Published by museumatfit
The Museum at FIT’s Fashion Culture podcast provides new perspectives on the history, impact, and evolution of fashion.
Listen on Apple PodcastsLifestyles is a six-episode original short podcast series from The Museum at FIT. Join MFIT Digital Media Manager Tamsen Young as she sits down with people whose distinct expression of style is outside conventional fashion trends. Discover how they use clothing to define themselves on their own terms. View images of our guests, and learn more about the Lifestyles podcast series, on our website . New episodes drop twice a month. Subscribe and listen to find your own style inspiration. Using flea market finds, thrifted pieces, and found objects, FIT alum Wren Britton creates truly inventive clothing and accessories under the name PUREVILE! He is influenced by a wide assortment of cultural touchpoints, including: Victorian mourning, comic books, New York underground nightlife, Queer icons and confrontational drag, the Brothers Quay filmmakers, and icons of the ‘80s, such as the British designer Judy Blame and the Blitz Kids. His work can be dark and gothic but also includes camp and humor! “You learn to deal with not always getting positive attention from people, but it also teaches you how to then be soft when you need to be and share yourself with people.” Wren designs windows and visuals for many New York retail establishments and has DJ’ed at goth and new romantic nights around the city. And in his spare time, he enjoys making stained glass! Transcript (pdf) The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum Instagram: @museumatfit & @purevile
Lifestyles is a six-episode original short podcast series from The Museum at FIT. Join MFIT Digital Media Manager Tamsen Young as she sits down with people whose distinct expression of style is outside conventional fashion trends. Discover how they use clothing to define themselves on their own terms. View images of our guests, and learn more about the Lifestyles podcast series, on our website. New episodes drop twice a month. Subscribe and listen to find your own style inspiration. Cheyney McKnight is an historical interpreter and artist. She founded Not Your Momma’s History, a platform which helps museums and historical sites develop programming about slavery and the African experience. Her YouTube channel of the same name brings to life the day to day lives of Black people throughout American history in fun and interesting ways. As an artist, Cheyney envisions a future in which Black descendants shape the interpretation of former sites of mass enslavement. She uses clothing designs that meld 18th and 19th century silhouettes with modern textiles that speak to the Black experience in America. Transcript (pdf) The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum Instagram: @museumatfit & @notyourmommashistory
Lifestyles is a six-episode original short podcast series from The Museum at FIT. Join MFIT Digital Media Manager Tamsen Young as she sits down with people whose distinct expression of style is outside conventional fashion trends. Discover how they use clothing to define themselves on their own terms. View images of our guests, and learn more about the Lifestyles podcast series, on our website. New episodes drop twice a month. Subscribe and listen to find your own style inspiration. Cynthia Alberto is a multidisciplinary artist and designer and the founder of Weaving Hand, which is a Brooklyn-based weaving and healing art studio and cultural center. Cynthia's interdisciplinary practice engages traditional and contemporary weaving techniques through socially engaged, community centered work. Drawing from textile histories and collective making traditions across Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa, Cynthia approaches weaving not only as a material process, but also as a framework for care, resilience and collective experience. Her work emphasizes sustainability through a zero waste ethos and spans sculpture, performance and large scale participatory installations that have taken place in cultural institutions, civic organizations and public spaces. Cynthia has received numerous awards and been exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently at the Museum of Modern Art in conjunction with the exhibition Woven Histories, Textiles and Modern Abstraction, and she has a forthcoming fellowship at Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens. Transcript (pdf) The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum Instagram: @museumatfit & @cynthiaalbertostudio
Lifestyles is a six-episode original short podcast series from The Museum at FIT. Join MFIT Digital Media Manager Tamsen Young as she sits down with people whose distinct expression of style is outside conventional fashion trends. Discover how they use clothing to define themselves on their own terms. View images of our guests, and learn more about the Lifestyles podcast series, on our website. New episodes drop twice a month. Subscribe and listen to find your own style inspiration. Dandy Wellington, born and raised in Harlem, New York, is a bandleader, entertainer, event producer, and creative consultant. He has performed with his jazz band all around the world and, as a vintage menswear savant, he has consulted on events throughout the United States, including the fashion exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Dandy’s look epitomizes the undeniable cool of the Jazz Age. He is an impeccably dressed man-about-town whose signature style has earned him features in outlets such as The Financial Times and Vogue magazine. Dandy’s appreciation for the swinging big bands, elegant parties, and beautifully tailored clothing of the 1920s and '30s makes him a certifiable Renaissance man and a true modern dandy. Transcript (pdf) The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum Instagram: @museumatfit & @dandywellington
Lifestyles is a six-episode original short podcast series from The Museum at FIT. Join MFIT Digital Media Manager Tamsen Young as she sits down with people whose distinct expression of style is outside conventional fashion trends. Discover how they use clothing to define themselves on their own terms. Learn more about the Lifestyles podcast series, and view more images of our guests, on our website. New episodes drop twice a month. Subscribe and listen to find your own style inspiration. The artist and maker Debra Rapoport brings a playful exploration of beauty and ingenuity to both her fashion and her life. Her style, a blend of making and thrifting, reflects a lifelong commitment to sustainability. Debra studied weaving in Stockholm, Sweden, holds a BFA from Carnegie Melon University and an MA from UC Berkeley where she graduated in 1970. She taught throughout the 1970s at UC Davis and continued teaching here in New York City, including at the Museum of Modern Art, MAD Museum, and NYU, just to name a few. Debra's work has been featured in numerous art museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the National Museum of Sweden. Debra was featured in Advanced Style, a film about the style of people over the age of 60, as well as in the three Advanced Style books that followed. Transcript (pdf) The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum
From the 19th-century corset to the modern waist trainer, the fashion industry has long held that most bodies require correction. In this episode, Dr. Valerie Steele and Tim Gunn trace the historical arc of body ideals in Western fashion, from the voluptuous Venus of the Victorian era to the increasingly narrow and homogeneous standards that dominate runways today. Drawing on decades of curatorial scholarship and industry experience, Dr. Steele and Gunn examine the persistent reluctance among designers to create beyond a narrow range of sizes, the structural barriers facing fashion students seeking education in plus-size design, and the enduring interplay between clothing, sexuality, and self-presentation. Gunn reflects on his own encounters with industry exclusion while Dr. Steele situates these conversations within a longer history of medical, cultural, and commercial pressures on the female body. This episode was recorded live on Friday, February 23, 2018, as part of The Museum at FIT's 19th Annual Fashion Symposium, Fashion and Phsyique. Watch the full video with captions on YouTube. The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum
Norma Kamali studied fashion illustration at FIT before taking a job at Northwest Orient Airlines. From 1964 to 1968, she traveled to Britain every weekend, where she immersed herself in the culture of 1960s London. In 1967, she and her husband opened a boutique in NYC and filled it with items purchased in London. She supplemented her stock with her own designs and eventually began to focus primarily on her original creations. Among her most celebrated creations is the “sleeping bag coat" and a swimsuit worn by Farah Fawcett in one of the most memorable photographs of the 1970s. However, she also designed high heel sneakers, adjustable dress from parachute silk, created a suit from sweatshirt fabric, and is renown as a pioneer in athleisure. In this conversation, Norma Kamali and MFIT's Patricia Mears speak at the museum's fashion symposium, Fashion, Science, and Exploration, held on October 10, 2017. Watch the full video with captions on YouTube. The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum
Piet Mondrian's abstract paintings were appropriated by various aspects of popular culture throughout the 1960s, notably by Yves Saint Laurent in his 1965 dress series. Co-authors Nancy J. Troy and Ann Marguerite Tartsinis join MFIT's senior curator of costume Dr. Colleen Hill to discuss the wildly popular dress series and how art, commerce, and fashion became intertwined in the postwar period. This talk was recorded March 6, 2024. Watch the full video with captions on YouTube. The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum
Robin Givhan, the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, presents her new book, Make It Ours: Crashing the Gates of Culture with Virgil Abloh. Appointed as head of menswear for Louis Vuitton in 2018, Abloh was the first Black designer to serve as artistic director in the brand's 164-year history and his rise was amid a cultural moment that would upend a century's worth of ideas about luxury and taste. In this conversation with Dr. Elizabeth Way, The Museum at FIT's associate curator of costume and accessories, Givhan discusses Abloh’s disruptive impact on the fashion industry, his controversial design methods, and his legacy as a figure of optimism. She notes that in the current cultural climate, choosing optimism is a "radical" act, and Abloh did so not out of naivety, but as the only way to move forward. Robin Givhan spent more than 25 years writing about politics, race, and the arts at The Washington Post as a fashion critic and most recently, senior critic-at-large. This talk was recorded August 26, 2025. Transcript (pdf) The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum
Colombian designer Lia Samantha Lozano, a pioneer of Afro-Colombian fashion and speaks with Professor Dr. Tamara J. Walker about Lozano's eponymous brand, Lia Samantha, which translates the power of Black and Indigenous peoples’ cosmovisions, traditions, wisdom, spirituality, and beauty into contemporary design. Walker, an associate professor of Africana studies at Barnard College, Columbia University, centers her research on slavery, gender, and racial formation in Latin America. Walker’s first book, Exquisite Slaves: Race, Clothing, and Status in Colonial Lima (2017), won the 2018 Harriet Tubman Prize. This talk occurred on October 25, 2024 at The Museum at the FIT's Africa’s Fashion Diaspora Symposium at the Fashion Institute of Technology. The symposium explored key histories, networks, and industries led by Black designers who are actively shaping fashion culture. Scholars and designers illustrated the breadth and depth of diasporic fashion networks, from the African continent to South America and the United States. #FashionCulture Transcript (pdf) The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum
How can fashion schools institutionally cultivate support and accelerate the many changes already happening in the classroom around inclusion and equity? Ben Barry, Dean of Fashion at Parsons School of Design, explores the decolonization work at Parsons and the successes, challenges, and discussions that arose from that process. Ben Barry was named to the Vogue Business inaugural “100 Innovators” list in 2022. Barry is leading the Parsons fashion community to embed equity, inclusion, and justice in its curriculum and culture. His current research, funded by the Ford Foundation, explores how to redesign fashion education and the fashion industry to enable disabled designers to thrive. This talk, "Transforming Fashion Education: Possibilities and Limits of Equity, Inclusion, and Decolonization," was originally given in 2024 at MFIT’s New Direction in Fashion Research Symposium. The Museum at FIT’s 31st symposium, New Directions in Fashion Research , focused on new avenues of study in the interdisciplinary field of fashion. Scholars, curators, and collectors explored topics such as practice-based research, collecting practices, theories and methodologies, and the role of diversity, equity, and inclusion in fashion education. Read Transcript (pdf) The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum
Olivier Rousteing, creative director of the house of Balmain, joins Dr. Valerie Steele for an intimate conversation with FIT students. He recalls his personal struggles and hardships, offering a candid look into his journey and the lessons he’s carried along the way. Speaking on diversity and inclusivity in fashion, Rousteing shares: “We always win when there is love… We can build a community of people that believe in the same world, and we’re all here to shape this world.” He takes a number of audience questions and gives thoughtful and personal answers to the students' questions. This talk was recorded September 3, 2025. Watch the full video with captions on YouTube. The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum
Costume design can make or break a character or TV show. Author, consultant, fashion director, and media personality Hal Rubenstein shares amusing insights about the most influential fashion on television from the 1950s to today. Based on research from his book Dressing the Part: Television's Most Stylish Shows, Mr. Rubenstein reveals the surprising ways our favorite shows have reflected and often shaped the way we dress. He is joined by costume designer Eric Daman, whose work includes looks for the TV show Gossip Girl. This talk was recorded February 15, 2024. Watch the full video with captions on YouTube. The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum
Andy Hilfiger reminisces with MFIT curator Elizabeth Way about the early days of Tommy Hilfiger and how Hip Hop artists incorporated the brand into their style. This talk was part of MFIT’s 2023 fashion symposium Fresh, Fly, and Fabulous: Fifty Years of Hip Hop Style. Andy Hilfiger has been blurring the lines between music and fashion for decades. He began his fashion career at 12, selling jeans at his brother Tommy Hilfiger's first business, The People's Place. Hilfiger relocated to New York City to perform in the downtown rock scene. He was instrumental in introducing the Tommy Hilfiger brand to pop culture. He currently serves as the vice president of Business Development for Authentic Brands Group. Dr. Elizabeth Way is curator of costume and accessories at The Museum at FIT and co-curator of the Fresh, Fly, and Fabulous: 50 Years of Hip Hop Style exhibition. Her past exhibitions include Global Fashion Capitals (2015), Black Fashion Designers (2016), Fabric in Fashion (2018), and Head to Toe (2021). Way edited Black Designers in American Fashion (Bloomsbury, 2021). Watch the full video with captions on YouTube. The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum
What is circular design and how does it fit in the fashion industry? A circular economy is a production and consumption model that emphasizes sharing, reusing, repairing, and recycling materials and products to extend their lifecycle. Lauren B. Fay and Cynthia Power discuss the work of brands and retailers working in this way and answer some great audience questions. This talk was recorded September 26, 2024. Watch the full video with captions on YouTube. The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum
The Museum at FIT's current exhibition Fashioning Wonder: A Cabinet of Curiosities is all about sparking awe. In conversation with Randy Cohen of the podcast “Person Place Thing,” Dr. Colleen Hill, MFIT’s curator of costume, discusses how three objects from the exhibition piqued her own curiosity. Cohen's interview approach is to delve into what people are most passionate about, showing that the most captivating conversations happen when we talk about something we care deeply about – not just ourselves. This conversation was recorded as part of MFIT's Fashion Culture program series on March 4, 2025. Fashioning Wonder: A Cabinet of Curiosities is on view in NYC through April 20, 2025. Read Transcript (pdf) The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum
For #WomensHistoryMonth, listen in to this MFIT Fashion Culture Podcast episode highlighting Carolyn Bessette Kennedy’s life and influence as a business woman, muse, and style icon. This conversation between fashion creative director Sunita Kumar Nair and CFDA CEO Steven Kolb was recorded at a 2024 MFIT Fashion Culture program. Sunita Kumar Nair is the author of CBK: Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, which gathers the greats of the fashion world to speak about Bessette Kennedy's timeless style. As chief executive of the CFDA, Steven Kolb is a driving force behind New York Fashion Week and many initiatives for young designers. Watch the full video with captions on YouTube . The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum
“We wanna be fabulous. We wanna be fly. We wanna be fresh!” declares Ralph McDaniels. For #BlackHistoryMonth we’re excited to share this conversation between Video Music Box co-creator Ralph McDaniels and FIT professor and author Elena Romero about the styles, sounds, and scene of early hip hop in NYC. Ralph McDaniels is the founder and curator of the Video Music Box, which airs on NYC-TV, (channel 25 or 22). McDaniels, also known as "Uncle Ralph," has directed and produced over 400 music videos, and co-produced the films Juice (1992) and You’re Watching Video Music Box (Showtime, 2021). McDaniels's microphone is held in the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Elena Romero is assistant chair and assistant professor of Marketing Communications at FIT and was a co-curator of Fresh, Fly, and Fabulous: 50 Years of Hip Hop Style . Romero is the author of Free Stylin': How Hip Hop Changed the Fashion Industry (2012) and is a featured expert in the style documentaries The Remix: Hip Hop x Fashion (2019) and Fresh Dressed (2015). This talk was recorded in Feb 2023. Watch the full video with captions on YouTube. The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum
Simon Porte Jacquemus, who was born in the South of France and is now based in Paris, established his eponymous brand in 2009 with no formal training, dedicating the brand to the memory of his late mother. A passion for art and the decorative arts informs his creativity, inspiring the JACQUEMUS men's and women's ready-to-wear and accessories collections that reference French culture and universal gestures of beauty: from fine art photography, painting, and sculpture. The Couture Council of The Museum at FIT honored Simon Porte Jacquemus with its 2024 Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion during its annual luncheon on September 4, 2024. After a festive event, Jacquemus returned to the FIT campus to speak with students and Dr. Valerie Steele about his extraordinary career. "A bold creative force in the industry who started his brand at the age of 20, Simone Porte Jacquemus is also a role model for our students who look up to him as both an entrepreneur and a designer," said Dr. Joyce F. Brown, FIT president. Read Transcript (PDF) The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum
“I think there's something quite magical about when you're backstage. And it's not quite seeing behind the magician's curtain, it's more like you know seeing the play from the inside out I guess? ... [McQueen's] backstage was so different to other shows. He was totally hands-on ... and he was involved in everything. He was totally focused and the same obviously was true of all his staff and the interns," explains Alexander McQueen enthusiast John Matheson. Alexander McQueen’s spectacular shows were full of extraordinary moments and people. In this podcast episode, author and photographer Robert Fairer discusses McQueen’s runway shows with writer and consultant John Matheson (of Instagram's @McQueen_Vault). The 2021 conversation, moderated by MFIT’s senior curator of education Tanya Melendez-Escalante, addressed Fairer's book, "Alexander McQueen: Unseen." Fairer was Vogue's backstage fashion photographer for more than a decade and an integral part of the whirl of activity behind the scenes. Watch the full video with captions on YouTube. The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum