Hue Summer 2010 by Fashion Institute of Technology

Alumni Magazine of the Fashion Institute of Technology

volume 3 / number 3 / summer 2010

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Features 7 The Future Is Now Commencement 2010: Nina Garcia ’92, Norma Kamali ’64, and 2,700 brand new alumni

8 Life in the Fast Lane Bespoke swim trunks, titanium fibers, silicone trims—all in a day’s work for Jared Berger ’06

4 Hue’s News Recent developments at and related to FIT 6 Hue’s Who VIPs at FIT events, from September to May

10 Joe from A to Zee The daily life of Elle’s creative director, and his collaborations with a fellow alum 16 Nature Versus Picture Fashion Design and Photography students team up for an eco-themed shoot 18 Spring Awakening Baker Scholars bring a rite of spring— the prom—to local seniors

20 Four by Four Four Graphic Design grads present four design projects 24 Mind the Gap Are saggy pants a legit fashion statement or a disgrace?

26 Please Don’t Touch Art Market MA students learn how to sell performance art

Departments

14 Artifact A “wild” silk dress from The Museum at FIT’s latest show 15 Footprint One editor’s vision of a sustainable future 15 Faculty On…. Corporate accountability in the information age 19 I Contact A Textile/Surface Design student discusses his love for the loom 28 Alumni Notes Find out what your classmates are up to 31 Sparks Eva Franco ’94 on her favorite type of still life

Front and back cover photo: Carolina Palmgren.

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

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

volume 3 | number 3 | summer 2010

Address letters to the editors, Hue magazine.

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

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

Hue magazine on the web: fitnyc.edu/hue

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ON TH E COVE R

For this issue, Hue gave six pages— the front and back cover and a four-page spread (pp. 20-23)—to Studio Newwork, a graphic design firm founded by four ’07 grads, and asked them to showcase their work and the work of some fellow alumni. The covers feature a dress by Ideeën, a New York-based women’s collection designed by Junko Hirata, International Trade and Marketing for the Fashion Industries ’08 and Fashion Design ’04, and Atsuko Yanase. Hirata, born in Tokyo and raised in Paris, worked for labels like Yigal Azrouel and Helmut Lang before meeting Yanase in 2005, while both were designing for Catherine Malandrino. The two launched Ideeën in 2007. Ideeën combines structural shapes and soft draping techniques with a New York, street-wear vibe. Their autumn/winter 2010 collection features military-inspired outerwear with a mix of washed leather and dip-dyed Mongolian fur; peeking from beneath are lace silk dresses. In 2008, Ideeën received Gen Art’s Fresh Faces in Fashion award, given to emerging fashion designers. In 2009, Swarovski Crystallized sponsored a runway show featuring Ideeën along with Rodarte, Jason Wu, and Alexander Wang.

Sitings

Ideeën is available at Assembly, Oak,

On FIT’s website, www.fitnyc.edu

Hong Kong, Japan, and the UK.

Continuing and Professional Studies: fitnyc.edu/continuinged

ideeen-newyork.com

and other U.S. boutiques, and in Canada,

FIT job openings: fitnyc.edu/jobs

Gallery of student work: fitnyc.edu/studentgalleries Gladys Marcus Library: fitnyc.edu/library The Museum at FIT: fitnyc.edu/museum To view videos about the college, go to: youtube.com/aboutfit Email the FIT Alumni Association: victoria_guranowski@fitnyc.edu Go to fitnyc.edu/hue to answer The Ask, tell us what inspires you for Sparks, or update your alumni info.

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Now on view at The Museum at FIT: Eco-Fashion: Going Green. Up through November 13, Eco-Fashion examines the past two centuries of fashion’s environmental and ethical practices, good and bad, and provides historical context for the current drive behind sustainable design. For an in-depth look at one dress from the exhibition, see this issue’s Artifact (p.14). Beginning September 17, visitors can immerse themselves in Japan Fashion Now, an exploration of the past 20 years’ evolution in Japanese design

featuring everything from street styles to school uniforms to work by new designers such as Chitose Abe of Sacai and Hiroki Nakamura of Visvim. The exhibition will coincide with the publication of a book of the same name, featuring essays by Museum Director Valerie Steele and Deputy Director Patricia Mears, and a range of related public programming, including a “Lolita” tea party offered through the museum’s Fashion Culture series. For more information, visit fitnyc.edu/museum. Japan Fashion Now will run through January 8, 2011.

Lorenzo Ciniglio

what’s happening on campus

Current and Upcoming Exhibitions at The Museum at FIT

Even better than Facebook: Alumni met in the flesh at the April event.

Alumni Outreach Continues with Facebook Page, Fashion Show Event Allison Oldehoff, the college’s new manager of alumni and faculty relations, is administering a Facebook page for FIT alumni. Log on to see what your friends are up to, engage in communitywide discussions, and find up-to-the-minute information on FIT happenings, on campus and beyond. Visit facebook.com/ FITalumni and click the “Like” button to join the group and post your updates.

Annie Griffiths Belt

In other alumni relations news, on April 26, 70 graduates gathered in the David Dubinsky Student

Pakistani Girl, by Annie Griffiths Belt for National Geographic. On March 3, Belt spoke about her work and extensive travels at the Katie Murphy Amphitheatre as the featured guest of the spring 2010 Liberal Arts Dean’s Forum, cosponsored by the Presidential Scholars honors program.

In “Mind the Gap” (pp.24-25), Hue looks into the surprisingly long-lived saggy pants phenomenon.

What’s your take on the trend? How, if at all, do you think it’s influenced menswear? Email hue@fitnyc.edu Submissions will be considered for publication in a future issue.

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Center’s eighth-floor alcove for a cocktail hour preceding that evening’s Fashion Design BFA and Menswear AAS show, The Future of Fashion. Attendees were then invited to the Morris W. and Fannie B. Haft Auditorium to watch a live, 3D simulcast of the event on the big screen. “Our alumni are a tremendous source of pride for the college and it was a thrill to welcome so many of them back,” Oldehoff says. “This just marks the beginning of opportunities for them to share in the strength of the FIT network.”

Programming Update This past academic year, three new FIT degree programs were approved.

conscious design for working architects, interior designers, and space planners.

The Entrepreneurship for the Fashion and Design Industry Bachelor of Science begins in fall 2011. Offered through the Jay and Patty Baker School of Business and Technology, it will educate students in the marketing of new products and services, the establishment of their own business ventures, and the revitalization of existing operations. The Sustainable Interior Environments Master of Arts— whose start date has yet to be announced—will be a 36-credit, two-year curriculum in energyefficient and environmentally

The Master of Fine Arts in Illustration, which replaces the current Master of Arts program, will be introduced this coming fall. This will be FIT’s first terminal degree, representing the highest academic credential in the field. Accordingly, the program has expanded with some additional coursework devoted to the curriculum’s entrepreneurial element. There will also be increased studio time and an on-site Los Angeles component, for students to learn about and make connections with the film industry.

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The Power of SUNY

Q U I C K READ

SUNY’s new strategic plan, The Power of SUNY, was spearheaded by Chancellor Nancy Zimpher and developed with input from all 64 campuses over the past year. It outlines the six “big ideas” SUNY will pursue in the next five years and beyond as it seeks to lead by example as the nation’s largest state university system and contribute to the economic growth and well being of New York State and its residents. The six goals are to cultivate entrepreneurship, boost statewide education quality and levels, work toward a healthier and more energy-smart New York, enrich the culture and quality of life in campuses’ local communities, and attract talent from around the world. To read the plan in its entirety, visit suny.edu.

>> Andrew Cronan has been appointed director of FIT’s Career and Internship Center. Cronan was previously Fordham University’s executive for all alumni, the Career and Internship Center may be visited at fitnyc.edu/careerservices. >> Fundraising highlights: FIT’s sixth annual Golf Classic, held at Scarsdale’s Quaker Ridge Golf Club on June 7, netted $175,000. In March, The Educational Foundation for the Fashion Industries and FIT’s annual gala— which this year honored Terry Lundgren,

what’s happening on campus

director of career services. A lifetime resource

chairman, president, and CEO of Macy’s— grossed a record $4.1 million. (The event also benefited the University of Arizona’s Terry J. Lundgren Center for Retailing.) The Home Products Development Department’s annual breakfast, also held this March, netted $50,000 for the BS program. This year’s

Hue’s Summer 2010 Online Treats

honorees were Steven Fishman, chairman, president, and CEO of Big Lots, Inc.; Anurag Sharma, president of Welspun Global Brands,

Hue continues to expand its site with companion pieces to stories in the print edition and stand-alone web exclusives. Check out fitnyc.edu/hue to see and read about:

Ltd.; and the Lichtenberg family, founders of S. Lichtenberg & Co. >> In March, the Interior Design Department hosted Detours, Mergers, and Mutations,

>> LTL Architects, winners of FIT’s 2010

a conversation about art, architecture, and

Lawrence J. Israel Interior Design Award. Find out why they inserted 110,000 wooden skewers into the ceiling of the Tides Restaurant.

design featuring Vito Acconci, an artist who owns a design and architectural studio; Chuck Hoberman, an inventor who creates “transformable structures,” including a seven-story,

>> Closet-organizing tips from Janet Valenza,

malleable video screen used in U2 concerts;

Fashion Design ’01.

and Allan Wexler, a designer, sculptor, and

>> Iva Radijovec, Computer Animation and

architect. Interior Design Associate Professor

Interactive Media ’04, whose short film, Purple (below), recently aired on PBS.

Andrew Moszynski moderated. >> FIT has been awarded a $150,000 National Science Foundation grant for Advancing Design-related Technological Education, a program authored by Elaine Maldonado, director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching, and Karen Pearson, assistant professor of Science and Math. The program aims to increase design-related technological employment opportunities for women and prepare students for a sustainable marketplace through a creative science curriculum and faculty development.

FIT’s annual runway show dramatically increased its audience this year when 2,400 logged on to the college’s website to watch it stream live. Video and photos may still be seen at fitnyc.edu/futureoffashion.

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VIPs at FIT events this academic year

Opening of The Museum at FIT’s exhibition, American Beauty: 1. Francisco Costa*, 2. Lisha and Rodney Epperson, 3. Patricia Mears*, MFIT, 4. Kohle Yohannan, fashion historian, 5. Roxanne Lowit*, 6.Yaz Hernández, member, FIT Board of Trustees, 7. Rosemary Ponzo*, 8.Thom Browne, 9. Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra. Annual Fashion Show: Carolina Herrera and Calvin Klein.

Couture Council Luncheon Honoring Dries Van Noten: 1.Van Noten†,

FIT’s Educational Foundation Fundraising Gala: 1. Amsale Aberra*, 2. Chris Botti, musician, 3. Kenneth Cole, 4. Paige Butcher, model, 5. Russell Simmons, 6. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, 7. Martha Stewart, 8. Terry J. Lundgren†, Macy’s, 9. President Joyce F. Brown. Other VIPs at FIT events this year: 1. Kimora Lee Simmons, 2. Arthur McGee*,

2. Maggie Gyllenhaal, 3. Glenda Bailey, Harper’s Bazaar, 4. Diane von

3. H. Carl McCall, 4. Cicely Tyson, 5. Wayne Koestenbaum, author, 6. Harry

Furstenberg, 5. Isabel* and Ruben Toledo, 6. Daphne Guinness.

Slatkin, 7. Johnny Weir, 8. Valerie Steele (center), Kate and Laura Mulleavy, Rodarte, 9. Prabal Gurung, 10. Misako Aoki, 11. Gerson and Judith Leiber. 1

Home Products Breakfast: 2

1. Anurag Sharma†, Welspun Global Brands, 2. Steven Fishman†, Big Lots,

Inc., 3. The Lichtenberg family†. 4 1

Alumni Star Salute: 1. Jay Levitt†, The Fashion Bug, 2. Carmen Marc Valvo†, designer, 3. Robert Burke†, RBA, 4. Susan White*, White & Warren, 5. President Joyce F. Brown, 6. J. Michael Stanley, Rosenthal & Rosenthal. 7

*FIT alumna/us; † honoree 6

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The Future is

Now

Congratulations to the class of 2010 by Alexander Gelfand

Matthew Septimus

Change and opportunity were major themes at FIT’s 65th commencement ceremony, held May 25 at Radio City Music Hall. Speaker Nina Garcia, Marketing: Fashion and Related Industries ’92 and fashion director at Marie Claire, exhorted her audience to “rebel, create, and believe.” The Project Runway judge also told the 2,700 graduates to “Be yourself, and break some rules.” In her own remarks, President Joyce F. Brown suggested that the creativity, critical thinking skills, and high degree of social tolerance possessed by this year’s Millennial Generation grads made them especially well-suited to combating the incivility of contemporary life. Designer Norma Kamali, Fashion Illustration ’64, and Alan Hassenfeld, the retired chairman of Hasbro, received honorary degrees. Alumni Association awards went to Italo Zucchelli, men’s creative director for Calvin Klein; and Athanasios (Tom) Nastos, president of apparel importer Endurance LLC and of trade show organization ENK International.

We asked a small sampling of students what they plan to do next. Here’s what they said: I want to work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and apply for a master’s in fine arts at Yale, or schools in the city. —Shany Saar, Fine Arts

I’m moving to Spain for a year to teach English in Galicia; it’s a grant program through the government of Spain. Then I’d like to pursue a master’s in art history and work in a museum. —Melissa Formisano,

I’m going into an upper division program, Home Products Development. I want to learn business, because right now my background’s all design.

Check out video of the ceremony online at fitnyc.edu/commencement.

—Lindsay Rodabaugh, Visual Presentation and Exhibition Design

I’m going to apply to the NYC Teaching Fellows program. I want to be a public high school teacher in Brooklyn. —Lavette Best, Fashion Merchandising Management

Visual Art Management

I’m moving back to Sierra Leone. I’m going to run my own company, mass-marketing a local health drink called Remalape. —Earnette Diallo, International Trade and Marketing for the Fashion Industries

I’m the new assistant buyer for Chico’s, for casual and urban bottoms. I start in two weeks. —Deanna Dorsey, ITM

I’m from Italy, and I already have a bachelor’s degree from the Polytechnic of Milan. I’d like to stay here and work for an American company in fashion merchandising or marketing.

Jerry Speier

—Carlotta Carrubba, Advertising and Marketing Communications

Left to right: Commencement speakers and honorees Hassenfeld, Zucchelli, Garcia, President Brown, Kamali, and Nastos.

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Jared Berger, International Trade and Marketing for the Fashion Industries ’06, Textile Development and Marketing ’03, develops cutting-edge athletic wear

Matthew Septimus

by Greg Herbowy

It is 9:30 on a Monday night and Jared Berger, product developer for Tyr Sport, a competitive swim- and triathlon-wear company based in Farmingdale, NY, is waiting for a conference call with a manufacturer in Asia. “We source our fabrics and manufacturers from all over the world,” he says. “I’m basically on call 24 hours a day.” Tonight’s call is about trim for Tyr’s 2011 triathlon gear. In fashion, trim is decorative, a bit of material like lace or fur that runs along a garment’s edge. In the world of competitive athletic wear, however, clothes are equipment. Each element of a garment is evaluated for whether it aids or hinders the athlete’s movement. If it’s the former, its attributes are maximized. If it’s the latter, its drawbacks are pared to a minimum. Trim, Berger says, can be used to ensure a tight fit at an outfit’s various openings. For triathlon wear, it’s often used for the leg holes. “Without some sort of grip, there’s no way to keep the fabric in those areas close to the skin,” he says, “and it will hang loose and flap around.” That can create drag, and in racing, drag is deadly.

“I’m not a swimmer,” Berger says. “I’m a garmento.”

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A lot of “gripper” trims are made with elastic bands. Those on men’s briefs, for example. But the trim for Tyr’s new garments will be silicone beading—soft rubber dots, embedded in the fabric. “It’s snug and it’s really comfortable,” Berger says. To a layperson, this sounds impressive. But for professionallevel athletic gear, silicone-bead trim is comparatively low-tech. Berger’s is a field in which seams are not stitched but fused and bonded, to eliminate excess grooves; silver and titanium fibers and yarns are knit and woven into fabrics for their antimicrobial (that is, odorfighting) and cooling properties; swimsuits are tested not just in pools, but in wind tunnels; and products retail at prices—like $625 for a triathlon wetsuit— that could buy a lifetime supply of mesh shorts. It is also a field in which something as seemingly innocuous as a garment (and a delicate one at that—bonded seams have been known to split when a swimmer bends at the starting block) can be credited with toppling dozens of world records; likened, in the press and by sports officials, to performance-enhancing drugs; and eventually banned from competition altogether. In early 2008, about a year after Berger started at Tyr, competitive swimwear manufacturers began rolling out full-body suits made almost entirely of polyurethane, or rubber, panels. “They were essentially nonpermeable,” Berger says. “Air got trapped inside the suit when you

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put it on and made you more buoyant. So swimmers weren’t getting as tired. When fatigue sets in, swimmers actually start making more and more strokes, expending more effort to stay afloat. That wasn’t happening anymore. They would just maintain this steady pace.” The effect on the sport was immediate. By the time of that summer’s Beijing Olympic trials, 42 new world records had been set. Newspapers printed stories focusing more on the space-age designs than the swimmers wearing them. Harold Koda, curator in charge of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, included the sleek new suits in his Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy exhibition. Swimmers ditched sponsors that didn’t manufacture the suits or, with sponsors’ blessings, raced in other companies’ gear. By the following summer, the tally of broken world records was 135. That July, Michael Phelps, who had worn Speedo’s then-groundbreaking LZR suit for his eight gold-medal wins in Beijing, was upset in the 200-meter freestyle—and saw his world record beaten by nearly one full second—by Germany’s Paul Biedermann, who was wearing the newer, more buoyant Arena X-Glide. Biedermann had swum the 200 four seconds slower, without the suit, at the 2008 Olympics. Amid growing controversy, FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation), swimming’s international governing body, issued strict new guidelines: no

more full-body suits, no more non-permeable materials. For swimsuit makers, this meant scrapping not two but ten years of development. Full-body suits— which streamline the body, keep muscles warm, and create less friction than porous bare skin— had been worn in competition since 2000. It was the end of a scramble between competitors that, in retrospect, sounds like a cold-war arms race: Speedo famously hired NASA researchers to work on their LZR suit; Tyr, Berger says, “had this Russian scientist. We called him Dr. G.” He laughs. “It was crazy.” Berger talks about all of this with both expertise and disbelief. The Queens-born son of a yarn trader, he grew up in the textile industry and began his career before enrolling at FIT, which he attended in the evening while sourcing wool and cashmere full time for Ralph Lauren’s premium Black Label and Purple Label divisions. “I’ve worked with every type of yarn and fabric you can imagine, from the cheapest cotton-poly to cashmeres knit in the best Italian mills,” he says. After graduating, he taught international trade at the college. Tyr is his first job in swimwear, a field he admits he previously knew little about. “I’m not a swimmer,” he says. “I’m a garmento.” He is also, he says, “an orchestrator. I oversee the whole picture. We have a designer who creates looks, and researchers working on fabrics and talking with the athletes who test the suits. I adapt the designs to make sure they can be made with the

Photos courtesy of Tyr

Tyr’s most high-tech suits, Tracers, right and below, made of woven nylon lycra, are designed for Olympic competition. “They’re our fastest suits,” Berger says. Men’s sell for upwards of $200 and women’s for $300 at sporting goods and specialty swimwear stores.

materials and to keep them functional. I put together the specs, including packaging details, and source everything.” He also measures Tyr-sponsored athletes for custom suits, a perk that has less to do with pampering the company’s stars than it does with necessity. “Their proportions are unbelievable. They will not fit our regular sizes,” he says. “I measured one woman with a 69-inch torso.” With FINA’s new rules in effect since January of this year, Berger has never been busier. “Everyone’s starting from scratch,” he says. “The focus now is on sleek design, which is tough to push forward. Our bodies are made of different lines and curves, so even the tightest woven fabric won’t hug close to the body without seams. But in swimming, they’re all about seamless, which is why you’ll see bonded seams.” Tyr is also

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creating all new designs for triathlon, a sport which has yet to issue a ban like FINA’s, though Berger hears rumors that one is coming. Despite the controversy and the regulations, the science and the media scrutiny, this is still the clothing business, Berger says. The industry’s maxims still hold. Chief among them: style may take a backseat to function, but function alone rarely moves the consumer to buy. This, it turns out, is the reason for the late night, silicone-beading conference call. “We’re trying to get a jacquard of the Tyr logo for the beading and they’re having some problems with it,” he says. “You know, I don’t know whether silicone beading works any better as trim than a silicone band would, but it looks cooler. I want our stuff to look good.”

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Joe ZEE FROM A to

Elle’s creative director, Advertising and Marketing Communications ’92, and the stuff of his well designed life

By Alex Joseph All photos from Elle and W by Smith, styled by Zee All unattributed photos and quotes by Zee

Joe Zee makes the most fabulous people in the world more fabulous. Often collaborating with photographer and fellow alum Carter Smith, he endows models and celebrities with the power of archetypes. He turned singer Fergie into a ’40s movie star, envisioned one model as a schizophrenic Zelda Fitzgerald, and posed another as a mermaid, unfurling a 65-pound latex tail. In his 18-year career, first at Allure, then as the fashion director of W and editor in chief of the much-missed shopping mag Vitals, and since 2007, as Elle’s first creative director, Zee has coaxed Kate Hudson, Jennifer Lopez, and others into trend-setting styles, establishing himself as a major presence in magazines in the process. Zee is responsible for everything about the way Elle looks, from style concepts to front-of-book minutiae, so it’s no great surprise that his personal belongings are sharply edited. Romer Pedron

A 20-year-old pair of steel-toed boots from Toronto? Not a sentimental reminder of home; just durable classics. It’s been a treat for Hue to rummage through Zee’s stuff. Now we’re sharing

The U.S. edition of Hachette Filipacchi’s Elle, the world’s largest fashion magazine, boasts more than 5 million readers per month. Zee says the Elle woman is “strong, sexy, and confident. She doesn’t borrow a look from a runway; she combines $200 shoes with a two-dollar dress. I call that personal style.”

what we found. Lucky you. Venerable editor Polly Allen Mellen, right, mentored Zee, center, when he was her fashion assistant at Allure. She remains an inspiration: “If a new designer showed a collection at 3 AM in Brooklyn, Polly would be there.”

Wired for speed. “I just love toys. I love what’s new, what’s next. I’m a big tweeter.” Follow him @mrjoezee.

Nike and Adidas sneaks are a fascination. “I don’t play sports. But I have maybe 50-60 pairs.”

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Footballs represent the brand, not the sport. “I never play.” Instead, he takes hip-hop dance classes, right, for “my inner frustrated Justin Timberlake.”

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Zee collects photographs by George Platt Lynes, left, and Jack Pierson.

His photography book collection includes out-of-print volumes by Larry Clark, whose glamorously sleazy images could have inspired the 2009 Kate Hudson shoot for Elle, an homage to the film 9½ Weeks. The 1999 W series, left, inspired by French singer Françoise Hardy, shot on location in Paris, might be a nod to storied photographer Robert Doisneau.

If it ain’t broke: A Gucci jacket (gift from Gucci) is a wardrobe staple, as are ones by Dior Homme and Louis Vuitton. “I don’t want to sound label-y.” He usually wears jeans and a V-neck sweater. “I dress people every single day, but for myself I basically like a uniform.” above left, Steel-toed police boots don’t wear out. Zee has seen the same Brooklyn barber, left, for 20 years.

View over Zee’s desk, and out his office window, left. “I always wanted to work in magazines. There was no Plan B.” The photo of model Guinevere Van Seenus in a mask was early work for W, shot by Michael Thompson. Skateboards without wheels—Zee doesn’t skate— were gifts from Thompson and artist Richard Prince.

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Good luck charms on an Hermès dish, and handcrafted tchotchkes, gifts from Rodarte designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy. The lamb is from Gwen Stefani.

A David Weeks fixture, top, in Zee’s Brooklyn apartment embodies his minimal, contemporary taste. View out his kitchen windows, with frames he wears for effect only. Right: The one messy place in the house.

Citizen Zee “ I am absolutely, unabashedly living the American dream,” says Joe Zee, who became a citizen in May. In Toronto, his mother worked at a bank, his father at American Express, and the first time he was asked to style a photo shoot, he thought, “But I don’t know anything about hair.” These days,

Most of the wines are gifts, but Zee does love Pinot grigio. Favorite winery? Oregon’s A to Z, of course. The preferred beverage, Below, always on hand.

when he’s not terrorizing editor hopefuls on MTV’s reality television show The City, he’s busy taking Elle into the future. His democratic vision for fashion borrows inspiration from the street and the catwalk, Kohl’s and couture—“the worlds of ‘high’ and ‘low’ are constantly meeting. It’s all cool,” he says. And according to Anne Slowey, Elle fashion news director, it’s also all fun. “Joe and I grew up in the fashion industry together,” Slowey says. “He’s hysterically funny, whip smart, and has more energy than anyone I know. He’s hardworking, but loves it so much it doesn’t seem like work. It sometimes feels like a Los Angeles, “home away from home.”

Broadway musical.” Perhaps the musical Billy Elliot, which is based on a film Zee names as a favorite, for, first, its dance sequences. But it also has a theme that Zee understandably takes to heart: “It’s about

In Zee’s foyer, under a Diane Arbus photo, a Gerrit Rietveld Zig Zag chair (and visual pun).

somebody who dared to break expectations, to defy everyone and succeed at something he loves.”

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Jason McDonald

A feature story based on an episode in the life of Zelda Fitzgerald (writer F. Scott’s wife) with model Anouk Baijings in the south of France appeared in W in 2000. Smith says, “The horses didn’t really behave that well. We just let them come in and mosey around. This was before the days of heavy retouching, so we got lucky.”

Dream Team Zee and Carter Smith met 20 years ago at an organizational meeting for FIT’s newspaper. Smith, who studied fashion design and photography, says, “We were the only two who showed up. At the time the paper was called something like Revelations. We started calling it West 27th.” It was

Zee and Smith in their FIT days. An early collaboration: Cover of FIT’s W27, April 1992, photo by Smith, styling by Zee. top: The pair today, shooting Elle’s 25th anniversary issue.

the beginning of a collaboration that has continued to this day. “We have a creative shorthand with each other, a great level of trust,” Smith says. “Sometimes I don’t even remember which of us came up with the original concept for a feature.” An independent photographer who has also lensed for Vogue, GQ, The New York Times, and Louis Vuitton, Smith has a cinematic vision that makes him a natural fit for the movies. He directed his first feature film, a horror flick called The Ruins, for Dreamworks Studios in 2008. He plans to helm a second big-screen project this fall. Zee found a latex tail used in the film Splash for a 1998 W beauty feature, shot in Jamaica with a skeleton crew. “We were racing against the sunset and the tide,” Smith says. “We had to finish before the model got washed off the rock.”

It took two and a half weeks and 39 trunks of clothes to shoot a 36-page editorial in China for W, 1997. In the story, a girl from a small village moves to Beijing, joins the opera, and falls in love with a soldier. “The days of shoots that long are over,” Smith says. “Now you get a day or two at most.”

The concept for W’s 1998 feature—“a girl alone in a house, getting stalked”—was Smith’s. “I’m definitely the horror movie fan,” he says. In 2008, Dreamworks Studios produced his first feature, a fright pic called The Ruins.

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a captivating object from FIT’s collections

Eirene Evening Gown chosen by: Jennifer Farley, assistant curator of costume, and Colleen Hill, assistant curator of accessories, The Museum at FIT object: Silk evening gown designer: Isoude (Katie Brierley) date: 2010 country of origin: USA source: Gift of Brierley for the museum’s exhibition, Eco-Fashion: Going Green

Katie Brierley explores many facets of sustainability in the garments she designs out of Newport, RI, for her label, Isoude. Her work is sophisticated and luxurious, yet understated, and her thoughtful and holistic approach to design is evident in each step of the creative process—whether through the use of natural materials, small-scale production, or the minimizing of waste. Brierley, who studied fashion design at FIT, often uses eco-conscious materials in her work, including, in the Eirene dress, tussah (or wild) silk. One difference between tussah and conventional silk is that harvesting tussah does not harm the silkworm. This lush textile was woven on small antique looms in India. The making of the subtle chevron embellishments on the bodice involved collaboration with both the jeweler William Elliot Drake and the Zanzibar Women’s Pearl Shellcraft Cooperative, which creates jewelry to raise their standard of living. The minimalist decoration makes use of the Mabe pearl shell, which would otherwise be discarded. Brierley is a designer who values traditional craft and artistry over industrial production methods, embracing the neglected arts of hand-dyeing and painting. The fabric was colored by hand with a natural madder root dye by her mentor, master dyer Cheryl Kolander. Brierley’s attraction to natural materials is more than a matter of conscience. As she told Providence Monthly: “Quite honestly, I think I stumbled onto [eco-friendly fabrics] because the colors are so beautiful.” Final fabrication of the Eirene gown, like all Isoude designs, was done locally in New England. Named for the Greek goddess of peace, the gown is, like all of Brierley’s garments, an investment piece—a timeless look designed to last many years. Her collection can be found at select boutiques, including the Isoude store in Newport. Eco-Fashion: Going Green runs through November 13.

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steps toward a sustainable future

Added Values

Metropolis editor thinks designers can help solve global warming

Shireen Musa Assistant professor, International Trade and Marketing for the Fashion Industries

“If it’s not sustainable, it’s not design; it’s a crime

When you cut a pattern out of cloth, the excess usually winds up in a landfill. But designer Mark Liu created a series of garments that use the entire piece of fabric, eliminating waste. The skincare brand Pangea Organics manufactures products with 100 percent organic ingredients. We study these and other firms’ sustainable practices in my course, International Corporate Responsibility. We start by examining the United Nations’ Global Compact, a set of principles for businesses committed to human rights, labor standards, the environment, and anti-corruption. Our students are preparing to become global managers, and some are more capitalistic than others. So we’ll have debates about child labor, for example. One student will say, “It’s unethical to have 14-year-olds working eight hours a day just to get a lower price,” and another will say, “Well, when I was 14, I worked.” I tell them to research a company’s core values when applying for jobs. Patagonia, for example, has transparent business practices. Every style sold on the company’s site is linked to an interactive diagram, showing how it was designed, manufactured, and shipped. Consumers can decide for themselves whether the item’s carbon footprint is too large. I tell students that these days, with Twitter and Facebook, the customer has a voice. Therefore, it’s in the best interest of businesses to be mindful of what’s happening throughout their supply chain and the product’s lifecycle. Firms should ask themselves, “How are we contributing to economic and environmental sustainability and social justice?”

against humanity,” said Susan Szenasy, keynote speaker at FIT’s fourth annual Sustainable Business and Design Conference. Szenasy is editor in chief of the architecture and design magazine Metropolis, which has sponsored the Next Generation Design Competition since 2003. The contest awards $10,000 to young creatives with progressive design ideas that incorporate “systems thinking, sustainability, accessibility, materials exploration, historic relevance, and technology.” In her talk, Szenasy discussed past competition winners and her values. Afterward, she sat down for a chat.

To reduce your carbon footprint, you moved into a 400-squarefoot East Village loft designed by Harry Allen. What makes it green? Its size and materials. Everything is made of natural fibers, like hand woven antique rugs from Turkey and Morocco. I just have one little TV, and every light bulb is fluorescent. What are the most exciting green products out there right now? Carpets. Shaw, Interface, Milliken—the Georgia-based carpet companies have been upgrading themselves for a decade now. They’re removing PVC from carpet backing, using less material to tuft the carpets, and they now have the ability to recycle the

insights from the classroom and beyond

Green Light

Musa is also a 1994 graduate of ITM.

product and return it into the material stream, which saves them from making virgin fiber, therefore using less fossil fuel. You’re a member of the advisory group for FIT’s new MA in Sustainable Interior Environments. Will these interiors be beautiful as well as sustainable? If they aren’t, they won’t be good design. Green design has a very bad track record in terms of beauty, but we’re beginning to move beyond that. What’s one simple thing designers can do to make the world a greener place? We all have great clothes in our closets that we no longer wear, but that will perform for another 50 years. You can’t just pulp them all down; that’s an energy-intensive process. Designers should look at their materials in terms of toxicity, shipping costs, and what happens to them at the end — Alexander Gelfand

The 2010 Next Generation award winner created a brick using a process that binds together sand, common bacteria, and urea (found in urine) into a mass that resembles sandstone but can be as strong as marble. Producing “bio-brick” instead of regular brick would release less carbon dioxide into the air— a difference equal to the amount created annually by all the airplanes in the world.

Matthew Septimus

Image courtesy of Metropolis

of their useful lives.

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his spring, Fashion Design– Knitwear Assistant Professor Lisa Donofrio, Fashion Design ’86, asked the students in her

Draping, Advanced Sewing, and Flat-pattern Design class to find secondhand clothes or fabric scraps and use them to create a new top and bottom. “Refurbished garments,” Donofrio calls them. This is the second year she’s assigned the project, which emphasizes thrift and sustainable design practices and encourages students to use “creative patternmaking,” she says, in making their varied materials form a cohesive whole. This year, an interdisciplinary element was added. Together with Photography faculty Curtis Willocks and Jessica Wynne, Donofrio brought together two groups of third-year Photography majors to give the refurbished garments full fashion-editorial treatment as an extracurricular, noncredit project. And so, one sunny March day, Willocks’s students Julie Congo, Kristine Guzman, and B. Charles Johnson; Wynne’s students Daniela Johnson, Constantin Mitides, Alexandra Nelson, and Elliot Townsend; and other students volunteering their modeling, styling, makeup, and technical services trekked uptown to Inwood Hill Park for a daylong shoot of all 20 knitwear students’ designs. The theme, in keeping with the clothes’ “green” spirit, was au naturel: the models were barefoot, their hair windblown, and their makeup minimal. The resulting photos accompanied the garments in a display at FIT’s annual sustainability conference in April. “We’d never worked on a production this big,” Guzman says, adding that her group— which calls itself Triptych—learned much from collaborating with designers, models, assistants, and their stylist, Amy Liebla, Fashion Merchandising Management ’10. “Amy got the accessories, assigned models to ‘looks,’ and acted as a go-between for the photographers and the designers. She took care of a lot of stressful things so we could creatively function.” “The designers wanted their garments presented a certain way and we wanted our photos to look a certain way,” Congo says. “So we learned how to collaborate.” For a complete list of student credits and to see other photos from the project, visit

Photos, top to bottom: Constantin Mitides, Alexandra Nelson, Kristine Guzman, Julie Congo. Opposing page: B. Charles Johnson.

fitnyc.edu/hue.

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Nature Picture Versus

Fashion Design and Photography students collaborate on a green photo shoot

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Spring

Business and technology students host “prom” for local seniors

Josh Wong

Depending on how you look at it, the prom was either a touch early or decidedly late. March 24 is technically spring, but the signs of prom season— white limos in the streets, a run on boutonnieres and corsages at the florists’—typically don’t arrive until April or May. That said, this prom was for the Hudson Guild, a community organization near FIT that is dedicated in part to assisting low-income elderly, many of them immigrants. Some of the roughly 200 attendees had been waiting north of 60 years for a night like this. The event was the brainchild of Ashly Juskus, Fashion Merchandising Management ’10 and then-community service coordinator of the Jay and Patty Baker Scholars. (She’s now working as a merchant assistant for Macys.com.) Begun in 2002 with funds from the Bakers’ record $10 million donation to FIT, the Baker Scholars program supports 40 business and technology students who demonstrate academic excellence and financial need. In addition to receiving tuition assistance, staffing the Baker School of Business and Technology’s biannual Dean’s Forums, and attending cultural events in town, the group is expected to regularly volunteer for charitable enterprises—a commitment that reflects the Bakers’ own philanthropic spirit. Juskus hit on the “senior” prom idea while pitching in at the Hudson Guild’s Thanksgiving dinner, which the scholars have volunteered for since 2008. The Hudson Guild seniors, she says, seemed downcast. Remembering a dance held at her great-grandmother’s retirement home— “It was one of her favorite memories”—she decided to create a similar event at the Guild, and all 40 scholars came together to help with planning and execution.

cil Speaker, left, Christine Quinn, New York City Coun with Juskus in front.

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First came the “mocktail” hour. A pianist played classical music while attendees were served hors d’oeuvres and nonalcoholic drinks like Shirley Temples and Arnold Palmers (half lemonade, half iced tea). Baker School staff and the scholars styled the women’s hair and makeup and invited the seniors to peruse racks of donated garments. Anything they liked they were allowed to keep. New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn attended and presented a proclamation commemorating the day. Then the prom began in earnest, with a DJ spinning big band, merengue, and salsa tunes, a prom photographer snapping portraits, three couples crowned as prom royalty, and a cake and sundae bar. (The last of these was specifically requested by the seniors.) All services, refreshments, and decorations were donated. The prom won coverage from local NPR station WNYC and the New York Post. Baker School Acting Dean Robin Sackin says the success of the event attests to the students’ leadership and management skills. It also shows that a major goal of the Baker Scholars program—to inculcate a sense of duty to serve—is being realized.

Photos by Jerry Speier

Awakening

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UNcommon threads

Ruben Marroquin Textile/Surface Design ’11 a student in first person

What’s that you’re holding? It’s an embroidery I made based on the American flag. I was inspired by Jasper Johns’s flags to make some of my own. I’ve made three American flags, some Navy flags, and the flags of Israel and Palestine. Is this your first series? I made a map series several years ago, where I would affix maps to canvases and use those as templates for embroideries. Are these pieces about nationality and identity? No, there’s no political motivation. The subject is just an excuse to make the work. I focus on the process, the act of sewing and weaving, and welcome chance. Each piece evolves as I work on it. The subject becomes a secondary thing. Textiles are often regarded more as decorative or functional than as high art. What brought you to the medium? I studied art in Venezuela and good paints are very expensive there. So I started embroidering and patching scraps of fabric together instead of painting and came to really enjoy the process. It’s almost like exercise—it trains your mind and your body. You were born in Chicago, raised in Caracas. How did you land at FIT? I left Venezuela when I was 20 to go to Central America, to get to know a bit about my roots—my father was Guatemalan—and ended up in Mexico, waiting tables and traveling around. After three years, I was looking to settle down somewhere, study, and work. I have a cousin in Queens, and he offered to let me stay while I figured things out. When I got here, I started researching schools. Do you get to do much hands-on work for class or is it mostly computerized? We learn both. Right now I have an internship with Chapas Textiles, a hand-weaving studio in DUMBO. They use some modern technology but it is still very hands on. I love the traditional looms as well. They’re in Room C512. Ever since I’ve been at FIT, I’ve been in that room.

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FOU R BY FOU R Four graphic design grads style four projects for Hue

and politics. From art directors to business leaders,

four designers—in portrait left to right, Aswin Sadha,

design students to curators, contributors push the

Hitomi Ishigaki, Ryotatstu Tanaka, and Ryo Kumazaki—

boundaries of their disciplines. Newwork features

Hue turned over its front and back covers and

who met as Graphic Design students at FIT. Established

bold, custom-designed typefaces and a twist on the

four inside pages to Studio Newwork, an

in 2007, the multidisciplinary studio focuses on adver-

traditional newspaper format, juxtaposing striking

up-and-coming graphic design firm made up

tising, branding, editorial, fashion, and web design.

design and everyday simplicity. Since pages can be

of four 2007 alumni, and asked them to use their

In addition to work for such clients as Levi’s,

separated, each layout can be hung on the wall as

design, photography, and art direction skills to

Me magazine, and fashion designer Robert Geller,

an individual art piece.

present their own work and the work of three

the studio publishes Newwork, a large-format

fellow alumni in three different design fields.

magazine featuring a wide range of artists and

studionewwork.com

creators in fine art, design, high fashion, culture,

newworkmag.com

STU DIO N EWWOR K

Studio Newwork is a New York-based group of

STUDIO NEWWORK NEWWORK MAGAZINE

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Tonny Sadha, Interior Design ‘94, founded his

The Allegria Hotel and Spa (2009) in Long Beach,

interior design consulting firm, specializing in

NY, was conceived as an urban retreat, taking many

hospitality projects, in 2005. His use of innovative

design cues from the hotel’s oceanfront location.

materials, technology, and custom-made products

and furniture allows him to craft unique interiors that

to pursue his college education. He is a recipient

are contemporary yet timeless.

of the 2009 Wave of the Future award, presented

With an Asian background, American education,

Born in Bali, Sadha moved to New York in 1989

by Hospitality Design magazine to rising talent. With

and European sensibility, Sadha creates designs

a newly opened studio in Bali, Sadha is currently

that reflect his global exposure. His recent work

working on a luxury yacht; F&B outlets, which purvey

includes the intimate Hotel Ravel (2007) in Long

European street food in Manhattan and elsewhere;

Island City, NY, designed as an escape from the gritty

and spas and villas throughout Southeast Asia.

industrial neighborhood around it with clean lines, tonnysadha.com

TON NY SADHA I NTE R IOR DESIG N

various textures, and shades of white and gray.

HOTEL RAVEL

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R EONA U E DA / STU DIO N EWWOR K

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1.7 (2005-7)

Reona Ueda, a fine artist living in Japan, often

Ueda and Studio Newwork’s 1.7 is part of an

creates conceptual pieces. This wearable art piece,

ongoing project, called Global Identity, that Ueda

1.7, was inspired by kanzashi, traditional Japanese

began in 2002, in which individuals contribute works

hair ornaments, and is the first installment in a

that other participants connect, communicate, and

collaboration between Ueda, Fine Arts ‘07, and

reinterpret. In this framework, 1.7 is a bridge between

Studio Newwork. The piece consists of spiraling

traditional Japanese and Western conceptions of

English text defining “peace,” embellished with

fine art. The limited-edition piece, made of urethane-

handmade representations of Japanese native

coated, lacquered synthetic resin and stainless

plants from a classic 19th-century botanical book,

steel, is available at the Tate Modern gallery shop

Flora Japonica. Written by the German physician

in London, at Hugo & Marie in New York, and

P.F.B. von Siebold, Flora Japonica introduced many

through Reona Ueda.

Japanese plants and flowers to Europeans. renewwork.com reona.org

Opposite: Ueda’s many precise sketches helped him create the spiraling text and floral elements of his wearable art piece, 1.7, which is available in black or white, above.

The text, a philosophical definition of “peace,” reproduces an oft-shared, unattributed quote: “It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.”

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mind the gap

What, if anything, should be done about “sagging”? by Alex Joseph

Photos by Matty Brown ’10

hose who do it call it “sagging”—wearing your pants anywhere from just below the waist, revealing a sliver of boxers, to hitching them well south of the buttocks. The look began 25 years ago in inner cities, reportedly inspired by prisoners who weren’t allowed belts while incarcerated. The style became associated with hip-hop, and like many such trends, it was adapted by white suburban youth. Whatever its source, one thing is certain: it provokes strong reactions. Even Barack Obama weighed in, in a 2008 MTV interview: “Brothers should pull up their pants.” Sagging has taken its place in a long line of fashion trends that outrage the mainstream and prompt backlash from authorities and the public. This spring, New York State Senator Eric Adams decided to do something about it. He erected six anti-sagging billboards around Brooklyn and asked city schools chancellor Joel Klein to create

a citywide standard of dress in public schools. Adams also made a YouTube video in which he said, “This is not a fashion trend. It is unkempt and unnecessary.” The New York Times and Women’s Wear Daily picked up the story. WWD quoted Sean John Vice President Jeffrey Tweedy, who studied menswear and marketing at FIT, contesting the idea that sagging is strictly an African-American style. “Many different people are involved in this trend,” he said. “You can go to Washington Square Park and see skaters wearing tight Levi’s in a similar way.” He also disputed the prison origins story: “This was a fashion statement. It was never a gang statement.” What does sagging mean? Is it fashion? Can a politician’s campaign against a style succeed? We asked experts on campus, alumni at the annual FIT fashion show, and finally, a few sagging proponents we found around the neighborhood.

Adams has called sagging “an insidious spectacle.”

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Jason, 22.

Mike, 18.

Mohamed, 19.

Type of pants? Diesel jeans.

How low? A little below the waist. [Indicating the anti-sagging ad] I don’t wear my s**t that low! That’s open for a gay guy to touch you, and I’m not gay.

Is it hard to walk? I had a friend who got shot nine times because he couldn’t pull his pants up fast enough to run away.

Type of underwear? Boxers. They’re thick, they hold it up.

Do you always wear a shirt over it? No.

Is it hard to walk? No. I tighten my belt so it stays stuck.

Is it a current style? No, it was really more of a ’90s thing.

Underwear? Usually I like briefs, but today I chose to mix it up a bit. Why sag? They just slide off. It’s my build. My mom tells me to pull it up every time.

Why sag? I’m not saying I’m not a citizen, but I’m not a soft dude. That’s what it says.

Johnny, FIT Photography student. How low? It was bad in eighth grade, but as I got older, they rose up. Why sag? I want the girls to check out my buns.

Why sag? We get arrested a lot. We get our belts taken away. So your pants just sag.

Sagging : Pro and Con Senator Adams is saying that by dressing that way, they’re acting like stereotypes. But he’s also stereotyping the people he’s trying to change. There are plenty of better things to campaign against. —Ben Sander, Fashion Design ’93

No one wants to see your behind in public. So I don’t have a problem with the campaign. —Nicole Blackman, Advertising and Marketing Communications ’01

The campaign is biased. Nobody wants to see girls in their thongs, either. –Canea L. Jones, Fashion Design ’08

It’s a freedom of speech issue. If a legislator says you can’t wear something, where do you stop? It’s a slippery slope. —Nerissa Riocis Lauren, Home Products Development ’06

Sagging isn’t just a young, urban aesthetic. It’s like rap music; it’s been adapted so now you can see it in Newport, Rhode Island, and parts of Connecticut. My students are designers, so their take on the look is a lot less blatant than the guys on Senator Adams’s poster. But yes, the students are wearing their pants low, showing their boxers and their briefs. I say to them, you’re going to be setting fashion trends in the future. Is that what you want to be remembered for? Pull your pants up. —Mark-Evan Blackman, chair of Menswear

Fashion history is replete with sumptuary laws— often with Draconian penalties—that continued to be flouted. The Middle Ages, for example, were full of attempts to shorten the length of the long pointy shoes men wore, and to regulate women’s long trains and sleeves. You see it internationally, too. In Japan, the Shoguns tried to outlaw fashion. The penalties included confiscation of your property and banishment. More recently, in this country, moral panics have often surrounded youth culture fashions. Not infrequently in America, they were focused on minority youth. In the ’40s, for example, zoot suits were outlawed in certain areas. I guess in part it’s because clothes are such an immediate and personal part of identity. Authorities think they can control evidence of change in society, which is expressed in clothes that they regard as disrespectful and inappropriate. —Valerie Steele, director of The Museum at FIT

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Please Don’t Touch How do you buy, sell, exhibit, and collect “intangible” art? Students in FIT’s Art Market: Principles and Practices MA program are finding out by Alex Joseph

In 2008, the Museum of Modern Art paid $70,000 for Kiss (2003), a piece by Tino Sehgal, but no one signed an invoice. The sale was nearly as ephemeral as the work, in which two performers assume a series of poses based on kisses in famous works of art. Sehgal, an artist with a background in dance and economics, insists no papers be signed in any transaction related to his work. The sale was conducted orally—the piece described aloud as a series of instructions—and witnessed by a notary. MoMA wired the funds to his bank account. Performance art dates to the ’60s or earlier, though it continues to challenge the art market, which remains oriented towards tangible media like painting and sculpture. Early performance artists picked up on anti-commercial sentiments in the wider culture. Partly designed to resist commodification, pieces like Vito Acconci’s famous Seedbed (1971) provided something intangible for the audience: a thoughtprovoking experience. In the piece, Acconci crawled around under a ramp, hidden from gallery visitors while describing sexual fantasies into a loudspeaker. A document of such a performance, like a video, can be sold, but is that the art itself or a pale facsimile? Sehgal, who prefers the phrase “constructed situation” to describe his work, is an even harder sell. He never allows his pieces to be videotaped or packaged into a catalogue.

Hines says, “I wouldn’t paint Call me when you get this. That wouldn’t make sense. It makes sense to write it on the same pad I write notes to my husband on.”

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This year, students in FIT’s Art Market MA program organized a panel discussion of experts to explore the question of how such unconventional work is bought, sold, and collected. The timing was excellent, since the spring brought to New York several well-publicized examples of what is sometimes called non-object-based art, including Sehgal at the Guggenheim and the much-discussed Marina Abramović show, MoMA’s first full retrospective of a performance artist. “Collectors and museums will figure out how to buy something if it’s great art, even if the work is just a concept or performance. Artists force the market to keep moving and adapting,” Jeffrey Deitch said. A prominent dealer and gallery owner, now the director of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, he was perhaps the most vocal market proponent on the panel, which included MoMA’s assistant curator of performance art, Cara Starke, and up-and-coming artist Clifford Owens. Panel member Thea Westreich, an advisor to private art collectors, said, “Picking the art and recognizing it’s important is easy; collecting it and protecting the artist’s intentionality is difficult.” It’s especially difficult if the artist is Owens. In Photographs with an Audience, he creates pictures while asking provocative questions in a live performance. The resulting images have appeared in galleries and could theoretically be sold. The panel’s moderator, Martha Schwendener, art critic for The Village Voice and faculty member in the Art Market program, asked him, “Did you see the photographs as something separate from the work?” No, he replied; they were part of one work’s trajectory. He added, in a striking contradiction, “My work is part of a tradition that actively resists the market. At the same time, I want to make money, because I have two small children. With that piece, I was aware of the objects my actions would generate, but not for purely economic reasons. Because I don’t really sell any work.” Owens seems to feel that non-object-based art is too sacred to sell; Deitch has no such qualms. He sees artists and dealers as the same type of person: “I don’t think there’s a separation between market people and ‘pure’ people.” Further, he has solutions to the problems intangible art poses. In the ’60s, one of his first tasks in a gallery was typing up a $1,000 invoice on behalf of an artist whose “piece” was simply a conversation with a collector. He also gave the example of Vanessa Beecroft, who creates “living sculptures”—assemblages of people who stand in relatively fixed poses for certain lengths of time. Deitch photographed the piece Beecroft made for

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Scott Rudd

his studio and sold the images. “The photographs are nothing like the experience of being at a performance,” he acknowledged. “But we had to do it [to make money], and people bought them.” Unlike Owens, many artists are happy to sell documentary photographs or videos if it allows them to keep working. “The videos are sold in limited editions,” explained student Meredith Rosenberg ’10, a gallery director for BravinLee Programs in Chelsea. Collectors are proud of such acquisitions, she said, because owning non-object-based work attests to buyers’ intellectual rigor: “You’re a ‘real’ collector if you own an Abramović.” Richard and Pamela Kramlich, a San Francisco couple that owns the world’s largest collection of film and video art, are perhaps the best example. They live in a house designed to showcase video screens, each acquisition available at the flick of a switch. Sometimes the market subverts the artist’s intentions. Schwendener cited Chris Burden, who stowed himself in a storage container for Five Day Locker Piece (1971). “A collector tracked down the actual lock and locker and bought it,” she said. “So these souvenirs can take on a kind of fetish quality.” Abramović devised another strategy to market the intangible. As part of her MoMA show, she hired performers to “re-perform” some of her early works. The pieces could thus enter the market as instructions for performers. These “re-performances” left many critics underwhelmed, however. One wrote in The New York Times, “Two elements that originally defined performance art, unpredictability and ephemerality, were missing.” Student Andrea Fisher ’10 agreed with the criticism, though she added, “It had to be done; she’s not going to live forever. [The re-performances] were good for educational, arthistorical purposes.” In the spring, graduating students mounted an exhibition that included intangible works at the Pandemic Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They conceived a theme, researched artists, found and staffed the space, and wrote press materials, including a website and catalogue. In class, they grappled with such questions as how to display a DVD of a performance. Beth Miller, Art Market faculty member, asked, “Is putting a video on a laptop changing the work?” (It was eventually displayed on a high-definition TV.) Program chair Katherine Michaelsen said she was impressed with the high quality of the panel discussion and the show: “I would like this program to be seen as a nexus of the art world in New York— and it’s happening.”

Rachel Hines’s piece Call me when you get this (2010, see photo opposite) appeared in the students’ show as a stack of notes. Reached at the phone number on the note, Hines said, “I’m just starting to understand this piece myself. I got all these voicemails, and now I have to decide how to respond to them.” Her work has origins in her nomadic childhood, and a corresponding need for connection. She paints, sculpts, and teaches for money, but her intangible pieces interest her most. “Just connecting on a human level with my viewer—I don’t even know what kind of art that is,” she said. Schwendener suggested contemporary artists had a “green” motivation for making non-object-based work, and Hines agreed: “It seems immoral to create more objects in this overcrowded world.” Marketers of intangible art, it seems, must be as nimble and playful as the artists themselves. Artist Jamie Isenstein is known for unconventional sculptures such as Saw the Lady (2007). The piece is a blue wooden magician’s box that appears to have been sawed in half, with Isenstein’s feet sticking out of it. (When the artist isn’t there, a “will return” sign is displayed.) I queried her through Chelsea’s Andrew Kreps Gallery, which represents her, and asked about the terms of sale. Was Isenstein obliged to be present for the piece a certain number of times per year—or what? She replied: “My sculptures are like water in that they can exist in many different states (like how water can be ice, liquid, or steam), and still remain the same thing. In one state the sculpture includes me and in another state it does not. When someone purchases one of these sculptures (including Saw the Lady), they receive the sculpture in the second state, but periodically the sculpture transforms into the first state. There is no formal agreement for how often or when this might happen.”

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Abramović sat in MoMA’s atrium all day throughout the run of her exhibition, and offered her gaze to visitors. Her show drew approximately 500,000 people.

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Sex and the Scribbler

1980 carol seitz , photography,

Kristina Grish, Advertising and Communications ’96

spent years working for fashion and celebrity

A former fashion director for Sports Illustrated

photographers before

for Women back at the turn of the millennium (she

becoming one herself. She

launched the magazine’s first all-male swimsuit issue),

specializes in environmen-

Kristina Grish has since authored four books on

tal portraiture, capturing

dating; written for glossies like Cosmopolitan and

subjects in their work or

Women’s Health; and generally established herself as

home environments. Her

an authority on relationships, fashion, and celebrity. Thank you for writing Boy Vey! The Shiksa’s Guide

NBC, Elle, and Vogue. Alia Malley

news from your classmates

clients include Macy’s,

Seitz’s portrait of Bryan Hopkins, VP and general counsel for Samsung Electronics America.

1985

1987

maria hanakis hudak, fashion

mona lucero, fashion design,

buying and merchandising ,

Boutique in Denver since

er business for Shiseido

2002. Focusing on her

Cosmetics. She works on

own work and that of other

product launches for

local designers and artists,

accounts such as Pfizer lip

Lucero sells a mix of

products and Neutrogena

accessories, clothing, and

hair care. Hudak previously

fine art. This spring, she

worked for Chanel and for

showed some new designs

home textiles manufacturer

at Denver’s Hinterland

Franco Manufacturing.

art gallery.

of dating guys like me. It was gratifying to be properly appreciated.

That was a book I would probably only have done in my 20s, when I had no sense of what was appropriate. It was fun, though. How did you become a dating expert?

has run her Mona Lucero

senior manager of custom-

to Dating Jewish Men, your book about the joys

Sex and the City was on television, everyone wanted their own version of Carrie Bradshaw, and the whole sex journalism thing took off overnight. The only background you needed was a lot of dates and horrible experiences with them. I had an idea for a book, and a friend at GQ. I asked if she knew any literary agents, and she told me that one had just hit on her. I said, “Oh my God, give me his number!” I’m much more careful now about going through the right channels. You published four dating books in three years, blogged for Women’s Health about your first year of marriage ... then briefly dropped out of sight, leaving your editorial position at the magazine and collaborating instead on celebrity book projects. What happened? I had endometriosis. It was really startling and scary and painful, but I’m fine now. For a minute, I thought about writing a book about my experience, but I really didn’t want to relive it. Instead, I co-wrote Oh My Dog: How to Choose, Oh My Dog made the New York Times how-to bestseller list.

Train, Groom, Nurture, Feed, and Care for Your New Best Friend with Beth Ostrosky Stern, Howard Stern’s wife. I’m about to start work on a new book with Giuliana and Bill

Meg Reul

Rancic, who have a reality show about their marriage, and I also have a new Cosmo

Lucero’s hand-painted vintage slip, sheer scarf worn as headwrap, and sheer mesh gauntlets.

1989 tina fiorella hill , fashion design,

column about my marriage. Do you ever think about your former life as a stylist? I enjoyed matching bathing suits, but I got bored with it, and it was very tiring. I really miss being on set for photo shoots and the personalities I worked with. But I prefer a

worked as a designer

for Walmart, Target, and Macy’s before launching Kidzsack, an award-winning line of eco-friendly

job where I’m thinking, rather than doing.

—Alexander Gelfand

knapsacks. Each is screen-printed with artwork and

1990

comes with eight

martha ruth burczyk, interior design,

washable markers.

written Warren (Arcadia, 2009), a photo-

and merchandising ,

Hill has produced

graphic history of the third-largest town

insurance broker and account manager

custom pieces for

in Michigan, her home state. Burczyk,

for Fotek Business Solutions in Wall, NJ.

resorts and hotels,

who holds a master’s degree in historic

She previously worked in management

and is working

preservation, worked in New York for 23

for retailers Hit or Miss, Pants Place,

on international

years before returning to the Midwest,

and Clothestime.

distribution deals.

where she does curatorial work, research,

has

barrie katzman krywinski, fashion buying

is a licensed health

and historic preservation writing for local municipalities.

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Dirty Dolls Lingerie

1996 diana strauss fine, jewelry design,

is senior designer for

men’s leathers at Fossil, in Richardson, TX. Previously,

Courtney Leigh Newman, Fashion Design ’01 Erica Paul, Fashion Design ’05

she designed belts for Cipriani Accessories and jewelry for Gioielli, Uncas, and Esposito. She also created Nob Hill’s luxe home accessories line, Michael Hero.

1997 yoshiko sugimoto, marketing: fashion and related industries, fashion buying and merchandising ’93,

is chief New York

Good Behaviour

Fossil designs by Diana Fine.

Left to right: Dirty Dolls’ Curvaceous Cleavage bra and Thrilling Thong in port royale; Peek-a-Boo camisole bra and Cha-Cha-Cheeky short in stocking sheer.

Courtney Leigh Newman and Erica Paul met while working for a sportswear company

correspondent for Senken Shimbun, Japan’s largest

and discovered that, along with an FIT education, they both shared a background in

fashion daily, and coauthor of the publication’s Illustrated

undergarment design and a love of all things vintage. In 2008, the two formed Dirty

Dictionary of Fashion (2007). She’s also head of the

Dolls Lingerie to “bring glamour back to the everyday,” Newman says. Designed after

New York chapter of the FIT Alumni Association Japan,

old-timey burlesque, the line puts a premium on comfort, offering panties and shapers

a networking organization for Japanese graduates

in six sizes and bras in 26 sizes, with special attention paid to accommodating smaller

and students.

ribcages and larger cups. Dirty Dolls sells online and in 20 stores nationwide, and Paul and Newman also host fit parties in the New York City area.

1998

jamie pungello elqorchi, marketing: fashion and related industries,

is a senior buyer of professional hair, skin care,

and cosmetics products for Parallel Vision, a wholesale

2002 melissa wehrle, fashion design,

—Greg Herbowy

2004

is a knitwear designer

kate splane healy, interior

company in Long Island. She was previously a jewelry

for KBL Group International, where she plans lines

design,

buyer for Fortunoff, leather goods supervisor for Louis

and researches trends for its juniors’ sweaters. She’s

Studio, a commercial and

Vuitton, and organizational manager at Nordstrom.

also a hand-knit designer with her own line of

residential interior design

patterns. Her work has been featured in Brave New

studio in Fort Lauderdale.

Knits (Rodale, 2010) and Knitscene magazine.

Before going solo, she designed

2001

has opened Habiliment

pia forstrom- cacioppo,

eissa shively, advertising and

residences for Dennis Wedlick

fashion merchandising

marketing communications,

Architect in New York and worked on corporate and

interactive agency R/GA,

commercial projects for

Corps Community

where she works on the

Arquitectonica and ADD, Inc.,

Services, a branch of the

Nike account—a natural

in Miami.

U.S. Marine Corps that

fit for the 19-marathon

sells goods to officers,

veteran, now training

erin langon, accessories design,

diplomats, and State

for her second Ironman.

is a handbag designer for

Department personnel.

Shively previously wrote

Nine West. Her work includes

From her Pentagon City

for Victoria’s Secret

line reviews, which means

office, she oversees the

Direct, Abercrombie &

trips from her office in the

purchase of all hard-line

Fitch, and Express.

trend department in New York

is divisional

David Bryan Lombard

is a senior copywriter at

sales manager for Marine

management,

goods (housewares, gifts, sports equipment) for MCCS’s retail division.

City to the manufacturer in Dongguan, in China’s Guangdong province.

Somerset cardigan by Melissa Wehrle.

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Sweet Smell of Success

2005 megan kerrigan, fashion merchandising management,

wears

many hats. She’s a sales rep for pharmaceutical company

Laurie Lam, Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing and Management ’09

Eli Lilly; brand manager for Aunt Butchie’s Cupcakes, which operates a retail location on Seventh Avenue opposite FIT’s campus; and president of Operation Fairy Dust, a nonprofit organization she started with Rashia Bell, Fashion Merchandising Management ’01, providing free prom dresses to New York City students of limited economic means.

news from your classmates

mahjabeen obaid, fashion merchandising management,

runs the bed linen division of Towellers Limited, her family’s home textile business Alexander Verhave

in Karachi, Pakistan. The company—which has an office on Fifth Avenue—dyes, stitches, and ships towels, Custom wedding invite by Obaid.

blankets, and garments

for customers worldwide. Obaid also runs Mahj Design

Lam at the Ted Gibson Salon in New York City.

When she was 16 years old, Laurie Lam, fascinated with beauty products, approached

Studio, a custom wedding invitation business.

the Estée Lauder counter at her local Flushing department store for an after-school

2006

career. After earning an undergraduate business degree, she joined L’Oréal, the

job. A few forms and parents’ signatures later, Lam had embarked on her cosmetics Paris-based beauty juggernaut. In 2009, she earned a Master of Professional Studies

jenna riccio laible, fashion design,

in FIT’s Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing and Management program, becoming

is an assistant legwear

the first in her Chinese-American family with a graduate degree.

designer for ETC Group, a

hosiery company that does private label work and holds

are sponsored by their employers. Recognizing Lam’s potential, L’Oréal recommended

the legwear license for

her for the program and paid her tuition in full. The day before she graduated, she

Chinese Laundry. She’s also

was promoted to senior marketing manager.

planning an online boutique

with her brother, Joseph Riccio, Graphic Design ’11,

Earthy Heart bag by Justified Runaways, Laible and Riccio’s company.

Communication Design ’09.

2007 hillary owen, interior design,

Lam was working as a marketing manager at the New York office of L’Oréal when

she came to FIT. Students in the MPS program must already be in the industry; most

Lam’s role now is to manage the L’Oréal Professionnel haircolor brands, which are

marketed to salons. Recently, her time has been consumed with INOA, a haircolor system intended to revolutionize the field. Supported by 13 patents and formulated with ammonia-free, odorless, oil-based technology, INOA was introduced to 200 elite salons last October, in time for the company’s centennial. It was rolled out in earnest

is a design consultant at

Mosaicos, a tile and stone showroom in Chicago. Formerly a designer with Polshek Partnership Architects in New York, she is LEED-certified in interior design and construction and volunteers for the International Interior Design Association, the American Institute of Architects,

this May, when Lam began a communications blitz targeting both hairdressers and consumers through traditional means, social media, and special events.

The schedule is frantic—Lam travels frequently to major U.S. cities to speak at

salons and meet distributors—but she says there’s no work she’d rather do. “I am passionate about this industry and what it provides for women. It’s more than glamour—it’s confidence and empowerment.”

and the Chicago Architecture Foundation. janna topolewski, advertising and marketing communications,

is a media planner at MediaVest in New York City, where she helps Avon and its youth-oriented sister brand, mark, allocate the spending of their annual media budgets. She previously worked at Draftfcb in Chicago, where she did media planning for Taco Bell. lindsay wilson, fashion merchandising management,

2008 tony (haejong) gwon, toy design, communication design ’07,

is a freelance designer and illustrator who does everything from illustration to character and storyboard design for an advertising, toy, and fashion industry clientele. Gwon’s résumé includes work for Fisher-Price,

is a

merchandiser for the girls’ Crewcuts division at J.Crew.

Brand New MDI, 96 North, and Vintage Brass. Character design by Gwon for Bubble, his proposed children’s book.

She recently oversaw production of exclusive merchandise for the company’s new Madison Avenue store.

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After life Eva Franco

I’m a big collector—I’m a flea market junkie, and

or that inform their work in a nonlinear way. For me,

I travel all over the world to find fabrics and details

taxidermy is a prolonged encounter with the form,

for my designs. One of my obsessions is vintage or

grace, and fleeting quality of nature. And I do tend

antique taxidermy.

to have a lot of natural elements in my clothing—

animal and wood-grain prints, shells as neck pieces,

My first exposure to it was as a girl in Romania,

where I lived with my Hungarian parents until I

horn buttons.

was 10. We had this family friend who had all sorts

ofexotic taxidermy. His house seemed so magical

they wrote a story about me. I actually had to curb

to me. I mean, how often do you see a gazelle in

my habit a bit. Mostly I collect birds, but I have an elk

Eastern Europe?

head named Frank that I keep in my office. I have

a beautiful barn owl. I’m looking for a white peacock,

Creative people sometimes have odd cravings

that don’t necessarily match up with their work,

sources of inspiration

Fashion Design ’94

I’ve bought so much taxidermy off of eBay that

if you know of anyone who has one.

Eva Franco’s clothing line sells in more than 400 stores worldwide at her store in Irvington, VA, and online at evafranco.com. For more on Franco and to view a slideshow of her work, visit fitnyc.edu/hue. You can learn to make a mount like this brown perch at SUNY’s Finger Lakes Community College,

Photograph: Lenore Friend

the only higher education institution in New York offering a taxidermy certificate program.

What inspires you?   Email the editors at hue@fitnyc.edu

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