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Decemeber 21, 2021 Northwell Health LIJ Forest Hills, in Forest Hills, Queens, saw its first COVID-19 patient on March 11, 2020, and would go on to see more than 2,000 COVID-19 patients in the facility over the next year.     Now, two FIT Illustration MFA students—Jensine Eckwall, from Newtown, CT, now living in Ridgewood, Queens, and set to graduate this coming summer, and Nikki Scioscia, from Lexington, SC, now living in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and in her third year—have designed and installed two murals in a site-specific outdoor staff rest area at the hospital that will serve as a memorial garden honoring those lost to the pandemic.     The design of the murals, which were formally unveiled on December 14, is heavily influenced by American Folk Art, Eckwall explained. In one of the images, the sun is rising because the community hospital used to play The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” when someone was released from the COVID ward. In the other image is a tree displaying the message “New York Will Heal Because of You.” The tree’s roots signify the roots at the hospital, which are closely connected to the borough of Queens.     Merav Deguzman, director of Patient and Customer Experience Education at LIJ, has a daughter who went to FIT, and has seen ChalkFIT—the college’s annual outdoor mural project. She thought of FIT students to paint the hospital’s mural in memory of those lost to COVID, and approached Brendan Leach, chair of FIT’s MFA in Illustration, about it.     Click here to read the original article

December 14, 2021 FIT alum Aniyah Smith, Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing BS ’20, has created Push Beauty, an inclusive and accessible cosmetics company for diverse populations. Smith, inspired by the Husky Startup Challenge after beginning her Northeastern MBA program, received an inaugural $2,500 Innovator Award from the university’s Women Who Empower initiative to support her efforts. Her line will include products for disabled people that can be opened and used with one hand. “I realized that diversity goes past color, wealth, and background,” Smith says. ”It’s really about environments and experiences that people have, and a lot of the time they are very different from your own. And so my goals have changed. My career choice to be a founder of a brand has stayed the same, but what that brand is and what it means to people has definitely evolved.” Click here to read the original article

On Dec. 8, FIT launched an unprecedented initiative to transform the lives and careers of people of color in the creative industries. Through a multifaceted, comprehensive approach, the Social Justice Center at FIT (SJC) is designed to increase opportunity and accelerate social equity for those whom the industry might otherwise leave behind.     People of color make up only about one in five workers in the creative industries. Because the problem of underrepresentation is deeply rooted, the solution cannot be one-dimensional. BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) individuals in these industries face systemic barriers at every stage of their lives, beginning in childhood and lasting through retirement. That is why the SJC is building a seamless and sustained support network that addresses early education, college mentorship and training, and professional career support.     “The focus for the Social Justice Center at FIT is on the whole individual,” says FIT President Joyce F. Brown, who spearheaded this first-of-its-kind initiative in higher education. “We will intervene early with BIPOC youth so they can make informed decisions about their future and the careers they might choose to pursue. While they are in college, we will provide exposure to the inner workings of industry as well as concentrated support and training. Our partners in industry will then mentor, guide, and provide opportunities to accelerate their career potential.”     The SJC aims to nurture a racially and ethnically diverse talent pipeline, from the middle school classroom to the executive level. If successful, it will break down systemic barriers and ensure that BIPOC professionals achieve their full potential. It will provide scholarships for middle school, high school, and college students, and offer a pathway to advancement through internships, mentorships, and apprenticeships with SJC partners.     This approach is supported by four pillars:     collaboration among leading corporate and nonprofit CEOs who are committed to this vision, the talent, creativity, and expertise of FIT faculty, staff, and students, a sustained commitment to funding scholarships and programs, and ongoing accountability that will identify and measure the advancement of BIPOC professionals. Dr. Joyce Brown and Jeff Tweedy in the Pomerantz Center lobby at FIT     The SJC has received substantial industry support, including $1 million pledges from the foundations of PVH Corp., owner of iconic brands including Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger; Capri Holdings Limited, whose luxury portfolio includes Michael Kors, Jimmy Choo, and Versace; and Tapestry, Inc., which owns Coach, Kate Spade, and Stuart Weitzman. G-III Apparel Group made the establishing gift to the SJC Scholarship Fund, which already has reached more than $1.5 million in contributions.     Stefan Larsson, chief executive officer of PVH Corp., hopes that his company’s early involvement will encourage further investment by industry: “It is only by coming together that we can make a real and lasting, positive change.”     Numerous scholarships are already available: the Social Justice Center Endowed Scholarship, the Amsale Aspire Initiative, the Art Smith Memorial Endowed Scholarship, the Black Student Illustrators Graduation Award, and the Prada Scholarship at FIT, among others.      Jeffrey Tweedy, former president and chief executive officer of Sean John and a Menswear Design and Marketing alumnus, will be a special advisor to President Brown to help build and expand the center. A search for an executive director is underway. Additionally, an industry advisory council of 16 executives has been established to counsel, collaborate, and help measure progress toward equity.     “After George Floyd’s murder, it occurred to me that we were in a very different place than a lot of the people and companies who simply wanted to do something,” President Brown says. “We were really very privileged to be in a position to make a difference. I wanted to create a different kind of pathway for people of color, so that we could see a different kind of outcome.”

On a cold winter day in New York, there’s nothing like strolling past the holiday windows of upper Fifth Avenue. Luxe retailer Bergdorf Goodman mounts the ne plus ultra of window extravaganzas, and this year Fashion Illustration faculty member and alum Carlos Aponte, Illustration MFA ’21, is a creative force behind one of them.     The project began in June when David Hoey, who directs the Bergdorf windows, reached out to Aponte. Hoey envisioned a building exterior with a view inside the apartments, and cats sitting on the fire escapes. Someone proposed including an artwork that portrayed a cat, and then the ideas started flowing, Aponte says. “Once I began sketching it was obvious that all the rooms needed to be about cats. … Suddenly the concept turned into a massive cat dollhouse.”        “I had to design 15 apartments, and I decided to make each one different to show the diversity of the city of New York—classical, retro, Latin-inspired, etc. I sketched all the ideas. Once they were approved, I did a color version.” The apartments would be rendered in 3D, with exaggerated perspectives, and foam-core models were created. Once those were approved, they were printed in color and assembled. “I’ve never done paperwork in 3D, so this was an opportunity to be creative outside the flat image,” Aponte says.     Look carefully at the finished product for witty details, like a painting of a cat made to look like an Andy Warhol Marilyn Monroe portrait. There’s also a Roman emperor feline bust and a Picasso-inspired Cubist kitty. “I was very proud of creating a pattern to make a disco ball out of paper that really looks like a disco ball,” Aponte says. “It took me a while to figure that one out.”     The window was certainly a team effort, with contributions from Bergdorf artists Carl Tallent and Sebastian Montoya. Artist Samantha Smith created the furry cats that clamber across the composition. And Aponte learned something as well. “I had no idea how to do this project,” he says. “Having no idea of how to do something opens the possibility of play, and play leads to other creative realms.” 

She almost didn’t escape.     In August, the United States began withdrawing forces from Afghanistan, ending the longest war in U.S. history. New York Times journalist Fatima Faizi was living in Kabul, the capital. As the Taliban started to reclaim the country, Faizi gathered her family together and prepared to evacuate. “Don’t worry about bringing clothes or shoes,” a friend advised. “You can replace those. Just bring things that remind you of home.” In the end, she carried only a knapsack and a tiny painting from Bamyan, a city she loved.     On November 11, Faizi spoke virtually about her experiences as an Afghan journalist and women’s rights advocate for FIT’s Department of Social Sciences’ World Affairs Lecture. The annual talk, which is open to the public, offers students a firsthand account of global events that might seem removed from daily life in the U.S.. Souzeina Mushtaq, a faculty member of the University of Wisconsin, River Falls, interviewed her.      When Faizi arrived at the Kabul airport, the scene was chaotic, with the sounds of gunfire and crowds of people desperate to escape the shooting. Faizi and her family raced from one corner of the building to another. Eventually, a member of the Taliban told them they had to return home. “There are no planes,” he told Faizi. She and her family hid out in a journalist colleague’s house for several stressful days. Ironically, when air transport finally became available, members of the Taliban escorted Faizi to the plane, and to safety.     Growing up, Faizi wanted to be a journalist, but her family was opposed to the idea; so she studied photography. She got her break at a protest in 2015. A friend at the news channel Al Jazeera knew of her work and asked for photographs; she had also done a few interviews, so she sent both, and the outlet published them. Two years later, a friend who was leaving the Afghanistan Times bureau told her to apply for the job and explained how to get in touch with the bureau chief. Faizi got the gig. As a woman journalist in Afghanistan, she had better access to women’s stories than most men. But in conservative or rural areas, she stood out; once, a male subject told her that her trendy sneakers signaled that she was an outsider.     Mushtaq pointed out grim realities of reporting in Afghanistan, and asked how Faizi dealt with trauma. “I go for walks, and I cry a lot,” she replied. “Sometimes, I don’t sleep for two weeks.”     One student wanted to know what strategy, as a journalist, Faizi used to keep readers from feeling desensitized by the tragedies in Afghanistan. “When it’s just numbers, no one pays attention,” Faiza said. “‘500 people were killed somewhere’? It is just a number. But when we tell stories about personal experiences, personal lives? Then they become human beings, and people pay attention.”     This lecture was organized by Praveen Chaudhry, professor of Social Sciences, and presented in partnership with the Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Presidential Scholars Program, and the Office of International Programs.

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade turns 95 this year, and properly observing this landmark event requires a lot of clowns. “Half-baked holiday sweets” clowns, as Macy’s calls them, will be costumed as pies, cookies, and cakes. “Silly seaside” clowns appear as starfish and seahorses. “Spacey” clowns are astronauts, and—a new category this year—“first-responder” clowns, outfitted as firefighters and hospital workers. These and many more were dressed by a crew assembled and overseen by the parade’s costume crew chief, FIT adjunct faculty member Barbara Berman. This is her 20th parade.     Some things never change. As always, Berman and her team arrived at the New Yorker Hotel on West 34th Street at 4:45 am. There, they helped the 600 clowns, 300 float escorts, 159 teens, 75 stilt walkers and special characters, 2000 balloon handlers, 450 officials, 100 banner carriers and more, into their costumes. After performers complete the 2.5-mile procession from Central Park to Macy’s at Herald Square on West 34th and Broadway, Berman’s team will help them back into their street clothes. “The transformation is amazing,” Berman says. “Performers might arrive sleepy or a little grouchy, but after they walk that parade and see all the happy people? They come back euphoric.”     For the Green Giant parade float, Berman’s team dressed the float escorts as ears of corn and sunflowers. Universal Studios is presenting the Holiday Express float, with escorts outfitted as train engineers; and the South Dakota Office of Tourism will present a float that resembles—you guessed it—Mount Rushmore. (Escorts dress as park rangers.) Costume hems require special attention; if they get stepped on, the outfit can unravel, so Berman’s crew members are quick to provide hand-sewn solutions or, in a pinch, safety pins. “The styling certificate program in FIT’s Center for Continuing and Professional Studies has classes in hand-sewing, pinning, and taping,” Berman points out. She recruited part of her team from her class in PR and Special Events in the Fashion Events Planning and Publicity Program, where she serves as the lead teacher.      Because of COVID-19, parade proceedings will be slightly different this year. “It’s not back to normal because normal isn’t normal any more,” Berman says. Macy’s is taking every precaution to keep marchers and attendees safe. Berman’s team has been reduced from 100 to 85. Some participants were mailed their outfits to reduce density at the New Yorker, but that creates an additional challenge: “COVID put 20 pounds on a lot of people,” Berman says, “so we have to have emergency sizes available in a huge trunk near the start.” Tall, vertically oriented balloons require the handlers to stand close together, so they were omitted last year in favor of the horizontal balloons. In 2020, much of the event was curtailed, and certain segments were pre-recorded at Macy’s satellite spot at the New Jersey Meadowlands. The good news is, this year, the whole parade will be live.      Berman’s team helps keep the parade’s holiday spirit alive, and in 2008, Macy’s thanked her with a Rollie—a special award for working on the event. “Will I be working on the 100th?” she wonders. She thinks for a moment, then smiles. “Probably.”

Chalk FIT, an annual tradition since 2013, brings together fourth-year Illustration students to create chalk murals along the college’s concrete exterior walls. The illustrators paint with a chalk suspension to allow for precise detail and shading.     This year, Chalk FIT went up in late October and will be viewable through the fall semester, if not longer. The theme is “The New Normal”—a look at how students have persisted through the COVID-19 pandemic. About 80 students created panels, as well as 15–20 alumni from the class of 2021 who didn’t get to participate last year. Associate Professor William Low oversaw the project this year; faculty members Richard Elmer John Nickle, and Steven Tabbutt also included their classes in the project. “I think it’s a great way to show that we’re back in business,” said Dan Shefelman, chair of the Illustration and Interactive Media Department and the founder of Chalk FIT. “It’s also a way to show passersby all the different sides of FIT students: They’re political, they’re bright, they’re fun, and some of them are dealing with pretty dark issues.”     Shefelman pointed out two standout collaborations between students: a mural addressing suicide, by Rylie Coen and Brianna Kelly, and another, by Melanie Wong and Oscar Yohe Tapia, emphasizing the importance of imagination and fantasy while being stuck in front of a computer. “It brings a vibrance to the community,” Shefelman says. “People look forward to it, and now it’s back up.”

On Thursday evening, November 4, The Fragrance Foundation (TFF) celebrated Virginia Bonofiglio, assistant professor and head of FIT’s undergraduate program in Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing (CFM), and Stephan Kanlian, professor and head of the college’s graduate program in Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing and Management (CFMM), for their outstanding work in education and in the beauty industry. They were inducted into the Fragrance Foundation Circle of Champions, which honors individuals within the fragrance industry who have made an exceptional impact over a significant period of time. This year marks the first time that educators have been recognized with this prestigious honor.     “We are absolutely delighted to recognize and celebrate the contributions and achievements of FIT’s Virginia Bonofiglio and Stephan Kanlian, whose dedication to training and instructing future leaders in the fragrance industry through academic purpose and innovation is truly unparalleled,” said Linda G. Levy, president of TFF.     The in-person dinner was carefully planned to bring approximately 180 people from the beauty and fragrance industries together safely, after two years of being remote with no in-person events.     Attendees included Dr. Joyce F. Brown, president of FIT; Robin Burns-McNeill, chair, FIT Board of Trustees, and co-founder of Battalure Beauty; Dr. Brooke Carlson, interim dean, School of Graduate Studies, FIT; Shannon Maher, interim dean, Jay and Patty Baker School of Business and Technology, FIT; Francisco Costa, Fashion Design ‘90, fashion designer and founder of Costa Brazil skin care; Tennille Kopiasz, CFMM ’04, CFM ’98, chief marketing officer, Fresh/LVMH; Crystal Sai, CFMM ’17, executive director and chief of staff, global online, Estée Lauder Companies; Linda Wells, founding editor-in-chief, Allure; and Laura Slatkin, executive chairwoman and founder, NEST Fragrances. Students from both programs were also on hand to celebrate professors Bonofiglio and Kanlian.     Interim Dean of the School of Graduate Studies Brooke Carlson, Head of CFMM Stephan Kanlian, FIT President Joyce F. Brown,  Head of CFM Virginia Bonofiglio, and Interim Dean of the Jay and Patty Baker School of Business and Technology.  Dr. Brooke Carlson, Stephan Kanlian, FIT President Joyce F. Brown, Virginia Bonofiglio, and Shannon Maher. FIT’s CFM and CFMM programs are the first of their kind. CFM was started in 1988 in response to industry demand. In 1993, FIT expanded its offerings further by opening the Annette Green Fragrance Foundation Studio, a fragrance development laboratory named in recognition of Green’s work on behalf of the program. Today, CFM has graduated many students who have gone on to lead successful careers in the beauty industry, both at global companies and as entrepreneurs who have launched their own businesses.      Dr. Brown’s remarks echoed Levy’s sentiment and gratitude for the evening’s honorees. “There is so much about these two beauty programs that exemplifies FIT and its history. Like the college itself, each one was founded by visionary industry leaders—leaders like yourselves who understood the value of education and the need for new and innovative thinking. FIT attracts what we like to call ‘unconventional thinkers’—the kinds of students who love to problem-solve, experiment, and explore. When you marry that kind of spirit with rigorous, forward-looking curricula and faculty leaders like Virginia and Stephan, industry is the ultimate beneficiary,” she said.      Tennille Kopiasz, an alum of both programs, spoke about her experiences. “Moving to NYC to live my dreams, I discovered the beauty industry that was far better than I ever could imagine,” she said. “You pushed me to not just work in an office internship, but to work behind a counter and touch the consumer. That is where I saw first-hand the transformational power and the confidence beauty gave women.”     “This jewel of a program was handed to me and I have been honored to grow the program and nurture its students for the last 11 years,” Bonofiglio said. “Our alumni are our greatest advertisement and a testament to all that an education at FIT has to offer. It is now, has been, and will always be about the students. If we are the educators, they will be the innovators, the disruptors, and the game changers who will propel this industry into the future. I want to thank them in advance for all they are going to do.”     CFMM was created in collaboration with industry as an innovative two-year leadership development program for outstanding emerging executives. Upon its inception in 2000, CFMM quickly became recognized as the beauty industry’s think tank, comprised of executives helping shape the future through high-level global research. To date, over 350 graduates of the program have gone on to positions as general managers, chief marketing officers, executive vice presidents, senior vice presidents, and vice presidents.     Alumna Crystal Sai, executive director and chief of staff for global online at Estée Lauder, shared how much Kanlian encouraged her and made a difference in her education at FIT and her career. “Professor Kanlian was always my biggest cheerleader and support system,” Sai said. “And not just to me—he was that for all of the students in our graduating class. I’ve always admired and have been fascinated by his commitment to the success of this program and to the success of each and every one of us in our careers.”     In his own comments, Kanlian used a quote from President John F. Kennedy to explain the foundation of the CFMM program: “‘Leadership and learning are indispensable to one another.’ I had this in mind as the blueprint for an industry think tank at FIT in my first meeting with President Brown 22 years ago. We spoke about an opportunity to train the next generation of leadership for a dynamic, creative industry. With her enduring support, and the partnership of industry, beauty has become an integral part of the Fashion Institute’s DNA.”     The surprise of the evening came when Levy announced The Fragrance Foundation FIT Diversity Scholarship, a $100,000 academic award that will benefit FIT’s Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing programs on the undergraduate and graduate levels. Scholarships for both programs will be awarded based on their application criteria. This gift demonstrates TFF’s commitment to diversity and education.     Guests of the event left with beautiful bags designed by FIT alumna, fashion designer, and artist Rebecca Moses, whose original drawings are being donated to FIT by The Fragrance Foundation.

C.J. Yeh, assistant chair of Illustration and Interactive Media, has been named Featured Artist of the Week by Taiwan Contemporary Art Archives, a database established by the Association of the Visual Art in Taiwan.     Screenshot of a figure facing a screen with thumbs-up symbols     Yeh’s featured work, an installation titled “LikeMe777,” is a satire on the narcissistic practice of using social networks for the purpose of self-promotion. This interactive software program tracks and “likes” every movement the viewer makes within the view of the camera. Once a random “magic number” of likes has been accumulated, a kitschy visual celebration explodes onto the screen commemorating this achievement and showering the viewer with blatant, artificial praise. This visual love-fest concludes with a shameless self-promotion of the artist’s own Facebook page (facebook.com/cyeh777), urging the viewers to return the favor and become his fan on the platform.

Robert (Bob) Fisch, founder and former chairman and CEO of rue21, award-winning author of Fisch Tales: The Making of a Millennial Baby Boomer, and a member of the FIT Foundation board of directors, has launched the Bob Fisch Graduate Student Award Program.     The program, which includes a $300,000 gift and an intergenerational mentoring strategy, features an award for entrepreneurial excellence, thesis project grants, and graduate scholarships for students in FIT’s Fashion Design MFA and Global Fashion Management MPS programs. Fisch—widely recognized as a pioneering merchant for his bold and successful innovations in value-priced, fast fashion retailing—will mentor students for an extraordinary one-on-one experience.     “Thanks to Bob’s commitment to nurturing creativity in the next generation of industry leaders, FIT is the proud recipient of this $300,000 gift,” said FIT President Joyce F. Brown. “It will establish an unprecedented series of opportunities that will benefit students in our graduate Global Fashion Management and Fashion Design programs.”     “I am delighted to present this gift to FIT to help nurture the careers of future leaders in the retail space,” Fisch said. “As the leading college of its kind in America, FIT serves as a major talent pipeline, which I hope to help enrich through the establishment of this new program. I’m a firm believer in the benefits of intergenerational bonding and mutual mentoring as there is much I can learn from the students’ questions and curiosity, just as they can learn from my answers and experience. I teach them business—they teach me life.”     The program includes:     a $25,000 award for entrepreneurial excellence, given to one standout recipient for the best business plan and design presented during the graduate capstone ceremony 10 graduate scholarships for academic excellence, awarded to students in the Global Fashion Management and Fashion Design programs 33 thesis-project completion grants for students in the Global Fashion Management MPS and Fashion Design MFA programs In addition to establishing this awards program, Fisch is an active member of the FIT Foundation, guest lecturer, and mentor/advisor at FIT. Under Fisch’s leadership, rue21 was also the subject of FIT’s Fashion Merchandising Capstone Project in 2016.

Visitors to Bloomingdale’s 59th Street flagship have been enjoying a visual treat courtesy of FIT’s Illustration Department: chalk murals celebrating six Broadway shows playing now, including Dear Evan Hansen and The Lion King. FIT students and alumni conceived of and painted the murals (using a chalk suspension) to coincide with a September 9 shopping event promoting the reopening of Broadway.     Because the event took place two days before the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the artists included a mural recognizing that tragic event. In addition, they painted three panels depicting sushi-based flights of fancy to acknowledge a restaurant sponsor.     The project was similar to ChalkFIT, the college’s annual outdoor art display created by seniors studying Illustration. Dan Shefelman, chair of the Illustration and Interactive Media Department, chose these artists based on whose ChalkFIT murals had impressed him in recent years. Alumni mentored students to conceive of and execute each mural.     Mural of saxophone player, runner, and others     Bloomingdale’s not only paid the artists, they donated to the FIT Foundation. Shefelman hopes the project can be a model for future art installations, providing an income source for working artists.     “My goal is to offer murals as a business that produces projects all over and hires exclusively FIT students, alumni, and faculty,” he says.     Bloomingdale’s execs were thrilled with the results.     “We know they had a bump in sales that day,” Shefelman says. “A lot of credit goes to the Broadway stars at the store, but we were part of it, by engaging with the public and welcoming them inside.”

On Wednesday, September 22, the Couture Council of The Museum at FIT hosted its annual luncheon, honoring Wes Gordon, creative director of Carolina Herrera, with the 2021 Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion. This year’s celebration, sponsored by Nordstrom and held at Cipriani South Street,  was reimagined as a smaller, more intimate event and held in accordance with New York City vaccine guidelines. With approximately 240 people in attendance—nearly half the usual size—the event still raised nearly $700,000.     Wes Gordon and Carolina Herrera Carolina Herrera and Wes Gordon. Gordon eloquently shared his gratitude to Herrera, who was in attendance and won the prestigious award herself at the 2014 luncheon: “To the queen of New York, the empress of elegance, I dedicate this award to you. I have only been the caretaker of the magical house you have built.”     “I cannot think of anyone more suited for the occasion than Wes Gordon” said Dr. Joyce F. Brown, president of FIT, during her remarks. “Vibrant, bold and dramatic, the party dresses and dinner suits, the day dresses and red carpet gowns that make up his collections are themselves celebrations, filled with exuberance and joy.”     The award was presented to Wes Gordon by Shanina Shaik. Other attendees included Martha Stewart, Indre Rockefeller, Stacey Bendet Eisner, Nicole Miller, Julie Macklowe, Jean Shafiroff, Ramy Brook, Gillian Hearst, B. Michael, Alina Cho, Young Emperors, and Ramona Singer, Fern Mallis, and Dr. Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of The Museum at FIT.     FIT student John Paul Jang received The Museum at FIT Student Award, which recognizes outstanding initiative and great professional promise in the museum field. Jang is the second student to receive this notable recognition since the award was created in 2019.     Proceeds from the luncheon benefit The Museum at FIT, which is free and open to the public. The museum recently reopened with the exhibition Ravishing: The Rose in Fashion, which is on view through November 28.

FIT announced that model, actress, and activist Amber Valletta has been named the college’s first sustainability ambassador, further solidifying FIT’s commitment to expanding sustainability education and awareness to address the challenges facing the creative industries. One of the most celebrated supermodels of the modern era, Valletta has also found extraordinary success as an activist, lending her voice to the issues of sustainable fashion. Valletta’s ambassadorship is a natural extension of her ongoing contributions to FIT, all of which have focused on sustainability. In addition to serving on the FIT Foundation board, she delivered the keynote speech at the 2019 Sustainable Business and Design Conference and hosted the 2019 and 2021 awards galas, both of which were focused on sustainable solutions and innovation.     In her role as FIT’s sustainability ambassador, Valletta will work closely with the FIT community, alumni, and partners throughout the 2021–2022 academic year and beyond. During this year’s Sustainability Awareness Week, which will take place virtually October 4–8, she will moderate a student roundtable discussion among previous FIT Biodesign Challenge winners to discuss the significance of biotechnology in fashion, how brands can incorporate sustainable materials into their products, and the overall impact biotechnology will make on the future of fashion. Valletta will also collaborate with the current Biodesign Challenge—mentoring students, helping recruit industry mentors, and other support—as well as spearhead fundraising efforts for the FIT Sustainability Fund, and help with planning the 2022 Sustainable Business and Design Conference, among other partnerships and programming opportunities.     “Over the years, Amber has been deeply involved in FIT’s sustainability initiatives both on and off-campus, and has quickly become a close friend of the college,” said President Joyce F. Brown. “She is also a dedicated and respected advocate and activist, which makes naming her our first official sustainability ambassador a natural and easy decision. We are proud to have her represent our community and help us continue to make a lasting impact on the world around us.”     “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate and learn from the students, educators, and the entire FIT community,” said Valletta. “At FIT, they have made sustainability a focal point that directs both their fundraising efforts and curriculum, which will undoubtedly bring about positive changes for the future of creative industries.”     FIT holds sustainability as a pillar of its strategic plan and within its community. In addition to the creation of the sustainability ambassador role, the college offers many courses and programs that focus on sustainability, including Sustainability in Fashion Merchandising, a minor in Ethics and Sustainability, Sustainable Packaging, International Corporate Responsibility, and more. The college also offers various extracurricular activities for students to get involved in sustainability, such as the Ethics and Sustainability Club, Sustainability Council, and the Student Government Association. Current projects include a student-run program to install and maintain beehives on the college’s rooftop, developing sustainable textiles through participation in the annual Biodesign Challenge, promoting sustainable and eco-friendly dyeing practices, and the Loop for Good pop-up, among other initiatives.     To find out more about the sustainability initiative at FIT and the upcoming Sustainability Awareness Week, please visit fitnyc.edu/sustainability. 

How-to manual codifies successful textiles partnership between designers, engineers     When MIT and the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) joined forces to advance textile research and to develop and employ sustainable fabrics of the future, they found that their work was so synergistic that they were compelled to write an instruction manual about their multi-year partnership so that other organizations could replicate their process and benefit from their work.     Transdisciplinary Innovation Playbook: How to build a virtual workshop that collapses walls between design and engineering and kick-starts collaboration to solve real world problems codifies the partnership between MIT, FIT, and the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA), which supported the work, into something of a template that other institutions can follow in order to develop their own innovative programs.     The document was officially released August 23 and will be followed by a webinar on September 9 at 10:00 am introducing the manual.     The playbook – based around MIT and FIT’s design and engineering synergy – is a model for successfully embarking on innovative partnerships. The manual offers step-by-step considerations for how to build interdisciplinary workshops that prepare students to think beyond their specializations and to tackle real-world problems together. It covers how to find an industry partner and what matters in a successful partnership, how to build an effective challenge, how to recruit faculty, how to plan a budget, and how to create a curriculum. “Use our story to write your own,” the playbook encourages.     Multi-Year Partnership In 2017, after a meeting between FIT President Dr. Joyce F. Brown and MIT President Rafael Reif, Joanne Arbuckle of FIT and Gregory C. Rutledge of MIT created a plan to build a bridge between design and engineering—and to help boost the textile industry along the way. On the surface, the institutions seemed incompatible. How—and why – might their two missions merge? (Arbuckle is former deputy to the president for Industry Partnerships and Collaborative Programs at FIT, while Rutledge is the Lammot du Pont Professor in Chemical Engineering.)     MIT scientists are advancing textile research that could change the world, while FIT designers, long renowned for their creativity, are developing the sustainable fabrics of the future. The overlapping synergies seemed destined for collaboration. What unexpected discoveries might occur if these students worked together? FIT and MIT wanted to find out and approached AFFOA to help realize this vision.     The playbook is an outgrowth of the resulting multi-year partnership. Since 2018, students from each institution have participated in three workshops during which they gather in small teams to develop product concepts exploring the use of advanced fibers and fabric technology. The workshops—which have pivoted to a remote experience since the COVID-19 pandemic—have been held collaboratively with AFFOA. AFFOA is a Cambridge, Massachusetts–based non-profit public-private partnership whose mission is to rekindle the domestic textiles industry by leading a nationwide enterprise for advanced fiber and fabric technology development and manufacturing, enabling revolutionary system capabilities for national security and commercial markets. A key part of AFFOA’s mission is to inspire, prepare, and grow the next-generation workforce for the advanced fiber and fabric industry.     Part of the students’ work has been the opportunity to respond to a project challenge presented by footwear and apparel manufacturer New Balance, a member of the AFFOA network. Students spent their first week in Cambridge learning new technologies at MIT and the second at FIT, working on projects and prototypes.     “Collaboration and teamwork are DNA-level attributes of the New Balance workplace,” says Chris Wawrousek, senior creative design lead in the New Balance Innovation Studio. “We were very excited to participate in the program from a multitude of perspectives. The program allowed us to see some of the emerging research in the field of technical textiles. In some cases, these technologies are still very nascent but give us a window into future developments.”     Many Ideas Over the years, teams of students have developed innovative and forward-thinking projects that have moved the needle on design and technology. A few examples of the teams are:     TeamNatural Futurism, which presented a concept to develop a biodegradable lifestyle shoe using natural material alternatives, including bacterial cellulose and mycelium, and advanced fiber concepts to avoid use of chemical dyes. Team CoMIT to Safety Before ProFIT, which explored the various ways that runners get hurt, sometimes from acute injuries but more often from overuse. Team Peacock, which prototyped athletic apparel with color-changing material to highlight an athlete’s movement and quickly analyze motion through an app. Team Ecollab, which designed apparel and footwear using PE (polyethylene) and color changing material that is multi-faceted and environmentally conscious. Team Laboratory 56, which created footwear to enhance longevity of product and reduce waste using PE, while connecting with the community through a recycling app program. “We’re excited to see how the release of this playbook opens up the minds of students across the country to the possibility of working in an interdisciplinary environment, and in advanced textiles. We see a continuing need for a workforce that is agile, innovative, and able to apply higher order thinking to develop the future of the industry, and believe this playbook will play a part in that development,” says Sasha Stolyarov, CEO of AFFOA.     “These kinds of partnerships are so valuable for both teams—the design students get to work in a team environment engaging in the latest technologies while the engineering students use their creativity in a new way,” says Arbuckle. “So, if the MIT/FIT collaboration can be a model for other institutions to do something similar, then these kinds of interactions and the invention of products they create together can help define our future.”     “When designers and engineers come together and open their minds to creating new technologies that ultimately will impact the world, we can imagine exciting new multi-material fibers that reveal a new spectrum of applications,” said Yuly Fuentes Medel, PhD, MIT Materials Research Laboratory project manager for fiber technologies. “Being able to share what we’ve learned through this playbook brings this process to a different level and makes it possible that this kind of thinking will become more widespread.”

New York City may be a huge metropolis, but students at FIT are very safe, according to a recent ranking. FIT came in first in a 2021 survey of the Safest College Campuses in America by YourLocalSecurity.com. The site analyzed campus safety from the 395 U.S. undergraduate institutions that: (a) offer two- or four-year degrees, (b) have at least 5,000 students, and (c) submitted campus crime statistics to the FBI. Then they crunched data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Campus Safety and Security site and the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, focusing on three categories of crimes that colleges must report: violent, property, and those that are classified as hate crimes or violence against women.     FIT’s top position was largely due to its very low number of crimes in that third category—just one per 10,000 people.     Tan bald man with goatee in button-down shirt Mario Cabrera, director of Public Safety. Mario Cabrera, FIT’s director of Public Safety, believes his team’s presence on campus is a major reason crime has remained low. Public safety officers patrol the streets, staff the Seventh Avenue gate that restricts vehicular access, and conduct “vertical patrols” of the academic buildings by walking every floor of every building. Key units—staff members who unlock doors for classes and events—add extra sets of eyes and ears.     “We’re checking all our corners 24 hours a day,” Cabrera says. “People from blocks away will come here to walk their dog because there is always a uniformed presence here.”     FIT takes these additional measures to ensure student safety:     Everyone who enters any building must present ID, which gives Public Safety important information if an incident does occur. Every visitor and incident is logged in a sophisticated database that disseminates important information to all officers seamlessly. Public Safety also works with the New York Police Department when appropriate. Officers are given a full week of orientation and training when they are hired, which is significantly more than most other colleges. They learn procedures in place for evacuations and shelter in place, and they gain CPR certification if they don’t have it already. Visitation rules in the residence halls put student safety first. Any visitor must receive prior approval 24 hours in advance of a visit, and the host student must accompany guests when they leave. The Department of Student Life includes an educational component called Safe and Sound in the orientation given to incoming students. Topics include bystander intervention and affirmative consent. Through the Title IX office, incoming students also take a comprehensive online training called SMART: Sexual Misconduct Awareness and Response Training, which goes into detail about prevention and reporting of sexual misconduct. When high school and middle school students are on campus for FIT’s Precollege Programs, officers step up their vigilance so that no student leaves the buildings unsupervised. Cabrera admires the rapport his staff has built with students—and as the father of a current FIT student, he feels good about the amount of care that goes into protecting them. “Our officers look out for the students like they would for their own kids.”