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Several fashion month favorites honed their craft at FIT, including Michael Kors himself, Calvin Klein himself and Schiaparelli creative director Daniel Roseberry.
So, for this week’s New York Fashion Week episode of the Glossy Podcast, Glossy sat down with Dr. Joyce Brown, who will wrap up a 26-year run as the president of the Fashion Institute of Technology this year. Dr. Brown shares the evolving ways the school has set its designers up for industry success. She also weighs in on the role of a fashion show in today’s fashion landscape. Highlights from the episode, below, have been lightly edited for clarity.
Throughout New York Fashion Week, from February 6-11, check back for more daily podcast episodes featuring influential fashion insiders, from brand CEOs to designers.
FIT grads turned ‘household names’
“We have the names you know [as alumni]. We have Michael Kors and Dennis Basso and Daniel Roseberry, who’s now the creative director at Schiaparelli, and Bibu Mahapatra. .. And we have so many diligent, creative, committed creatives [as students] — talented young people. And nothing happens overnight. They work, they toil, they don’t give up. They are totally immersed in making their name and giving their muse the opportunity to be developed. And I’m very proud of all of them. I see the emerging designers that are coming up that are embracing the new ways of making a statement in the industry today, and they’re going to be the [industry’s] household names in a few years.”
Giving students the NYFW experience
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“There’s nothing quite like the energy and dynamism behind the scenes in these shows, and for the students, it’s an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to be exposed to it, to have a role in it, to understand how it all fits together, and to see the designers probably at their best and their worst, as the emotion of all of that activity comes into play. So it’s a great opportunity and experience for the students. And, even as young and emerging designers are embracing different avenues of creativity, the tried and true, the historic, the foundational elements that one sees in these shows are beneficial and educational for them, as well. And they’d give their right arm for the opportunity to be there, so it’s important from their point of view, as well.”
