pumpS and CirCumStanCe

Right “I have a lip fascination. Of all the body parts, I like lips most.” —Ashley Hemming, Fashion Merchandising Management

the best CommenCement footwear from the Class of 2013

photos by trupal pandya ’14

Donning the royal blue regalia is a privileged rite of passage for FIT grads, but the blousy uniform doesn’t leave much room for individual style. How, then, does the next generation of New York’s trailblazing trendsetters show off their style? One word: shoes. Whether it’s flats or stilettos, strappy sandals or retro sneakers, looking down during graduation always rewards the eye. Maybe Fern Mallis put it best in her commencement speech this year: “We always notice the shoes.”

Right “I got these at Zara because they were shiny.” —Tae Kyung Kim, Fashion Design

Left “I found these on Polyvore. I wanted to find the craziest shoes I could wear today. But not too over the top.” —Amber Sanders, Interior Design Left “I wanted to add a little bit of sparkle to the day.” —Ashley Boyce, Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing and Management

“These are my power shoes. I never shop for comfort. Hot comes first, then comfort.” —Lauren Edelman, Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing and Management

Above “These are Jessica Simpson. I got them last season but only wore them once before. I’m gonna have blisters.” —Rachel Gildea, Textile Development and Marketing Above “I’m hoping to be as tall as the rest of my family today—unless they’re wearing heels too.” —Meg Wilbur, Illustration

a student in first person

buSineSS ClaSS

Valerie Michael-éfe

entrepreneurship ’13, fashion design ’11

You’re in the first graduating class of FIt’s entrepreneurship program. What was your favorite course? In our sixth semester, we worked in groups to create a business plan—financials, marketing, everything. Everyone in my group had a design background, so we learned a lot. For example, a profitable business can be ruined by cash-flow problems. Also, how do you get customers? That’s the big hurdle.

What’s the secret? The secret is to know your art, and have the experience to prove it.

You seem pretty confident. Do you have a business background? My mother was a serial entrepreneur in Nigeria, where I’m from. Now she owns a poultry farm, but she once had a baking business, and I was her accountant. After a few years, I told her I wanted to start my own fashion business. But in Nigeria, no one in the business environment will listen to you unless you have a degree.

What got you interested in fashion? My mother was a fashion designer, too. She made women’s wear— head wraps, tops, wrappers in wax-resist fabrics. In Africa, we like a lot of colors, prints, and details. For the best things you wear there, men and women, the tops are always lace. That’s why I love lace.

so will you make evening wear? No, luxury outerwear and rainwear. I’m getting together specially made Italian fabrics that I’ve researched during my internship at Brioni, the high-end Italian company. Some are layered and treated to make them waterproof.

What have you learned at Brioni? I work with the retail planner and analyst. They plan what goes into each store and constantly analyze data to know what is happening in sales across the U.S. It’s a lot of numbers work and Excel. Before this, I didn’t know how to analyze data to learn how much profit you’re making.

Is this your best internship? I learned something important at all of them. For Michael Kors, I did technical design. At Zegna, I learned how important inventory is. I did publicity for Irina Shabayeva, the season six Project Runway winner. With Zac Posen, I did patternmaking. He was a nice guy, very quiet.

and soon you’ll have an atelier of your own. What’s your aesthetic? For the 2011 student fashion show, I made overalls with shorts and a hood, and glitter and lace, and I won a critic’s award. I want my clothes to be art. I don’t care if they’re wearable. I want people to look at them and say, “How did she do that?”

Michael-éfe wears a jacket from her collection, OSO-EFE (it means “rain” in Isoko, a language spoken in Nigeria). See the line at osoefe.com.

steps toward a sustainable future

the greeneSt of them all

how fit reduced its carbon emissions by 43 percent

In 2007, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg set the audacious goal of reducing the city’s total greenhouse emissions 30 percent by 2030. To start, 17 universities and 11 hospitals, such as Columbia University and the Mount Sinai Medical Center, were invited to participate in the Mayor’s Carbon Challenge, to hit that 30 percent reduction by 2017. FIT rolled out its Climate Action Plan, which addressed not only greenhouse gases but also recycling, non-toxic cleaning, and other environmentally urgent goals.

FIT was the first to reach the 30 percent goal; in fact, the college’s carbon reduction has now surpassed 40 percent, the most significant drop of all the participants. Most of the energy savings (and, by extension, carbon dioxide reduction) resulted from updating the college’s heating and air-conditioning systems. For example, a new chiller plant, which cools the buildings, reduced CO2 emissions by 5,000 tons per year— cutting the college’s carbon footprint more than 20 percent. But other changes made a difference, too. Installing 16,000 energy-efficient lighting fixtures with occupancy sensors eliminated 1,059 tons of CO2 per year, and replacing refrigerators reduced emissions by 50 tons per year. Installing reflective windows in sunny areas and high-efficiency washers and dryers in the residence halls has also contributed to a greener FIT.

The FIT community is being called on to be more mindful of electricity use. In Kaufman Hall, for example, planned submeters on every floor will show students how much energy they are using. A competition to save energy within the residence hall will likely save about 43,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year and almost 20 tons of CO2.

Fortunately, greening FIT is a smart investment. These upgrades are saving the college $1 million per year in energy costs, and most of the investments will pay for themselves within a decade. —Jonathan Vatner

Carbon Intensity (CO2 emissions/square foot)

70

60

emissions/square foot CO 2

50

40

30

20

10 Start of Challenge

0 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Baseline Year 30% Reduction Target Carbon Intensity (CO2 emissions/square foot)

The blue line represents FIT’s carbon footprint between 2003 and 2011. The red dotted line shows the college’s baseline carbon footprint; the green dotted line represents a 30 percent reduction, which the college has well exceeded.

Matthew Septimus insights from the classroom and beyond

pitCh perfeCt

ted Schachter, assistant professor, advertising and marketing Communications

Marketing is rarely about your beliefs. If you’re a vegetarian, you can still sell steak. Or, you can turn down the account. I tell my students, “Don’t try to figure me out; don’t worry about my values. Figure out what sells. The best pitch gets the A.” (The only thing I don’t let them work on is cigarettes.) In the class I teach called Creative Strategies, they develop a hypothetical strategy for a real brand, and they have to put together everything they know—copywriting, sales promotion, PR—to make it effective. Two years ago, I gave them an assignment involving the jewelry company Harry Winston. I said, “This prestigious brand is developing a line of engagement rings. Find an interesting target market, and come up with a campaign for them.” The students had to understand the history of the company, who Harry Winston was, and the symbol of the diamond ring. Most of the pitches took a conservative, traditional approach; for example, one group devised a campaign for second marriages. But one group positioned rings for the gay market. They created three print ads, a commercial, and an event with celebrities who are pro-gay marriage, and showed how they would leverage it with PR. They had the best tag line: “Love is universal.” They said, “No other brand in the luxe jewelry category is addressing this group.” It’s my job to be skeptical, so I said, “Will people perceive Harry Winston as a ‘gay brand’? That’s not who they are; they’re conservative.” But the students justified their pitch. Ten years ago, they said, it wouldn’t work, but there’s been a lot of positivity in the media. They traced psychographics, or trends in belief, on Twitter and Facebook. They pointed out that the general population in the cities where the firm has most of its stores—New York, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles—were ready for it. They researched the demographics, including income, profession, and living standard for the gay market. The originality of the presentation wasn’t the only thing that earned the students the A; it was their creativity, maturity, execution, focus, and the research they did to justify it.