Stony Brook University SUNY Korea

Elena Romero, assistant professor of Advertising and Marketing Communications, has won a second Telly Award for her work on the CUNY TV show LATiNAS, a monthly magazine show dedicated to showcasing the stories of Latina women. The show received the Telly Bronze Award for its entire 12-episode second season, which was produced remotely during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Click here to read the original article.

  In May, three Fashion Design students were recognized at The Metropolitan Museum of Art for a dress commemorating the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. As part of a celebration for the Costume Institute’s current exhibition at The Met, In America: An Anthology of Fashion, Met curators selected 10 outfits to be fabricated from preliminary designs submitted by college and graduate students around the U.S. Among their selections was a gown designed collaboratively by Sally Li, Glen Roh, and Asalya Samieva, all fourth-semester students. Click here to read the original article.

  FIT and Elmira College (EC) are partnering to broaden educational opportunities for students in the Tommy Hilfiger Fashion Business School program while helping to build a pipeline of future leaders in the fashion industry. The new partnership provides graduates of Elmira College’s Tommy Hilfiger Fashion Business School with an opportunity to apply to FIT’s Global Fashion Management (GFM) Master’s in Professional Studies (MPS) program. Click here to read the original article.

  On Wednesday, May 11, FIT held the Future of Fashion, Presented by Macy’s. Following two years of digital presentations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the show was held outdoors on the campus Breezeway for the first time. Featuring nearly 100 looks created by a select group of 2022 graduates of FIT’s Fashion Design BFA program, this year’s themes included sustainability, gender neutrality, heritage appreciation, accessibility, and mental health awareness. Click here to read the original article.

  On Wednesday, May 11, FIT held the Future of Fashion, Presented by Macy’s. Following two years of digital presentations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the show was held outdoors on the campus Breezeway for the first time. Featuring nearly 100 looks created by a select group of 2022 graduates of FIT’s Fashion Design BFA program, this year’s themes included sustainability, gender neutrality, heritage appreciation, accessibility, and mental health awareness. Click here to read the original article.

A biotech team formed at FIT has won the Conservation X Labs Microfiber Innovation Challenge, a competition seeking solutions to the pollution caused by microplastics. Werewool, co-founded by Chui-Lian Lee, Textile Development and Marketing ’18; Valentina Gomez, Textile Development and Marketing ’20; and Theanne Schiros, PhD, associate professor of Science, was one of five winners among applications from 19 countries. A panel of seven expert judges selected the winners based on feasibility, growth potential, environmental impact, and the novelty of their approach. Werewool took home a share of a $525,000 prize pool and are eligible for an additional $25,000 in funding. Click here to read the original article. 

The prestigious Student Scholarship Competition from the Society of Illustrators provides a launchpad into industry for talented graduates. This year, a jury of eminent artists selected 300 of the best undergraduate illustrations out of 8,700 entries to display in a special exhibition; about 25 of those students won scholarships. An unprecedented eight artworks from five FIT students were selected for the exhibition, and four of those students won scholarships. Click here to read the original article. 

In conjunction with the Macy’s Flower Show, five Fashion Design BFA students have their works on display at the retailer’s flagship store in Herald Square through April 10 for a fourth consecutive year. Jacob Caraccilo, Katty Liang Feng, Larglinda Ilazi, Yoojin Lee, and the grand prize winner Jiown Park were challenged to design a garment that reflects the bold and stylish spirit of this year’s flower show. The annual event at Macy’s is described as an “ode to springtime” featuring thousands of stunning flowers.  Click here to read the original article. 

March 24, 2022 An Exhibition and Experience Design MA alumna was part of a team that won a People’s Choice Award for designing the Peru Pavilion at World Expo 2020. The pavilion exterior is covered with a representation of a colorful fabric featuring striped patterns and icons to emphasize 3,000 years of textile traditions in Peruvian culture. Visitors cross a recreation of the famous Q’eswachaka bridge, made of grass woven into ropes. Every year, the local population remakes the bridge just as the Incas did hundreds of years ago. The Peru Pavilion won out over 190 other entries. Diana Estabridis ’12 worked as an exhibition design specialist on the project.  Estabridis, who lives in Lima, is proud that the installation hosted more than 1.4 million visitors. “We cannot compete with developed countries that have three to five times the budget Peru has,” she said. “We cannot compete with the technology that other countries produce. But we can try to send a different message, to reflect and make people wonder about simple things that are very often overlooked.” World expos, or world’s fairs, are large international exhibitions that showcase the achievements of nations. Expo 2020, delayed by COVID-19, opened in fall 2021 and closes at the end of March. The Commission for the Promotion of Peruvian Exports and Tourism (PROMPERÚ) executed the project, in part to attract investors. Estabridis was in charge of analyzing, evaluating, and monitoring the exhibition design process. She worked with the contractors to help them understand the story PROMPERÚ wanted to convey—and help the construction team understand Peruvian culture. Exhibitor magazine, a monthly publication featuring best practices in trade show marketing, organized the award, which expo visitors voted for online. Click here to read the original article 

February 22 On March 12, the Museum of Arts and Design will open an exhibition about clothing used as a medium of expression for fine art. The show, which calls this practice “garmenting,” is curated by Alexandra Schwartz, adjunct professor in FIT’s Art Market Studies MA program. Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art features 35 international artists whose work converts dress into “a critical tool for exploring issues of subjectivity, identity, and difference.   Click here to read the original article 

February 18, 2022   9 Story Media Group, industry-leading creator, producer, and distributor of award-winning animated and live-action content for young audiences, and Karma’s World Entertainment, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges’ entertainment media company, are pleased to announce a first-of-its kind partnership with the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Design and Technology Lab (FIT DTech). Inspired by the hit animated Netflix series Karma’s World—for which fashion is central to the brand DNA – FIT students designed a 50-piece fashion-forward children’s collection for licensing partners to incorporate across a range of consumer categories, with the first product set to launch later this year. Designs include jumpsuits, jackets, sweatsuits, dresses, swimsuits, and footwear.   Click here to read the original article 

January 18, 2022   Three students in FIT’s Jay and Patty Baker School of Business and Technology have been awarded Fashion Scholarship Fund scholarships of $7,500 each. Katyana Avila, 20, a Fashion Business Management major from Union, New Jersey; Aliyah Freeman, 28, a Home Products Development major, also from Union; and Kyuwon “Kate” Han, 47, an International Trade and Marketing major from Brooklyn, were among 123 students across four disciplines—design and product development, marketing analytics, merchandising, supply chain—to be named FSF Scholars.   Additionally, Freeman was named one of 23 recipients of the Virgil Abloh™ “Post-Modern” Scholarship. In July 2020, Virgil Abloh announced the creation of the fund, raising $1 million to support the next generation of Black fashion industry leaders. The mission of the fund is to foster equity and inclusion within the fashion industry by providing scholarships to students of academic promise of Black, African American, or African descent. Abloh named the fund “Post-Modern” to represent that recipients will not only receive funds, but will also be given access to vital career support services and mentoring.   The Fashion Scholarship Fund is the foremost fashion-oriented education and workforce development nonprofit in the U.S. The FSF works directly with the country’s most talented young students from diverse backgrounds and awards over $1 million each year in scholarships to help these students succeed in all sectors of the industry including design, merchandising, marketing analytics, and supply chain. The annual FSF Case Study Scholarship is its signature program. The scholarship topics change each year but always involve an in-depth student challenge that focuses on real issues facing the fashion industry today. The FSF also provides scholars with a wide range of internship and career opportunities, mentorship, networking, professional development, and unprecedented access to the industry’s most influential leaders and companies.   Avila’s case study, #LetGlow, focusing on marketing analytics, is a look in to CoverGirl’s current marketing strategy, and proposes a new campaign that brings awareness to mental health and promotes being kind to oneself. Han’s case study, BOMBAS, focusing on supply chain, examines how the sock company BOMBAS can expand its positive impact as a mission-driven company through the implementation of supply chain innovations and optimizations. Han, who worked in the industry for a number of years after getting her AAS, came back to school in large part because of her interest in supply chain studies.   Freeman’s case study, focusing on design and product development, looks at Pyer Moss: The Reclamation Collection, a sustainable collection of home products designed to encourage collective Black rest and healing. The concept offers sustainable solutions for the home that reflect the ethereal beauty of Black American culture while prioritizing collective rest and healing in an ever-changing world.   “Looking at the way the home has been impacted by COVID and how people are renegotiating their spaces and how they’re interacting with their products,” Freeman said. “I wanted to incorporate the post-pandemic ideals and values of African American consumers in the home, so I started to reimagine the home for them and how values from the past and the present kind of impacted the way that we all interact with our homes. So I approached the case study from a perspective of different values—folklore, music, and different aspects of the experience of Black culture.”   Each of the FIT students received $7,500 with no restrictions on what they could do with it. Freeman plans to save the money to start her own resale business for home furnishings and antiques. Han is saving hers for now.As for Avila: “For me, my money is going straight back to school,” she said. “My parents are first-gen immigrants, and they spent all their money to come here so I didn’t have any college savings. I’ve had to pay all my tuition. To live in the city, I’ve had to RA. So any scholarships I can find, anything, I’m always going for it … This is going back to tuition.”   Click here to read the original article 

January 18, 2022     A new course focuses on sustainability and technological advancements in fashion as the industry moves further toward the Metaverse.     ByondXR, a market leader in immersive, virtual retail experiences, has announced that it is bringing its software to the classroom through an exclusive course created for FIT. The course, titled The Business of Virtual Merchandising (FM304), utilizes the same ByondXR software that is altering the landscape of fashion by changing the way wholesalers and retailers are leveraging technology to shift their businesses to digital platforms. Students will develop skills to use the software, gain insight into the world of virtual environments, and understand how technology is paving the way for sustainability and innovation in the fashion Industry.     The course is being offered for the first time this semester as a part of the Fashion Business Management department in the college’s Jay and Patty Baker School of Business and Technology.     The Business of Virtual Merchandising will present students with an interactive and immersive experience, offering students an in-depth look at e-commerce and an opportunity to apply their knowledge to a virtual setting. As e-commerce continues to boom, students will learn firsthand how ByondXR’s software bridges the gap between digital and physical spaces, reduces costs for buyers and wholesalers by eliminating the need for international travel, and shortens the time to market through offering on-demand placement orders. FIT’s commitment to combining traditional learning techniques with technology-driven tools directly aligns with ByondXR’s vision of the future of fashion. Students will gain industry knowledge in the digital fashion sphere, the tools and techniques required to excel, as well as a competitive edge when venturing into new careers, having understood the extensive possibilities in the world of digital fashion.     FIT holds sustainability as a core principle in its commitment to the future, and with the digitization of fashion, waste in the industry has proven to be significantly reduced.     “Today’s student is extremely motivated and excited for the possibilities that the future of the industry will bring,” said Robin Sackin, chair, Fashion Business Management. “They understand that currently there are challenges due to the pandemic but they are enthusiastic about exploring new opportunities and careers in this ever-evolving industry. As we all look ahead to a post-pandemic world it is important to realize that the opportunities that were available for a graduate 10 years ago are comparably different to those available today.”     Click here to read the original article

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