Stony Brook University Fashion Design

Ancient Greek artifacts have been finding their way to the public museums in Washington, D.C., since the mid-19th century. What roles did the ancient artworks play, and what individuals helped them along their journeys? Assistant Professor Alexander Nagel, assistant chair of the Art History and Museum Professions Program, recently published an essay tackling these questions. The essay, “Transatlantic Hellas: Archiving Eastern Mediterranean Collections and Materials in the Smithsonian Institution,” offers a first overview of early collections and displays of ancient Mediterranean collections across the Smithsonian Institution. It is a snapshot of archives, materials, and diplomatic correspondence on the materials, and introduces ongoing research on the materials. Nagel’s essay is a chapter in the volume Legacies of Ancient Greece in Contemporary Perspectives, published in May by Vernon Press.

Meg Joseph, associate professor, Global Fashion Management, co-authored an academic article exploring how management is taught in schools. The article, “What management is versus what managers do: An investigation into required management course offerings for undergraduate business students,” was published online on April 1 and is forthcoming in the July 2022 print edition of the International Journal of Management Education, a double-blind peer-reviewed scholarly journal. In her research, Joseph and her coauthor, Jason Fertig of the University of Southern Indiana, selected 114 schools with undergraduate business majors to investigate the degree to which four fundamental management principles—planning, organizing, leading, and controlling—anchor the discipline. They found that less than half of the schools examined required a “Principles of Management” course, with many business schools adopting courses more focused on individual and group behavior for their core management requirement. Since differing viewpoints can leave gaps in students’ education, the authors argue for a more holistic approach that reflects the full spectrum of the manager’s job—managing people and managing work.

FIT’s digital faculty made an appearance at New York’s Digital Fashion Week earlier this year. C.J. Yeh and Michael Posso, professors of Creative Technology and Design, led a workshop on extended reality at the VR World NYC on Friday, February 11. This introductory workshop provided an overview of how extended reality, or XR, has been used for brand experience design. The hands-on portion of the workshop demonstrated how augmented reality can be used for enhanced brand engagements. Information about XR-related certificate programs offered by FIT’s Center for Continuing Education and Professional Studies was also shared at the event. That same week, Yeh also moderated a panel discussion at Digital Fashion Week titled  “Fashion x Games: What is the future of fashion in the games industry?” The panel examined how game and digital fashion has affected different aspects of our lives as well as how we project our self image to the public through digital media. Panel participants included Armoar founder Enara Nazarova; Sallyann Houghton of Epic Games; Michaela Larosse of The Fabricant, and Regina Turbina, founder of Artisant. Digital Fashion Week NYC took place February 10–18.

The banner for Rethink Retail’s Top Retail Influencers 2022 website.   An industry-backed list of the top retail influencers of the year included two FIT faculty members. Rethink Retail’s Top Retail Influencers of 2022, sponsored by Microsoft, honored the 100 leading retail experts, consultants, analysts, academics, journalists, and thought leaders who were making an impact in retail in 2022. Marie Driscoll (left) and Shelley Kohan. Marie Driscoll, an adjunct professor in International Trade and Marketing, was named as a top influencer in the list’s analysts category. Driscoll is managing director of luxury and fashion at Coresight Research, a top retail and fashion research firm, as well as an industry consultant and advisor. Shelley Kohan, associate professor of Fashion Business Management, was listed as a media influencer, which includes editors, journalists, podcast hosts, bloggers, and content creators. Kohan is the founder and CEO of Shelmark Consulting, which helps small and mid-size retail companies with strategic growth, and chief strategy officer at The Robin Report. Kohan also writes for Forbes.com as a senior retail contributor. Other luminaries on this year’s list include marketing luminary Scott Galloway; Coresight Research founder and CEO Deborah Weinswig, and National Retail Federation President Matthew Shay.

Virtual meetings come with a host of challenges—reading other people, getting your point across and trying to stay focused, to name just a few. Marjorie Silverman, chair and associate professor of Internship Studies, tackled some of these stumbling blocks in an article for Commpro.biz, a business-to-business website. Her article, “9 Steps to Stave Off Screen Face,” includes tips to avoid “the vacant stare of the screen-addled” that comes from too many Zoom meetings, along with guidance for how to remain fully present in virtual meetings—and show it. Read the full article here.

Cynda Media Lab, an award-winning design studio led by C.J. Yeh and Christie Shin, both of Communication Design Pathways, has released a remote-learning module, making it available for any educator to license. The lab’s Remote Learning Hub is an integrated teaching and learning platform that supports collaborative remote experiential learning. Key features of the Hub include modular and collaborative curriculum developments, gamified learning experiences, and a virtual campus that uses proximity video conferencing technology to create fluid interactions between participants—similar to what they would experience in the physical world. The initial prototype was launched in 2021. Cynda Media has received several awards, including a UCDA award in web-based platform design. The Hub’s release has been licensed to MIT and is being used for the 2022 MITANDFIT Advanced Fibers and Fabrics Workshop. Cynda Media Lab’s goal is to reinvent teaching and learning technology for a new generation of learners.

Photography technologist Pacifico Silano held a solo exhibition, Don’t Worry Baby, at the gallery Monti8, in Latina, Italy. For this exhibition, Silano, a lens-based artists whose work makes use of vintage gay erotica, took a new approach in order to highlight “the balance between softness and aggression.” Silano acquired erotic centerfolds from a range of magazines from the mid-20th century and collaged and re-photographed them, in the process eliminating any overt sexual content. The resulting images focus on the small details within a scene—a green towel covering a torso, or weights on a wooden floor. In the words of Monti8s curators, the images “create new narratives, where nothing is expicit, like sexual acts or nudity. The sexuality of the subjects is only evoked by a detail of a body, an expression or a movement of a hand. Every work is marked by a strong sense of intimacy.” The show was on view January 22–February 19. For more information, contact Silano.

Dr. Shireen Musa, assistant professor, International Trade and Marketing, has published a new peer-reviewed article exploring sustainability and fair trade fashion. “The Role of Compassion and Sustainability Awareness on Fair Trade Fashion Consumption with Internet Engagement as a Moderator” has been published in the February issue of the Business and Professional Ethics Journal, a double-blind, peer-reviewed scholarly journal. The article adds to existing research on sustainability and fair trade fashion by identifying and testing two constructs, one emotional and another educational, that influence consumer buying habits. Dr. Musa’s paper found that the constructs—compassion for oneself, others, and the environment, and desire for sustainability awareness—were correlated with each other and had a positive relationship on a person’s consumption of fair trade fashion. Her research also introduces the idea that a consumer’s internet engagement could be a moderating influence on the two constructs. Dr. Musa also published an article on sustainable shoppers last year in the Journal of Fair Trade. Read more about that research here.

Celebrating Flamenco’s Tangled Roots: The Body Questions, an anthology co-edited by Meira Goldberg, adjunct associate professor, Film, Media, and Performing Arts, and Antoni Pizà, was released in January. This collection of essays poses a series of questions revolving around nonsense, cacophony, queerness, race, and the dancing body. Featuring four Roma authors and the first book with a Black flamenca, Yinka Esi Graves, on the cover, the essays presented here share the wish to come together, across disciplines and subject areas, within the academy and without, in the whirling, raucous, and messy spaces where the body is free—to celebrate its questioning, as well as the depths of wisdom and knowledge it holds and sometimes reveals. Goldberg is a flamenco performer, choreographer, teacher, and scholar. Besides teaching at FIT, she is scholar-in-residence at the Foundation for Iberian Music at the CUNY Graduate Center. She has instigated and collaborated on multiple books, exhibits, and international conferences. Her book Sonidos Negros: On the Blackness of Flamenco (2019) won the Barnard Hewitt Award for outstanding research in theatre history from the American Society for Theatre Research. Antoni Pizà has taught Music History at Hofstra University, the City College, John Jay College of the City University of New York, and the Conservatory of Music and Dance in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. He is currently the Director of the Foundation for Iberian Music at the Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation of the Graduate Center, USA. He has authored and co-edited numerous books in English, Spanish and Catalan.

Calendar Girl, the documentary about Ruth Finley, who created the legendary Fashion Calendar in the 1940s and organized the publication for seven decades, is now available via video on demand services such as Apple TV. Finley (1920-2018) donated her papers, which documented the development of the calendar—a schedule and clearinghouse of information about American fashion—to FIT’s Special Collections and College Archives in the Gladys Marcus Library. She received the President’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2016. The film was produced and written by Natalie Nudell, adjunct assistant professor, History of Art, who started working on the film in 2015. “This project was a seven-year labor of love,” Nudell told Vogue. Find media coverage of the documentary and watch the trailer below: Vogue: In New Fashion Documentary Calendar Girl, the Life and Legacy of the Late Ruth Finley Take Center Stage WWD: ‘Calendar Girl’ Documentary Highlights Ruth Finley’s Contribution to New York’s Fashion Scene The New York Times: ‘Calendar Girl’ Review: A Portrait of an Angel of Fashion Calendar Girl at DOC NYC

<Zoe Buckman, installation view of Every Curve, 2016. Papillon Art, Los Angeles, courtesy of the artist.>   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.”   <Soundsuit, 2018. Mixed media including vintage textile and sequined appliqués, metal and mannequin, © Nick Cave. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.> Garmenting is divided into five sections. “Functionality” explores the concept of wearability: One artist fashioned a skirt out of razor blades, which may be très chic, but challenging to wear. “Gender” includes works shaped by feminist and queer theory that upend conventional roles—drag ensembles, for instance. “Cultural Difference” examines the sometimes surprising ways that culture determines dress: In the mainstream media, the traditional image of the American cowboy is a white male, but some historians have pointed out that this picture is incomplete; Garmenting includes an artist’s vision for Black cowboy attire. The “Performance” section comprises outfits used in works of performance art: Fiber artist Nick Cave fashions elaborate garments he calls “sound suits” because they rustle when he wears them. “Activism” highlights clothes artists wear to express political statements—particularly about gender, sexuality, and cultural difference.  Schwartz got the idea for the show 10 years ago, when she curated an exhibition about artist Saya Woolfalk. In her work, Woolfalk constructs installations that evoke an imaginary futuristic matriarchal society. Her tableaux feature mannequins wearing elaborate costumes she has designed. In related, ritualistic presentations, performers wear Woolfalk’s outfits. Schwartz says she was fascinated by how the artist used garments in different contexts. “They’re costumes for a cast of characters, but they’re also sculptures.” Schwartz also curated a show that included artist Louise Bourgeois, who assembled scraps of old clothes, including her wedding trousseau, into collage. Artists, Schwartz realized, were using clothing in surprising ways—“to talk about both personal and group identities.” She says she was amazed, once she’d settled on the topic, by how many artists were working in this vein. “I learned about them from other artists, students—even the internet,” she says. The enormous variety of approaches surprised her, too.    Her Art Market Studies students won’t just get to see a show their professor curated, they’ll be part of the exhibition themselves. The artist Franz Erhard Walther creates objects that are worn by audience members for interactive performances. On Garmenting’s opening weekend, students will serve as facilitators to “activate” these works. Schwartz, who has curated shows at MoMA and the Montclair Art Museum, and also teaches in FIT’s History of Art Department, hopes the show leaves the audience with a richness of interpretations. “Clothing has private and public meaning,” she says.  <Exhibition view of Saya Woolfalk: Expedition to the ChimaCloud, on view March 1–September 1, 2019, in the Project Space of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. Photo: Nelson-Atkins Media Services photographer/Dana Anderson.>   Garmenting is on view from March 12 to August 14.

Linen has long bedeviled designers: The durable, renewable, and sustainable fabric is extremely prone to wrinkling, particularly in the humid weather in which linen apparel feels most comfortable. Previous anti-wrinkle treatments for linen have been found to release formaldehyde—a known carcinogen. Preeti Arya, assistant professor of Textile Development and Marketing, has a possible solution in the form of an acid-based treatment that makes linen much less finicky. Arya describes the process in a paper she co-authored, “Non-Formaldehyde Wrinkle Resistant Finish for Linen,” published in the Journal of Natural Fibers in October. Arya and her collaborator tested a number of finishes for linen, and found that treating the fabric for 40 minutes with a 6% concentration at an acidic pH of 4 was found to produce the best results, significantly reducing wrinkles without changing the properties of the fabric. As a side effect, they found that treating with anti-wrinkle acids made the fabric stronger—something useful for designing clothing. It’s a triple win: a textile finish that is “environment-friendly, people friendly, and planet friendly.” Additionally, Arya spoke on a panel titled “The Future of Textiles and Sustainability” at Radical Fiber: Threads Connecting Art and Science, a virtual conference in January put on by Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. She also spoke at the Sustainable Fashion & Beauty Conference, held virtually in October 2021.

Christie Shin, faculty member in Creative Technology and Design, has joined the educator advisory board of Figma, the web-based design software, as a founding board member. The board is composed of 10 innovative educators from around the world who act as advisors to the Figma for Education team to provide guidance on growth strategies, offer input on Figma products and services, and uncover key education trends.  

Textile Development and Marketing Professor Ajoy Sarkar’s seminal book on textiles has reached its ninth edition. The Dictionary of Textiles, which Sarkar coauthored with Ingrid Johnson and Phyllis Tortora, was reissued by Fairchild Books in November. Published eight years since the previous edition, the tome now includes coverage of sustainability, smart materials, biobased textiles, 3D manufacturing, and other new technologies. The 570-page tome ranges from fibers to laws and regulations around textile processing to relevant business terms, and includes 400 illustrations.

  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.