcome.

In response to a video story we produced about how students are using 3D imaging software for fashion, Valerie Crawford-Schiele, Marketing: Fashion and Related Industries ’94, wrote: “Wow! So much has changed since my career in the fashion industry. Buyers can buy for their clients from anywhere in the world. No longer a need to be physically present which can be good (no need to travel ... saves time and money) and bad. Actual personal interaction can’t be duplicated and the inability to actually feel fabric, overall garment construction, buttons, zippers, etc., and view pieces up close are liabilities.”

Perhaps no single post garnered more feedback than the image of Lady Gaga wearing a dress by Daniel Roseberry ’08 for Schiaparelli (see page 4).

Most comments were ecstatic. A typical one, from Susan Schreiber Klein, Interior Design ’83: “As a proud graduate of FIT, let me add to the praise. Lady Gaga was spectacular, as was her gown. FIT continues to turn out great designers year after year.”

The outfit had its detractors, however. Some thought the skirt should have been Democratic blue, not Republican red. Some saw a reference to the louche outfits in the Hunger Games films.

Others were more direct, like Judy Alape Shulze, who just wrote, “Nope.”

Features 6

8

Departments

Returning to Her Roots Amid the pandemic, an MFIT curator mounts a show in Mexico

16 2020: The Year in Pictures Riveting moments from a truly unpredictable year

Max Meyer: A Hidden History Discover a founder of FIT who brought Paris fashion to American women

24 Fifteen Seconds to Fame How marketers are tapping into TikTok

10 The Pandemic Pivot: Six Student Stories Quarantine or no, they persisted

4

Hue’s News

7

Retail Spotlight

28 Alumni Notables 31 What Inspires You?

Above: This image, by Alex Golshani ’16, of New York–based activist Livia Rose Johnson protesting the president on July 14, his birthday, was published on the cover of The Point, a renowned literary magazine. On page 16, we compiled a portfolio of stunning images by alumni, faculty, and a student, printed in top publications, to tell the story of an unforgettable year.

hue’s news

Susan Walsh/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images

hue’s news

We’re Going Gaga Over This Inauguration Ensemble To sing “The Star-spangled Banner” at President Biden’s inauguration in January, Lady Gaga made a jaw-dropping entrance in an outfit designed by Daniel Roseberry ’08, creative director of the venerable fashion house Schiaparelli. Her fitted navy cashmere jacket and voluminous red silk faille skirt were punctuated by an enormous gilded brooch in the form of a dove, symbolizing peace.

“As an American living in Paris, this ensemble is a love letter to the country I miss so dearly and to a performer whose artistry I have so long admired,” Roseberry said in a statement.

Elsewhere on the stage, Vice President Harris’ great-nieces wore matching coats by Sydney Hawes ’08, based on a leopard coat Harris wore as a child. Visit FIT’s School of Art and Design Blog (blog.fitnyc.edu/artanddesign) to learn more.

FIT Team Places in International Data Analytics Competition A team of FIT students took third place in the Adobe Analytics Challenge, an annual competition in which students crunch real data from major corporations and make business recommendations. Team Flash—Fashion Business Management seniors Muskaan Arora, Joyce Ishikawa, and Sofia Simoniello—stood out from more than 1,600 entrants from around the world, winning $6,000. The other five finalist teams hailed from major research institutions such as the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and UCLA Anderson School of Management. Maria Hwang, assistant professor of Computer Science, advised the team.

Students analyzed usage data from Nike’s e-commerce platform and mobile app, using the Adobe Analytics platform, and made recommendations for improving sales.

A slide from the students’ presentation.

All three students had taken Hwang’s class in machine learning, a field in which data is harnessed to train algorithms that predict future behaviors. They also participated in an informal summer course Hwang offered in data science and analytics, a related field in which data is mined for insights into the consumer.

Machine learning and data science are becoming essential skills for the fashion industry, as sales forecasting becomes ever more precise to reduce inventory and maximize profits.

PANDEMIC-ERA PROGRAMMING

Professors Adapt to Remote Teaching

Though in-person gatherings are still on hold, there has never been a better time for alumni and friends of FIT to learn from and participate in online events. A few highlights:

When in-person classes were halted in March 2020, faculty scrambled to reinvent their curricula for remote delivery. They came up with creative solutions, especially for hands-on courses.

In TY 421: Advanced Hard Toy Design and Engineering, students typically build prototypes of hard toys in FIT’s stateof-the-art lab, but when classes moved online, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Judith Ellis and her team substituted 3D printing for lab work.

Faculty member Joseph Masibay and James Pearce, manager of the Innovative Technology and Digital Production Group, showed students how to digitally model their toys in SolidWorks. Then, using a new industrial-grade high-resolution 3D printer, Pearce’s team produced and mailed toy parts to the students, allowing them to present a fully functioning toy vehicle by semester’s end. “We’ll never go back to teaching the way we did,” Ellis says.

The Museum at FIT’s many Fashion Culture Online programs included Dr. Valerie Steele’s talks with Haitian-Italian designer Stella Jean, Nepalese-American designer Prabal Gurung, and Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Robin Givhan.

The Art and Design Gallery presented a slate of live talks by artists, including Judith Braun ’67, who creates intricate drawings using her fingers, and Thaddeus Coates ’18, who has used his talent and platform to raise awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement.

FIT observed Black History Month with numerous events. Piper Anderson, founder and president of Create Forward, a firm that advances equity and justice, addressed the link between slavery and mass incarceration and read poems that complemented her remarks.

Chef Essence K. White led a soul food cooking demonstration. And the Black Student Union presented its Back to the Present virtual art exhibition, which compared activism, police brutality, and racism from the 1960s and 2020 through the lens of Black artists.

The FIT Foundation puts on monthly conversations with high-profile alumni like Dayna Isom Johnson ’07 and Chris Bevans. Donors in the Friends of FIT membership group get early access. Visit impact.fitnyc.edu/FriendsOfFIT to learn more.

The 15th annual Sustainable Business and Design Conference takes place April 13–22.

Visit fitnyc.edu/sustainability to watch presentations by Eileen Fisher and Stacy Flynn ’92, co-founder of Evrnu, a company that produces fibers from discarded clothing.

Marie Wu, Toy Design ‘21, created a 3D-printed armadillo xylophone.

Stoll knitting machines; a custom-built box held an iPad above Grealish-Forino while she operated the equipment.

They also mailed students yarn kits to teach them to knit and apply trims by hand.

To make final garments, the team programmed the Stoll machines according to students’ specifications, then mailed them the pieces to be assembled at home.

“They ultimately did finish their garments,” Grealish-Forino says. “We really pulled it off.”

For Lori Massaro, professor of Fashion Business Management, it was easy to move her courses in Computer-Aided Product Development (FM 341 and 441) online. Most of the technology used in the curriculum is cloud-based, and the lab component became more streamlined when students could share files and receive feedback seamlessly. The shift to remote meetings mirrored the same shift by industry, a change that experts predict will linger after the pandemic. In other words, according to Massaro, students need to learn on a virtual platform to be better prepared for the workforce. Collaborating remotely, she says, “I find we get a more personal connection.”

Prior to the pandemic, Jean Marc Rejaud, professor of Advertising and Marketing Communications, had been setting up partnerships with institutions to help raise FIT’s profile in the advertising industry. He trained members of the Association of National Advertisers in shopper marketing and taught at ISCOM, a college in France specializing in communications and advertising. When COVID-19 struck, he taught these seminars remotely—and then applied lessons learned to his FIT courses.

Rejaud found that attention spans are shorter on digital platforms, so he broke up his lectures with frequent polls and small-group discussions. This meant he couldn’t cover the material as quickly, but he supplemented class time with videos that students watched in between classes.

He also met with students individually, to reduce the distance brought on by remote learning. One benefit of teaching online is that he can easily bring in speakers from around the world.

Check out the FIT Newsroom calendar at news.fitnyc.edu/events for videos of past events and to see what’s coming up.

In TS 461: Weft Knit Fabrication and Finishing Techniques, Fashion Design students usually learn how to operate the industrial machines in FIT’s Knitting Lab. Marian Grealish-Forino, adjunct assistant professor of Textile Development and Marketing, and technologists Kathryn Malik and Bernd Wyss worked to replicate that experience for students at home.

Through trial and error, they recorded demonstrations on the large, complex

A team of faculty led by Theanne Schiros, assistant professor of Science, received a $144,000 grant from the Hearst Foundations to design a comfortable garment that holds breast-cancer-detecting technology, developed by Columbia University, to allow patients to monitor their tumors from home.

Ann Coppinger, senior conservator at The Museum at FIT, is principal investigator in a project to identify toxic materials in the museum’s collections and to create a nationally available resource manual for museums. The Institute of Library and Museum Sciences awarded the project a $170,000 grant.

Art/Works: Teaching Labor and Capitalism in Art and Design, April 8–9, is a conference that will help faculty incorporate labor history into curricula. The conference is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and is open to the public. Sign up at businesshistory.fitnyc.edu.

CENTRAL PARK BIRDER CHRISTIAN COOPER SPEAKS AT DIVERSITY COMIC CON Millions were outraged in May of last year when a woman called the cops on Central Park birdwatcher Christian Cooper, claiming, “An African-American man is threatening my life.” Cooper had asked her to leash her dog, as the rules required. The confrontation, which happened the same day as the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, was an example of the kind of harassment and racism Black people face on a regular basis and which sometimes leads to violence.

Cooper, a gay Black editor who used to write for DC Comics, joined with artist Alitha E. Martinez to create It’s a Bird, a comic inspired by the incident. It’s now the first installment in DC’s Represent!, an inclusive anthology series. They spoke about the comic at FIT’s third annual Diversity Comic Con, a conference and marketplace highlighting multicultural comic creators that took place virtually Oct. 16 and 17. The discussion was organized by adjunct faculty member Ramon Gil and Jennifer Fuglevand, marketing events manager at DC Entertainment.

In Cooper’s story, when a boy looks at birds through his magic binoculars, he sees historical scenes of police brutality against Black citizens. At the same time, he experiences racism while birding. A female dog owner accosts him, echoing what happened to Cooper. In the comic, however, the boy walks away, and her voice fades into the background. Cooper made a deliberate choice not to focus the story on her. “It’s not about the crazy white lady,” he says. “It’s about those we have lost and how we keep from losing any more.”

QUICK READ

FIT Design Entrepreneurs, a free “mini-MBA” program for emerging designers, came to a close last year after eight years helping 200 participants take their businesses to the next level.

4

Spring 2021

Alexander Nagel, chair of Art History and Museum Professions, co-edited Cave and Worship in Ancient Greece (Routledge, 2021), the first major contribution to understanding the material cultures and importance of cave sanctuaries in the first millennium BCE Mediterranean.

Presidential Scholar, orientation leader, and residential advisor Ava Pina, Advertising and Marketing Communications ’21, won the Norman R. McConney, Jr., Award for Student Excellence, which honors students in SUNY’s Educational Opportunity Program.

FIT has recently been ranked the number one fashion school in the country by College Magazine, Prep Scholar, and Best Value Schools.

hue.fitnyc.edu

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retail spotlight

FROM BRICKS TO CLICKS In the midst of a challenging 2020, a Florida boutique transitions to online

BY VANESSA MACHIR

BY IVANA CEPEDA ’10

6

Spring 2021

The collaboration came about in 2019, after MeléndezEscalante, a native of Mexico City, interviewed the Francos as part of a panel discussion. MAZ Museum Director Vivianna Kuri proposed that she curate an exhibition about Julia y Renata.

“In my current role at MFIT, I hadn’t done installation in a really long time,” she says. “I forgot how much I loved it, being able to touch garments and be hands-on.”

Mounting an exhibition in a pandemic presented many challenges. Garment selection was done through Zoom, and garments on loan could be accepted only from local lenders and collectors, as they feared that pieces could not be shipped in time. While MeléndezEscalante oversaw the final stages of the installation in Guadalajara, a curfew severely limited the hours the team could work. Everything shut down at 7 pm, and people couldn’t leave their homes at all on the weekends.

Her perspective remains consistent across her work as an educator and an exhibition curator. “I am always thinking about the person who is new to the subject matter as well as the scholar. You want to educate, inform, and delight. It is important to give everyone points of entry, make the content accessible, giving people interesting bits that spark their curiosity and make them want more.”

Courtesy of Lilac and Lilies

An MFIT curator plans an exhibition in Mexico

Above: Renata Franco, Julia Franco, and Tanya MeléndezEscalante celebrated a successful exhibition opening in November. Below left: Meléndez dressing mannequins for the show.

Itzel Hernández/courtesy of MAZ

Returning to Her Roots

As senior curator of education and public programs at The Museum at FIT, Tanya Meléndez-Escalante, Museum Studies: Costume and Textiles ’04, connects exhibition curators and fashion designers to create dynamic learning experiences. For a recent exhibition at the Museo de Arte de Zapopan (MAZ) in Guadalajara, Mexico, though, she seized the opportunity to curate the show herself.

Her show, Julia y Renata: Moda y Transformación (Julia y Renata: Fashion and Transformation), tells the story of Julia and Renata Franco, Guadalajara-born sisters and designers of the label Julia y Renata, which plays with silhouettes and shapes, structure and drape.

Guadalajara, the second largest city in Mexico, is a creative hub—home to architects, designers, musicians, painters, and curators.

Meléndez-Escalante has admired the Franco sisters’ avant-garde, feminist approach for a long time. “They believe you can wear what you want and determine what is sexy and what is not,” she says. “They have been very influential for other young Mexican designers.”

To capture their artistry, garments were displayed flat on the walls, like paintings. Others were hung from a cubic wooden structure.

The exhibition, which ran from November 6, 2020, to February 14, 2021, was organized and designed entirely by women—which Meléndez-Escalante calls “a happy coincidence,” indicative of the growing number of women in leadership positions across industries.

For many kids, summer vacation means lazy days.

Michelle DiMarco, however, spent her childhood breaks learning how to be a boss. “I grew up seeing how a small business operates,” she says of her family’s lawn mower repair and retail company.

“My mom would pick us up and we would go to the store. We never really went away to camp.”

After college, DiMarco got her start in retail working for companies like Wet Seal and Liz Claiborne, but she envisioned a more independent future. “I could never see myself working for anyone else, in part because of my family background,” she says.

She enrolled in FIT’s Creative Enterprise Ownership program in 2008 and opened her Fort Lauderdale boutique, Lilac and Lilies, in 2009. Her merchandise reflects her attention to quality and trends without sacrificing affordability; nearly 90 percent of her items retail for under $100. She carries both established brands and Etsy finds, like necklaces made out of vintage Chanel buttons.

DiMarco’s original plan was to concentrate on e-commerce sales, but she launched her brickand-mortar location and website simultaneously.

“What took a lot of my time and energy was the storefront,” she says. “I ended up turning the website into a blog featuring inspiring women, and then we kept on growing the store.”

During the COVID-19 lockdown, however, “I had time to take a step back and assess the direction I wanted to go in,” she says. “The universe was telling me to focus on e-commerce … and I was ready to do it.”

DiMarco converted her storefront into an appointment-only showroom and is expanding her

website to reach a larger market. Previously, she featured about 60 percent of products on her site, and the majority of sales came from her storefront.

Now she’s working with a small team to transition her full inventory online while also overseeing photoshoots, marketing, and public relations.

Part of a successful transition is improved inventory management and more compressed scheduling. Previously, she’d shoot product and then have descriptive copy written. “By the time an item was ready [for online listing], I had already sold three to four of that item in the storefront.”

But now, she ensures that the description is written in advance so that the listing can go online the day an item arrives.

To support sales, she’s recently introduced a rewards program where customers receive redeemable points for shopping or even sharing purchases on Facebook. Another popular addition is “WineDown Wednesday” on Instagram and Facebook Live.

DiMarco and her manager feature different products and promotions (while drinking wine, of course), and offer 20 percent off purchases for 24 hours.

She’s also launching an affiliate program.

Applicants, once approved, get commissions on the products they sell. “We don’t necessarily have to ship them products. They can take images from our website or we can send them a Dropbox link of items to feature during that week.”

“It’s crazy, like opening up another business,” DiMarco says of her e-commerce transition. But she always keeps lessons learned from her family’s business in mind. “The grind is very real, but you have to stay super focused and have a can-do attitude.”

BEST SELLER DiMarco says her ideal customer “wants to look put together, but yet also needs [her wardrobe] to be functional.” Pictured here are the popular Shore Transitional Romper and Buddy Love Snakeskin Maxi.

hue.fitnyc.edu

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Conservation for Context How a grad student made one coat exhibition-ready

I

MAX MEYER: A HIDDEN HISTORY An online exhibition about one of FIT’s founders shows how French fashions crossed the Atlantic

BY ALEX JOSEPH ’15

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Spring 2021

n the first decades of the 20th century, French fashion reigned supreme, and New York followed its dictates. A new virtual exhibition sheds light on this relationship, and the early career of one of FIT’s founders, Max Meyer (1876–1953).

Meyer’s family immigrated to New York from Alsace, France, when he was a boy. When he was a teenager, his brother-in-law, women’s coat and suit manufacturer Abraham Beller, hired him to sweep snow off the sidewalk and do other menial work. Meyer worked his way up to the position of buyer at age 21, and by World War I, he was traveling to Paris twice a year for A. Beller & Co. There, Meyer’s first language proved useful: His French helped him gain entry into the elite couture salons. Like other buyers, he purchased sketches of the latest styles; A. Beller then manufactured these licensed looks for American women.

In the early 1950s, Meyer donated nearly 9,000 of the watercolor and ink sketches, representing work from top fashion houses, including Chanel, Lanvin, Poiret, and Worth, to what is now known as FIT’s Special Collections and College Archives (SPARC) in the Gladys Marcus Library. For the exhibition, SPARC staff curated a selection of some 200 illustrations. To evoke the period, students from the MA program in Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice curated and conserved 14 garments that resembled sketches in the show. These outfits, chosen from a collection of historic fashion pieces used for graduate study, mirror the drawings’ styles and history.

“He was a very good buyer,” says Lourdes Font, professor and acting chair of the MA program, who has studied all 9,000 sketches. “They depict the best of fashion from the early 20th century.” Though commercial in nature, the drawings convey the accomplishment of their anonymous artists through delicate, sinuous lines and whimsical details.

Meyer retired from A. Beller as a partner in 1929. He went on to become a noted labor leader for the garment industry, serving as a mediator for disputes over minimum wage, worker’s compensation, and working conditions, among other issues. He co-founded what became the Central High School of Needle Trades in 1940, and FIT in 1944, and he served as the college’s president from 1952 to 1953.

“He was a very good person, someone we should be proud of at FIT,” says Font, who researched Meyer’s papers at Cornell University’s Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation. His passion for the college and high school originated from a personal place. “He never forgot his early days, when lack of education was an obstacle, and he dedicated his life to making it available to others.”

Meyer’s family emigrated to New York from Europe in part so he could avoid compulsory service in the Prussian army.

Meyer may have been the first representative of an American manufacturer to gain entry to the Paris couture salons. Late in life, he wrote that his first language, French, helped him win over a skeptical vendeuse (head of sales at a fashion house).

Above: Like the coat, the outfit in this sketch has contrasting sleeves and hem, and features Easterninspired or so-called “exotic” embellishment.

In his 39-year career as a buyer and executive for A. Beller & Co., Meyer visited Paris 110 times and purchased designs from top couture houses including Worth (spring 1923, opposite page), Chéruit (1915–20, top left), and Chanel (1917, left). “As many of these sketches appear to have been issued from the same hand, it is clear that they did not originate from the couture houses,” the show’s organizers write. “Instead, A. Beller & Co. hired sketch artists to render the specific Paris creations which were to enter their inventory.” The identity of the artists remains a mystery. A. Beller’s adaptations of imported looks, as well as the company’s original designs, retailed at high-end department stores such as Lord & Taylor and B. Altman. They were considered the gold standard for American clothing manufacturers.

Visit Max Meyer and A. Beller & Co: Interpreting a Hidden History of NYC’s Garment District at sparcdigital.fitnyc.edu/exhibits/show/meyer-beller. An in-person version of the show is planned for FIT’s Art and Design Gallery in the next academic year.

Left: The coat lacks a label, and Andreeva wondered if the wearer made it for herself.

Whoever it was, “This embroidery was by someone who knew what they were doing.”

FOR THE EXHIBITION, the show’s organizers paired sketches from the Meyer archive with similar outfits from FIT’s graduate study garment collection, thus setting up a conversation between illustration and outfit. This European or American evening coat, of silk with metallic-thread embroidery, was paired with a Meyer sketch of a spring 1923 Callot Soeurs design to illustrate the theme of exoticism in 1920s fashion.

Graduate student Anya Andreeva conserved the coat for a class project, not knowing it would appear in the show. As she explains in a video on the exhibition website, studying the piece to prepare it for conservation was not unlike getting to know a person: “You learn their weaknesses and their strengths.”

Areas of the green silk were disintegrating, so Andreeva used infills of China silk in a similar color and weight, couched them in conservation stitches, and enclosed them in a layer of net.

The original lining was too weak to be conserved, so she left it in place and covered it with a new one to minimize further damage while maintaining the garment’s appearance.

hue.fitnyc.edu

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PANDEMIC When COVID-19 shut down campus life at FIT, some students,

against all odds, flourished. We asked some of these “students

in the time of corona’’ how they’ve adapted to the pandemic.

BY ALEX JOSEPH ’15

Name: Muskan Manzoor

Major: Fashion Business Management

The Pivot: Stuck at home in Houston,

first-year student Manzoor started writing

for Blush, FIT’s student magazine about

beauty, fashion, and culture. She’s also

found work as a social media manager for

a jewelry company.

How did you first get interested in the fashion industry?

I was born in Brooklyn but I grew up in Bangladesh, and we moved to Texas eight years ago. In Bangladeshi culture you see a lot of rich, ethnic styles, but not high fashion, so here in Houston at first I was like a kid in a candy shop. Then I visited New York, I went to The Met and saw the fashion exhibition there, and I was like, “This is what I want to do.”

10 Spring 2021

Meanwhile, you’ve found a job that’s relevant to your future business degree.

I’m the social media manager for a local jewelry store. Their audience is an older crowd, so I’m learning new strategies for engagement. I already had my own blog, Live With Mimi (that’s my nickname), where I analyze current trends. I’m also really active on social media, so being virtual wasn’t such a big adjustment.

PIVOT And then COVID hit.

When classes first moved online in March, I went home to Florida. Then FIT shut down, and all I had was a suitcase full of clothes and my laptop.

This semester, it’s not horrible, but some things are just not as good online.

We had to build a model in a software program that’s hard to teach well online.

Why did you join the BSU? What does it mean for you personally?

I grew up in predominantly white spaces, so I was looking for a place where I could feel loved and included for the color of my skin. In the BSU, I instantly felt that.

I didn’t need to conform to a stereotype, or filter myself. There’s no sense of competition. We all want the best for each other.

Last spring, you helped organize the Black in Time exhibition, a celebration of Black culture through fashion, featuring work by students, faculty, and alumni, in FIT’s Art and Design Gallery. What was it like?

I was super, super hands-on. I was the director of digital marketing and public relations of FIT’s Black Student Union (now I’m the president), which organized the exhibition, and I helped bring designer Dapper Dan and stylist Misa Hylton to campus. We also held a runway presentation I curated and coordinated called “Fashion Comes to Life.”

own business.

and she’s planning to start her

significant Brooklyn fashion event,

she took on an ambitious role in a

spring ’20 semester, but last fall

The Pivot: Berry had a challenging

Major: Communication Design ’21

Name: Joi Berry

Are you planning to stay in New York after graduation?

It’s kind of the perfect time to kickstart personal projects, with so many apartments available without a broker’s fee or with two months rent free. I signed a lease for the next six months, so that’s very exciting. I’m really good at branding, marketing, and promotion, so I’m starting my own agency to promote inclusivity in the industry. If I want to be an entrepreneur, coordinate fashion shows, curate exhibitions, and go forward with my passion, it means staying here.

During the pandemic, FIT forged a relationship with the National Society of Leadership and Success, which you qualified for. What’s the experience been like?

NSLS trains student leaders on a national level—there are scholarships and job listings, and virtual workshops on how to be a leader and how to be a team player. One was with Suze Orman, the financial advisor. When I was 7 or 8, my mom and I watched her on TV. People would ask her banking questions, and she’d say, “Denied! Next question!”

I love her.

Over the summer, you found a position with Fashion Week Brooklyn.

It started as an internship, but then I got promoted to Young Designers Coordinator. I sourced designers from all around New York. Some were alumni, some were friends, and some were just super talented. It was a virtual fashion show, filmed with drones at an indoor soccer field in Sunset Park in September.

Everyone had to wear a mask.

ALL THE RIGHT MOVES

THE SIX STUDENT STORIES

FIT IN TEXAS

You’ve joined the FIT community as a writer for the student beauty, fashion, culture magazine Blush. What have you written about?

I did a piece about body-positive TikTokers. My favorite was Nabela. She’s Bangladeshi-American, like me, and she’s like the older sister we all wish we had. Her clothing line Zeba, a size-inclusive brand, is all about changing the sizing standard with the message, “You are more than a label.”

Seeing her take on the world of fashion and beauty is inspiring. I can’t wait to be on campus so I can do the Blush photo shoots.

Joshua Villas (FIT Photography Sophomore student @ghast.raw via Instagram) from The Reinvented Agency

I bet you never thought you’d be spending your first semester at home in Houston?

FIT was my dream school, partly because it’s in Manhattan. It feels a little lonely here. The biggest loss is meeting everyone in person and going places together. My fashion business classes at least give me a sense of what it’s like in New York. hue.fitnyc.edu 11

12 Spring 2021

she’s loving FIT’s virtual fitness classes.

online version proved just as valuable. And

pandemic disrupted her internship; then an

The Pivot: Cubas was disappointed when the

Theory, Museum Practice MA ’22

Major: Fashion and Textile Studies: History,

Name: Hayden Lees Cubas

VIRTUAL ATHLETICS? ACTUALLY, YES

“Here’s my favorite image from the set. It shows a Claire McCardell wool jersey swimsuit and a DahlWolfe photograph of Betty Bridges modeling the garment in Rio de Janeiro for the May 1946 issue.

I saw the photo in a lecture last semester in my History of 20th Century Fashion class. When I came across this installation shot, I was immediately struck by the image—but now, it was accompanied by the garment itself!” (The Museum at FIT, The Women of Harper’s Bazaar, 1936-1958, installation view.)

Left: Cubas says, “My favorite exhibition that I’ve uploaded to FIT’s Digital Image Library [FITDIL] is The Women of Harper’s Bazaar, 1936–1958, organized by FTS students in spring 2016. It was an exploration of the collaborative relationship among Carmel Snow, Diana Vreeland, and Louise Dahl-Wolfe during their time working together at Harper’s Bazaar.

Do you need any special equipment?

No, the instructors plan the class so you won’t need any—you just use your body weight. It’s very accessible.

What’s the advantage of virtual?

My gym reopened, but I’m not comfortable going back yet. Instead I’m doing FIT’s Sculpt & Burn, yoga, and Pilates classes at home. The Athletics department is also sponsoring a virtual fitness challenge with prizes. It’s a daily survey that asks about your health habits (mental and physical) so you can try to improve them. There’s a box you can check if you’re struggling with something, and they’ll respond with helpful tips. I’ve noticed working out helps alleviate pain and stress from working at my computer all day and lifts my spirits.

I want to ask about your studies, but first: I hear you’re way into FIT’s online gym classes.

Yes! Initially I was nervous to try the new format, but now I’m a regular. At first I kept my camera off during classes. But eventually I got more comfortable with it; the instructors can support you more that way. Plus the camera acts like a mirror, which feels more like I’m actually back at the gym. And it’s motivating to feel like someone will notice if I don’t show up for my workout.

How do you plan to use this training?

The goal is to work in a museum or private collection, helping to evaluate which objects can be shown safely, and designing storage and display solutions using archival techniques.

Collection managers are advocates for objects.

You planned your collections management internship before the pandemic. What happened?

I always thought I’d be doing my internship on site, so when COVID hit, I was devastated. But now I have a remote internship with FIT’s Digital Image Library. I’m cataloging and adding metadata to images from the annual exhibitions by the Fashion and Textile Studies program, so I’m particularly invested in the content. My supervisor and I chat on Slack, and we meet virtually. If I was at the FITDIL office doing this, I’d be working on a computer there, so it’s translated well.

BECAUSE CELEBRITIES

Name: Anthony Uribe

Major: Advertising and Marketing

Communications ’21

The Pivot: Uribe, the entertainment

chair of FIT’s Student Activities

Board, noticed a decline in atten-

dance of student events. His solu-

tion: Bring in boldface names.

Seeing FIT’s legendary drag pageant your first year was important for you. Why? I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

I remember being in the audience thinking, I need to be the one running this next year.

So you became the entertainment chair for the Student Activities Board (SAB).

What happened when the pandemic hit?

In March, we were gearing up for the pageant. I thought FIT would be closed for two weeks at most. So much work went into that project and it ultimately got canceled. We pivoted to virtual events, but at first students weren’t really into it.

When Uribe started landing superstars for the SAB’s events, he saw a significant uptick in audience numbers. Above: A virtual flyer for drag bingo with Shea Couleé.

You even got one of the guys from Queer Eye for an event.

I wanted to do a cooking demo for Thanksgiving, so Antoni Porowski, the food and wine guy, came and made brussels sprouts with prosciutto chips on Zoom. (Mushrooms were the vegan substitute.) Our Instagram DMs and the SAB account were flooded with emails, and people were texting me about how great the event went. “Stay at home” gave us the opportunity to work with people I could only dream of because to get him in person would be so expensive.

And you finally got to promote the drag pageant—FIT’s 14th.

I was so excited that we were able to pull off the show virtually. We got Miz Cracker from Drag Race to host, and we had the college’s first ever openly nonbinary winner, Mannie Quinn. The contestants taped their solo performances all over the city. One did it in Times Square; one transformed their backyard into Alice in Wonderland. They were so creative, and it made for an amazing show.

What changed?

At the end of spring semester I brought in Monique Heart from RuPaul’s Drag Race for a virtual drag bingo event. That was the first time I booked a celebrity, and it was fun getting to negotiate back and forth. The event was super successful so I decided to redo it for freshman orientation with Drag Race: All Stars winner Shea Couleé. That event had more than 300 attendees. After that, audience numbers kept growing.

This is what you want to do for your career, right?

Yes, I’ve always been interested in event planning and public relations.

I have a virtual internship with BPCM, a PR firm, in their L.A. office, creating press clips and pitching influencers. It’s L.A. time, which is hard, but I get to sleep in, which is nice. I like matchmaking influencers with brands. It’s basically what I do for FIT. I’m really in tune with pop culture. I know who would be good for what brand. hue.fitnyc.edu 13

Have you done any virtual workshops?

We couldn’t send members raw materials, so we did one on lip scrubs you can make with ordinary items in your home: sugar, honey—or vegan alternatives—and any type of oil. I used olive oil. It was cool to see everyone on camera, doing the mixing. We’re industry-focused, so we took care to connect this activity to the self-care and wellness industries. They’ve skyrocketed during this time.

Tell me about Liana Rivas Designs, which you organized on Etsy.

Last year, a friend had to wear this uncool M&M costume for her job, so I made her a pair of M&M earrings. I’ve always been in love with crafts, but I never tried to sell them. She insisted on paying, and I thought, Hmm. My first items were personalized photo Rubik’s cubes.

Do you wish you could see your classmates in person?

I’m glad I’m not on campus because I am at high risk for complications if I get COVID-19. We have a group chat for our major, so we’re in contact with one another. I definitely feel like I’ve made friends. Plus, virtual classes level the playing field. I don’t have to travel, and I have more time for my business.

You’re taking the “Fragrance Knowledge” class. Outside of a lab, how does that work?

Our professor, Virginia Bonofiglio [chair of Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing], worked with suppliers to send us kits with 36 different raw materials—naturals and synthetics— in little vessels [lower right]. I got a pocket scale. Each week I follow the formula sheets to create fragrances. There are pipettes, and a stand for blotters to tag everything.

Honestly? At this point it just feels normal to me.

But isn’t it harder to learn something over the internet?

Learning virtually has been easy, actually easier in some ways. We can get 3D-printed items mailed to us for CAD design. We share and get critiques on class calls, and if there’s a problem, the professor can show us how to fix it in real time. There are no learning barriers.

What’s it like to attend your first year of FIT virtually?

It was a very smooth transition. My teachers replicate in-person classes so completely, I’m not missing anything. I’m so impressed.

Liana Rivas Designs, her Etsy business.

She has used the time saved to develop

means she doesn’t have to commute.

glad to be home; plus, virtual education

complications from COVID-19, so she’s

The Pivot: Gonzalez-Rivas is at risk for

Major: Communication Design AAS ’22

Name: Juliana Gonzalez-Rivas

Does Rockland County, New York, where you live, feel like FIT? I set up an office in my basement because it was too distracting to take classes in my room. This fall, I’m used to it, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss being in school.

Above: A selection of Liana Rivas Designs.

Do you feel like you’re missing out on the college experience?

The college experience is different for everyone.

Some people like a large college, and some want to be in a class with five other people. For us, right now, the ideal college experience is online, where we can all be safe and learning to the best of our ability.

Is that, like, a thing?

It’s kind of a thing, but no one is making ones like mine. I use Photoshop and Illustrator. I make jewelry, stickers, decor, and photo lockets. We started selling custom face masks because people need masks. To date I’ve made over 300 sales, some of multiple items.

You’re the president of the CFMA Club. What’s it been like this semester?

We’ve had great success with Google Meet. We have like 25 to 40 people each week. I can record sessions so students who can’t make it don’t have to miss out.

We’ve had guest speakers, including the cofounders of Fempower Beauty, a budding brand focused on activism and self-empowerment. One of them, Alexis Androulakis, is an alumna.

BUSINESS AS (UN)USUAL

MAKE YOUR OWN FRAGRANCE LAB

14 Spring 2021

Name: Sarah Stein

Major: Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing ’21

The Pivot: Can’t go to the lab for “Fragrance Knowl-

edge” class? Check this out. Stein, president of the

student-run Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing

Association club, discovered how to increase

participation in virtual group meetings.

Final plans for the end of your tenure as president?

We’re bringing back Alexis from Fempower. We’ll encourage everyone to bring their own lipsticks and show them how a developer evaluates product.

hue.fitnyc.edu 15

If history is a living document, it was never more alive than in 2020. A global pandemic raged, George Floyd’s killing ignited a national reckoning with racism, and households worldwide adapted to surreal new routines marked by physical isolation and virtual connection.

We awoke each morning, fearful of what the news might bring. Alumni, student, and faculty photographers captured each riveting moment.

Their remarkable images, many of which were published in leading magazines and newspapers, demonstrate the extraordinary artistic vision cultivated in FIT’s Photography program.

Student Maiya Imani Wright’s image at left reveals the passion and grief of a Black Lives Matter protester; other images depict anti-mask demonstrations, the once-bustling Oculus in Lower Manhattan devoid of life, and a Queens funeral home, suddenly inundated. Taken together, the photographs in these pages tell the story of our year, one of turmoil, desperation, bravery, and defiance. —Jonathan Vatner

MAIYA IMANI WRIGHT ’21 Documenting a protest in Foley Square in Lower Manhattan on May 29, Imani Wright was moved by this unknown protester’s tear.

“The one teardrop that is falling from their face expresses how the majority of the world is feeling,” she says.

2020: THE YEAR IN PI CTURES 16 Spring 2021

A visual journey through historic moments we’ll never forget

hue.fitnyc.edu 17

AMY LOMBARD ’12 Lombard documented protests against mask mandates, lockdowns, and alleged voter fraud in Boston and Bethany Beach, Delaware. Another photo from this series was published in The Atlantic.

“I started photographing these events after I personally recovered from COVID-19 myself,” she says. “I remember being sick in my bedroom seeing pictures on social media of these protests starting to pop up, and just feeling bewildered at the notion that people thought this was a hoax.”

ALEX GOLSHANI ’16 Top: This image of a man pinned to the ground by a police officer at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Brooklyn was published in New York magazine. “This year has been challenging, heartbreaking, and eyeopening,” Golshani says.

MAIYA IMANI WRIGHT ’21 Left: A peaceful rally in Foley Square, Manhattan. “When I began going out to protest about two days after the George Floyd murder, it was extremely baffling to me that everyone around me protesting for my human rights, in the middle of a pandemic, were all risking their lives, their families’ lives, and other high-risk people’s lives. Yet they were still fighting for change—it is so powerful.

That is when I knew that how I tell this story through Black eyes mattered the most.”

18 Spring 2021

hue.fitnyc.edu 19

VICTOR LLORENTE ’19 Opposite, above: Llorente shot this image of the New York Stock Exchange being cleaned for an April feature in The New York Times.

Building management “decided to do a deep cleaning of the space that lasted eight hours,” he says. “A couple of days later, the floor was closed for the first time in its 228-year history.”

Opposite, below: Patrick Kearns, funeral director of the Leo. F. Kearns Funeral Home in Queens, in a room full of caskets, shot for the Times. “The funeral home was so busy that they had to buy a giant refrigerated trailer to store bodies,” Llorente says.

JOE CARROTTA ’17 Top: When the pandemic began, Dan Schonfeld tried to secure 100,000 masks from China to sell at cost to hospitals.

Above: Amanda Seekamp, in charge of guest relations at the Surf Lodge in Montauk, New York, gets a rapid COVID-19 test. Both images appeared in The New York Times. “This year brought on a lot of challenges,” Carrotta says.

“Everyone’s faces are half covered during portraits. My mindset shifted to convey my subjects’ emotions just through their eyes.”

VINCENT TULLO ’16 Right: For a series of virtual tours, the Times asked Tullo to photograph the city in lockdown.

This shot of the Oculus, the normally hectic Lower Manhattan transit hub, communicates the profound quiet. He says, “I’ve lived in New York my whole life and have never seen it so empty and desolate.”

20 Spring 2021

hue.fitnyc.edu 21

ELIZABETH BICK, ADJUNCT INSTRUCTOR Opposite: When FIT ceased in-person instruction in March, Bick flew home to Houston. During her 14-day quarantine, to keep distance from her at-risk parents, she drove the empty streets, snapping photos from inside her car. “I felt this strong sense that I’m a photographer and this is a historical moment, so I should photograph it,” she says. When she came across the woman with the sign, her heart broke. “She looked so much like my mother.” Bick sent a portfolio to the editors at The Atlantic, and they published this image.

Left: Soon after, Time asked her to photograph Yolanda Fisher, a school cafeteria worker in Dallas, for an issue devoted to heroes of the pandemic.

Fisher had continued to hand out lunches even after the school shut down, to people who might otherwise have gone hungry. The photo presents the cafeteria workers in a powerful, martial formation, Bick says—and reveals the impressive quantity of food each person received.

Bick taught her FIT class in the car on the way home.

Below: Toward the end of the year, Bick’s editor at the Times asked her to document a COVID-19-era wedding. Bick stuck around for communion.

A trained ballet dancer, she saw beauty in the ritualized movement. “It was one of those perfect choreographies with a lot going on: the innocence of the boy’s face, and people trying to handle their masks to take the sacrament.” Though the story was about the wedding, not the Mass, the Times ran it anyway.

22 Spring 2021

hue.fitnyc.edu 23

Fifteen zSecondsz How marketers are reaching a new generation of consumers through TikTok

BY LIZ LEYDEN

W

hen Kory Marchisotto told e.l.f. Beauty colleagues late in the summer of 2019 that her marketing team was about to launch a TikTok challenge aiming for a billion views, they had a couple of questions.

The first: What’s TikTok? The second: Did she know how many zeros were in a billion?

“TikTok was still new to everybody,” she says. “It was so preposterous that I was talking in billions.”

Marchisotto, Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing and Management MPS ’09, had been hired as e.l.f.’s chief marketing officer earlier 24 Spring 2021

that year with a mandate to reinvigorate the 15-year-old brand. After plotting a new campaign, she thought that TikTok—brimming with wildly creative short-form videos uploaded by young users around the world— could be the perfect bridge for connecting with Gen Z. And the data matched her instincts; videos made by fans and tagged #elfcosmetics had racked up 3.5 million views even before e.l.f. joined the platform.

And so, when faced with skepticism from her colleagues, Marchisotto cheerfully doubled down.

“I said, ‘You know what?

I’m going to change that to billions, plural.’”

This page and opposite: e.l.f. Beauty promotions for the #eyeslipsface challenge on TikTok helped generate billions of views.

—KORY MARCHISOTTO

The #eyeslipsface challenge debuted October 4, 2019 with videos from seven influencers scored to an original song commissioned by e.l.f., the first brand ever to do so for a TikTok campaign.

With an irresistible hook— “Do that thing with your eyes. Let me see them lips.

Attitude and gimme bass.

Eyes, lips, face, wait”—the array of videos celebrating the three features making up e.l.f.’s acronym caught fire.

“We were at a billion before the close of the first week,” Marchisotto says.

But that was just the beginning. Thousands of TikTok users began creating

their own videos, including celebrities like Reese Witherspoon, Lizzo, and Chicago Bulls mascot Benny the Bull.

The song “Eyes.Lips.Face.,” by iLL Wayno and Holla FyeSixWun, surged onto playlists across the country, eventually climbing to No. 4 on Spotify’s Global Viral Chart. To date, #eyeslipsface has collected 6.7 billion views and inspired 5 million user-generated videos.

“It’s truly extraordinary,” Marchisotto says.

The campaign not only launched e.l.f. into the cultural lexicon, it also made clear the marketing potential of TikTok.

How the World Participates

Courtesy of e.l.f. Cosmetics

to Fame p

“You know what?

I’m going to change that to billions, plural.”

Since absorbing teen karaoke app Musical.ly and emerging in its current form in 2018, TikTok has remained one of the fastestgrowing apps ever and brought global success to its owner, Chinese tech giant ByteDance. But in 2020, U.S. lawmakers and then-President Donald Trump raised concerns that the company might give user data to the Chinese government. ByteDance agreed to sell TikTok’s U.S. assets to Walmart and the computer software company Oracle, but this year, President Joseph Biden halted the sale to investigate further.

Despite this turbulence, 2020 was an astounding year for TikTok, which

surpassed 2 billion downloads in the midst of the pandemic. Its 800 million active users range from teenagers dancing in their bedrooms to comedians spoofing politicians to the Tower of London’s ravenmaster. With a somewhat mysterious algorithm curating feeds for each user, anyone and everyone—from cute puppies to a young woman sipping kombucha for the first time—can go viral.

The communal aspect of TikTok, and all social media platforms, creates a unique opportunity within the marketing landscape, according to Leyda Hernandez, founder of the luxury-focused marketing firm C’est du Luxe and adjunct instructor of Advertising and Marketing Communications at FIT.

“Social media is where the world participates,” Hernandez says. “It is a whole different way to market to a person, because you are kind of just walking into their conversation.”

Whether tapping influencers to promote a product or embedding captions with questions that encourage participation, Hernandez says, brands are discovering myriad ways to engage users on TikTok—and bring potential customers into the fold.

“It’s a super exciting space to play in because it’s very young, it’s extremely creative, and it takes out a lot of the stodgy business, the normal marketing sales stuff, and really humanizes the brand,” she says. “But to be on TikTok, you really have to participate. There’s no way to be on the sidelines of the game.”  hue.fitnyc.edu 25

The Fleek Shall Inherit the Earth

Courtesy of nate

If Instagram is airbrushed, TikTok is exuberant. With content created around sound—whether lip-syncing, dancing to music, or speaking straight to the camera— its videos feel intimate and unfiltered. And here, the youngest voices have the power: 16-year-old Charli D’Amelio, the app’s most popular user, counts more than 100 million followers.

Last year, Erica Francisco, Advertising and Marketing Communications ’21, and Alexis Ardolino, Fashion Business Management ’22, worked as FIT interns at nate, a new app offering one-click checkout for all online retailers. The students gained marketing experience, but also shared their perspective as members of a generation that grew up online.

Ardolino helped find influencers for nate’s #SendSmiles campaign, which spotlighted how the shopping app worked.

Knowing that young users, including herself, value TikTok’s authenticity

26 Spring 2021

Ardolino (above) and Francisco (lower left) organized nate’s TikTok launch campaign.

compared to other platforms, she sought participants whose accounts conveyed a sense of passion, for style or life or both. Then, rather than dictating the promotion’s content, the marketing team let the influencers determine their own approach.

“We left the creative freedom up to them,” Ardolino says. “They were able to edit and produce the videos they wanted. We let them be whoever they wanted to be.”

Stars of TikTok (clockwise from top left) Aisha Mian, a celebrity dog, Charli D’Amelio, and Lizzo.

“It gives that everyday person a chance to really shine.”

—ALEXIS ARDOLINO

Another part of TikTok’s appeal is that anyone has the potential to break out.

“It gives that everyday person a chance to really shine,” Ardolino says.

One viral video can change a TikTok user’s life, dramatically increasing followers and creating the opportunity to become an influencer, a critical part of the social media marketing ecosystem.

Azra and Aisha Mian, both Advertising and Marketing Communications majors, began documenting their lives as twins on YouTube in 2014, chronicling their Albanian and Pakistani heritage, the challenges of high school, and favorite skincare brands. By the time they got to FIT, they’d built a community of 20,000 followers, a number that climbed to 300,000 after they created a joint TikTok account.

Last summer, Azra filmed Aisha scrolling through her phone in an unguarded moment, laughing when she noticed her sister. The video blew up, receiving 80 million views and 14 million likes. Their followers increased to 1.1 million overnight.

“You can’t describe it,” Azra says. “It’s like your dream happening in front of your eyes.”

Since that day, the growth hasn’t stopped. At press time—but likely not much longer—they had 4.2 million followers. The Mians took the year off from FIT to build their platform, getting an unexpected boost when they were invited by TikTok creator Tayler Holder (17.4 million followers) to move into his collaborator house in Calabasas, California. The venture, one of many content communities found across social media platforms, brings influencers together

Brian Doherty

Two Stars Are Born

Aisha and Azra Mian.

to work on joint videos and projects as a way of expanding and merging audiences.

“There’s so much that goes into it,” Aisha says. “It seems like fun and games on camera, but we’re up from early morning until really late at night doing tons of work trying to grow the platform.”

Azra tackles the business side—overseeing emails and networking with potential sponsors—while Aisha focuses on the creative end, brainstorming video ideas and making sure they’re on top of the trends.

As they work to establish marketing partnerships— so far, they’ve done a few dozen sound promotions, including for the Katy Perry song “Cry About It Later,” and campaigns for the 2020 movie Freaky, Motorola, and Garage clothing—they’re assessing each offer carefully.

“Just doing it for the money is where I feel like

people go wrong because then their page turns into an advertisement, which definitely isn’t good,” Aisha says. “Eventually, the page will die out and people won’t like them anymore because it’s not as genuine or heartfelt.”

Studying the analytics, they’ve noted when the ads are more overt, views drop dramatically. In recent work with Garage, they’ve posted their typical content, including lip syncing and twin-related quips, while wearing the brand’s clothes and leaving a simple hashtag in the caption.

“Super subtle is the best way to grab their attention, especially for our followers,” Azra says. “They really love to know what we’re wearing and so in that way, the campaign is meant for us.

We can promote it without it taking away from what we normally do while still giving Garage the attention.”

“It’s like your dream happening in front of your eyes.”

—AZRA MIAN

A Spirit of Creation The pandemic has moved much of life online, fueling growth for influencers and platforms alike, and increasing motivation for brands to build digital communities. Since #eyeslipsface went viral, TikTok has “one thousand percent” driven demand for e.l.f., according to Marchisotto, with fan videos causing products, old and new, to sell out. To further expand outreach, e.l.f. created @elfyeah, a TikTok

channel dedicated to content for Gen Z, featuring personalities, products, and entertainment like the recent reality show, Eyes.Lips.

Famous.

The magic of TikTok, Marchisotto says, stems from its “spirit of creation.”

“If you think about some of the other platforms that tried to do short-form video entertainment, they cannot match TikTok’s algorithm or the participatory nature of it,” she says. “And that, for me, is such a critical part of what continues to keep TikTok ahead of the curve.” hue.fitnyc.edu 27

alumni notables

An AfrikAccents Bag made with fabric from Burkina Faso, created by Didier Wen Yam Pessinaba, a student of the incubator.

Giuseppe Longo, International Trade and Marketing ’08, wrote an acclaimed monograph about legendary hairstylist Kenneth Giuseppe Longo never intended to do anything with hair. Starting in 2008, when he graduated, he worked as a talent recruiter for companies including Calvin Klein.

He also wrote a blog called “fashion + class & jet lag,” focused on the luxury industry. The site got noticed, and Longo started freelancing for other publications.

It was fun, but what he wanted to do was publish a book.

A friend worked in the salon of legendary hairstylist Kenneth Battelle, and Longo would drop by to socialize.

Slowly, he realized his book idea was right in front of him.

Barraza and Romero introduce a BFI participant’s apparel line, Batista Collections, at a fashion show during Hispanic Heritage Month in 2018.

special-occasion dresses and separates, particularly for the mother of the bride or groom, sold at her shop in Stonington, Connecticut. Her customers have included Soledad O’Brien, Tipper Gore, Elizabeth Vargas, and Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez. She also produces a line of silk separates and another of organic cotton yoga and spa wear, sold through her boutique and others nationwide.

Though Macy’s no longer sponsors the Brooklyn Fashion Incubator, Barraza and Romero have continued to find new sponsors and grow the nonprofit.

They have reserved space in the Made in NY development, a fashion hub opening in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, in late 2021.

In this larger footprint, they will be able to host twice as many emerging designers, who will have access to Made in NY’s ecosystem of cutting rooms, small-run factories, and suppliers.

The BFI is also planning an event tentatively scheduled for this spring that will connect designers with exceptional suppliers around the world. To maximize efficiency—and to maintain COVID-19era distancing, they are setting up one-on-one meetings, both in-person and online, in advance.

“There are all sorts of creative ways we’re able to help designers navigate the complicated waters of this industry,” Barraza says. —Jonathan Vatner

© Robert Knudsen, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum

Recently, a participant in the Brooklyn Fashion Incubator was importing durable textiles from Burkina Faso to sell to designers for jackets or home furnishings. Executive director Maria Barraza advised him to try the fabric in handbags, then suggested improvements to the hardware to make the bags more appealing to American consumers.

He received a wholesale order shortly afterward.

Another participant had designed an elegant infinity shawl, but the factory couldn’t get the edging detail to roll properly. Barraza helped get her money back.

A third participant hand-crocheted clothes for newborns; Barraza helped her elevate the product’s perceived value by improving the hangtags and labels, with a simple but sophisticated design, heavier card stock, and a string attachment.

These are just a few of the ways Barraza has assisted emerging designers through the Brooklyn Fashion Incubator (BFI), a nonprofit she and her husband, partnerships director Rafael Romero, founded in 2016. Barraza helps four or

Shear Beauty

Courtesy of Max Hamilton

Maria Barraza, Fashion Buying and Merchandising ’77, supports emerging designers

five designers at a time refine their product, manufacture their lines, work with buyers, and execute marketing campaigns. The couple also developed a remote program in 2017 for those living outside of the New York area.

“We help them very strategically,” Barraza says. “We’re the only incubator that takes the time to focus individually instead of using a broad brush.”

The incubator was birthed through a partnership with Macy’s, which had funded similar programs in Chicago, San Francisco, and Philadelphia.

Barraza had worked with Macy’s over many years; her company, Barraza Associates Ltd., designed and manufactured private-label merchandise for a who’s who of department stores and catalogs. Barraza now designs

Photos courtesy of BFI

An Industry Grows in Brooklyn

alumni notables

H O M E TO W N H E R O

Sara Duffy, Interior Design ’02, helped design the iconic TWA Hotel at JFK Airport There’s a time machine, of sorts, in John F. Kennedy Airport’s Terminal 5. It’s an elevator with only two buttons: “Present Day JetBlue” and “1960s TWA Hotel.” The latter button takes you to a retro-futuristic, Mad Men–esque paradise, designed with the help of Sara Duffy.

Famed architect Eero Saarinen was responsible for the original TWA Flight Center, which opened in 1962— a more glamorous time for air travel. Swooping lines, white surfaces, and bold contrasting colors made the space a Jet Age icon.

When the airline shut down in 2001, so did the terminal. But in 2014, the hospitality firm MCR and Morse Development got the go-ahead to build a new hotel, with the flight center serving as a lobby and retail area where visitors can eat, drink, and shop.

Stonehill Taylor, where Duffy is a principal, designed the guest rooms.

Duffy, who also has a BA in art history and cites the Bauhaus movement and architect Luis Barragán as 28 Spring 2021

inspirations, says designing in the spirit of Saarinen was “honestly intimidating. I would always ask myself, ‘Would he like this?’”

While honoring Saarinen was very important, “We never wanted it to feel like a museum,” Duffy says.

Visitors will find hallmarks of the architect and era: Womb and Tulip chairs, walnut panels, the original TWA logo. But Duffy kept current travelers front of mind. Unusually, many rooms have beds that face the window so guests can look out at the original Saarinen building or watch planes on the runway. And to accommodate those commuting for business, rooms contain plenty of horizontal surfaces and nooks where clothes can be easily hung.

Stonehill Taylor also restored the Sunken Lounge to its original design—complete with carpets in Chili Pepper Red, a shade created by Saarinen for the flight center. In addition, they renovated the interior of a stripped-down 1950s airplane to serve as a cocktail lounge. Now called The Connie, it contains one of Duffy’s favorite features of the project: a small window that navigators looked through to chart their course with the help of the stars. “You really start to remember that so much of history happened in this space,” she says. —Vanessa Machir

Eric Laignel

Back to the Future

David Mitchell

Max Hamilton, Fashion Merchandising Management ’16, helped those displaced by an Oregon wildfire

A guest room and The Connie cocktail lounge.

As the owner of two clothing production companies, Max Hamilton is used to pulling off last-minute miracles. “No one ever hits you up when things are going well,” says the Los Angeles entrepreneur.

His primary enterprise, Limitless Production, specializes in quick-turnaround knitwear in small quantities; Basketcase Gallery, which he co-owns, designs monthly capsule collections and sells them via pop-up events in cities nationwide.

So when Hamilton learned last September that a horrific wildfire had destroyed homes and displaced 3,000 people in Oregon’s Rogue Valley, where he grew up, he leapt. Calling up his apparel industry contacts to buy or wrangle donations of sweatshirts, T-shirts, and blankets, he filled a U-Haul with nearly 40,000 garments and toiletries. On September 15, he, his sister, and his uncle made the 18-hour drive from Los Angeles to Medford, Oregon, while Hamilton coordinated with local volunteers and news stations from the truck’s cab.

Over a daylong giveaway in a high school parking lot, he and several volunteers handed out

garments to locals who had lost their homes— many of whom Hamilton knew personally. The elementary school Hamilton was attended was especially hard hit, with 80 percent of the students being displaced, he says.

Trying to keep a positive attitude for the donation event, Hamilton did not take in the full extent of the fire damage until afterwards—and what he saw shook him. “Driving from one town to the other, there’s not a single building still standing,” he recalled. “It looked like it had been bombed.”

The experience has inspired him to find ways to use his skills for the public good. Once the pop-up events restart, he plans to include a community service component.

“The fashion industry as a whole is built on materialism. There’s often times when it’s great, and it’s fun and you say ‘Oh my gosh, we just did the impossible.’ But it’s also like, how are we contributing?” he says. Pulling together a feat of charity showed him another possibility. “This is how I can help going forward. I can use my position in this industry to help people.” —Irina Ivanova

First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy hosted a reception for Latin American diplomats held in the Red Room at the White House. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife, “Lady Bird” Johnson, were also in attendance.

Battelle, known as simply “Kenneth,” created the iconic Jackie Kennedy bouffant and styled Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and Lucille Ball (who called him “God”), among many others. The New York Times dubbed him “an institution,” and he was the only hairdresser to win a Coty Award (now CFDA Award).

In the early 2010s, he still maintained a boutique in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. When Longo proposed the book, Kenneth hesitantly agreed (he worried the final product would be gossipy). But in 2013, before Longo could finish, Kenneth died.

Undaunted, Longo continued the seven-year process of researching and writing, tracking down an impressive list of former clients and associates. In October, Schiffer Publishing brought out Kenneth: Shear Elegance, and People, Vogue, and The Wall Street Journal paid tribute. Summing up Kenneth’s influence, Longo says, “He freed hair from being hidden under hats, and he made hair an important accessory. And he cultivated a following of beautiful ladies like Jean Shrimpton and Cheryl Tiegs. He was like a religious figure to them.” —Alex Joseph ’15

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alumni notables

what inspires you?

A WO R T H Y C AU S E

With The Evoluer House, Wadlington has helped 2,000 girls succeed.

interviewing celebrities like Iman, she tutored underserved girls in Camden, New Jersey. That program— and many programs she volunteered with—was eventually shuttered due to lack of funding. So in 2004, she opened her own nonprofit dedicated to teen girls, The Evoluer House (evoluer means “to evolve” in French), back in her hometown.

At the time, Wadlington says, “No one was talking about the school-to-prison pipeline for young girls of color.” Yet it was a big problem. A study by Columbia University and the African American Policy Forum found that Black girls were six times more likely to be suspended or expelled than their white counterparts, who often suffered far less severe consequences for similar behaviors. And high-school dropouts are more likely to end up in prison than those with a diploma.

“We knew we had to step in and do something to make sure these girls graduate high school on time and break the intergenerational cycle of poverty,” Wadlington says.

The Evoluer House offers summer and after-school programs that help girls aged 13 to 18 find college and career success, far beyond SAT prep and resume building. Girls attend power lunches with CEOs and university recruiters. They learn money management from financial experts and get skin care advice from medical aestheticians. They even produce their own podcast, Girl Truth, where the teen hosts talk about issues such as Black Lives Matter, the COVID-19 pandemic, and trans rights.

“We work on the whole girl, from the inside out,” Wadlington says.

In 16 years, 2,000 girls have graduated from The Evoluer House’s programs, with 90 percent going on to attend a four-year college. Wadlington hopes to expand its reach even further.

“The pandemic has made us rethink our programs and think of ways we can give the support our girls need virtually,” Wadlington says. Now, with The Evoluer House’s robust online presence, young women outside of Philadelphia can take advantage of its offerings.

“Girls everywhere are wondering about their future, about the pandemic and all this social unrest, wondering what they can do,” Wadlington says. “They need our love and nurturing more than ever.”

—Raquel Laneri

ENGINEERING ELEGANCE Melissa Kaye’s eponymous, rock star– worthy jewelry line is crafted in New York from 18-karat gold, incorporating diamonds and other precious stones.

It also features neon enamel. Why? Though Kaye can often be found wearing neutrals like many New Yorkers, “When it comes to color, I believe in going for it,” she says. “I’ll wear all black and neon-yellow sneakers.”

With a background in computer and computational sciences and engineering, Kaye started her career at Goldman Sachs. After more than 10 years, she took a break from the finance industry, craving a more creative path.

She entered FIT’s two-year Jewelry Design program in 2010—and it was a natural fit. Growing up, “I had a bench set up in my room, and I was always tinkering and making things,” Kaye says.

30 Spring 2021

Courtesy of Melissa Kaye

Melissa Kaye, Jewelry Design ’12, creates collections with mathematical precision

Kaye’s designs mix diamonds with neon enamel.

Going back to school full time as an adult was a dramatic change, and there were moments of self-doubt. “I remember looking at a classmate’s drawing of a necklace, and it was unbelievable, gorgeous. I thought, ‘These people can really draw. What am I doing here?’”

But this moment helped solidify her own design perspective. She realized that from an engineering standpoint, her classmate’s necklace wouldn’t sit properly.

“My starting point is always, ‘How is this going to work?’” Kaye says. “Engineering jewelry is obviously different from engineering software, but it’s still about how you approach problems. That thought process has remained across everything I have done.”

In her designs, Kaye focuses on wearability first. “I will not suffer for fashion,” she says, so she pays close attention to fit, feel, and weight. “When

I put on a ring, I don’t want it to scratch.

I want it to feel like a diamond hug.”

She founded her business in 2013, selling through trunk shows and word of mouth while reaching out to bigger retailers. “There are so many amazing jewelry brands, and it’s hard to get attention,” Kaye says. But her work caught the eye of a Saks Fifth Avenue Beverly Hills buyer, and the store began carrying her pieces in 2015.

Promoting work continues to be difficult. “You wonder why people like this baby and not that one,” Kaye says.

When she started using neon enamel, a colleague questioned whether it would sell. But clients loved it so much it became a signature.

Kaye’s work can now be found in stores like Net-a-Porter, Harrods, Holt Renfrew, and Elyse Walker. And while she enjoys counting celebrities as fans— Rihanna, Gwen Stefani, and Jennifer Lopez, to name a few—“What’s more thrilling is seeing real people wear your pieces,” she says. —Vanessa Machir

Courtesy of Netflix

When she was 13 years old, Jennielee arrived in Philadelphia from Puerto Rico. Her family had been displaced after Hurricane Maria devastated her home in 2017, and she found herself in a new city where she didn’t understand the language. She had trouble adjusting. So her mother enrolled her in a summer program at The Evoluer House, a nonprofit that mentors girls of color, run by Cheryl Ann Wadlington.

“Jennielee said when she came to this country, she didn’t even know she had a voice,” Wadlington recounts proudly. “But now she realizes that she can use her voice to change the world.”

Wadlington has used her own voice—as a journalist, a motivational speaker, and a social justice advocate—for good. In October, L’Oréal named her a 2020 Woman of Worth. The program recognizes 10 women around the globe for community service, and the distinction comes with a $10,000 donation to each honoree’s cause.

“I was screaming on the floor,” Wadlington says of the moment she received the news. “It’s an opportunity to have our nonprofit, the voices of so many marginalized girls of color, heard throughout the world.”

Community service has been a part of Wadlington’s life since her childhood in Philadelphia.

“I come from a family full of pastors and bishops,” she says. “My mother was a civil rights activist; she marched with Martin Luther King. And my brother was an AIDS activist.”

After studying at FIT, Wadlington worked as a journalist but in between attending Fashion Week and

Courtesy of The Evoluer House

Cheryl Ann Wadlington, Advertising and Communications, founded a nonprofit to mentor underserved girls

MUCHO MUCHO AMOR Edith Gutierrez-Hawbaker, Graphic Design ’98

I have always been an activist. Te lo juro means to swear, to make a promise, to honor yourself, and stand up for what you believe in. It is my motto.

I was born in Argentina and grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey. I didn’t become an American citizen until I was in my 20s. As an art director, I’ve always advocated to hire people of color and incorporate Latinx culture in the magazines and fashion brands I’ve worked for. But when my son came home with $13 he made at his abuela’s garage sale and said, “Mami, I’m going to donate it to Puerto Rico to help them rebuild after the hurricane,” I had my aha moment.

At the time, the Trump administration was badmouthing Mexicans and Latino culture. I asked myself, “What am I doing to counteract this?”

I launched Te Lo Juro Collective in 2019. We spread messages of hope and positivity through fashion and art. Twenty percent of sales go to organizations that support Latinx communities. I collaborate with other artists, because the idea of celebrating culture alone doesn’t make sense.

The first T-shirt I designed for Te Lo Juro had a drawing of Walter Mercado. If you’re Latinx, you grew up with Walter. Walter wasn’t just a TV astrologer; he was all about bringing hope.

My mom was single, hustling, working two or three jobs. When she would feel down or unsure of herself, she would listen to Walter say, “everything is going to be fine; tomorrow’s another day,” and it would lift her spirits.

Walter embodied te lo juro. He took up so much space with his large capes and hair. It didn’t matter that he was androgynous; the machismo guys listened to him just as much as the abuelitas did. It was his soul they were responding to.

The T-shirt was in the Netflix documentary about Mercado, Mucho Mucho Amor. We also have artwork [featuring] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a fearless Latinx icon, and other type graphics that celebrate our community. But I’ll never stop drawing Walter. He’s my muse!

—as told to Raquel Laneri

TV astrologer Walter Mercado, in a still from Mucho Mucho Amor.

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THE CITY SLEEPS Sean Hemmerle, adjunct instructor of Photography, captured FIT’s Seventh Avenue facade boarded up.

“I photograph the world around me to reexamine it later, to memorialize a small sliver of time, to better understand complexities not immediately understood, to stretch a 15th of a second into a chapter of clarity,” he says. “I was hoping for just such a moment of serendipity when a man walking briskly entered my frame, his arm swinging purposefully, dressed all in black.

Considering the existential crisis we were laboring beneath, it felt appropriate that Giacometti should emerge on the streets of New York City, trotting just ahead of a Black Lives Matter protest march.”

Hemmerle’s images of New York City on lockdown were displayed in a solo exhibition in Cologne, Germany. For more photographs that tell the story of the year, see “2020: The Year in Pictures,” page 16.