The Museum at FIT Fashion Culture Podcast

Leading celebrity stylist Misa Hylton joined FIT professor Elena Romero in conversation on November 17, 2022. Hylton is acclaimed for creating iconic looks such as the purple pastie-and-pantsuit ensemble worn by Lil’ Kim at MTV’s 1999 Video Music Awards and Beyoncé’s leather MCM bustier and trench coat worn in the 2018 “Apesh*t” music video. Hylton’s past clients include Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, Mi...

In February of 2021, Stella Jean, the Italian-Haitian fashion designer, joined Dr. Valerie Steele, director of MFIT, for a discussion on expanding diversity in the Italian fashion system. Stella Jean, whose clients include Rihanna and Beyoncé, collaborates with artisans in Africa and Haiti, and has been an advocate for Black designers in Italy.   Watch the full video with captions on YouTube. The...

New York-based fashion designer, Nicole Miller joined Dr. Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of The Museum at FIT, in conversation to discuss Miller’s career in fashion. After studying at Rhode Island School of Design and mastering the classic French techniques of Haute Couture while at Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in Paris, Miller founded her namesake brand in 1982. Her vision is...

In a special collaboration with Radio Cherry Bombe, host Kerry Diamond interviews Melissa Marra-Alvarez and Elizabeth Way, curators of The Museum at FIT exhibition  Food & Fashion . Together, they discuss Elsa Schiaparelli’s lobster dress, Rachel Antonoff’s pasta puffer, this summer’s grocery girl trend, and more. This episode first launched on Radio Cherry Bombe’s podcast on September 18, 202...

Co-curators of ¡Moda Hoy! Latin American and Latinx Fashion – Tanya Meléndez-Escalante and Melissa Marra-Alvarez – discuss their curatorial process in putting together the exhibition, which showcased the fashion contributions of designers of Latin American descent. On view from May 31 - August 27, 2023, the exhibition was organized into thematic sections such as art, craftsmanship, elegance, gende...

Recorded in 2021, Uruguayan-born fashion designer Gabriela Hearst takes a stroll down memory lane with Dr. Valerie Steele as they discuss how growing up on the family ranch influenced Hearst’s designs as well as how she rolled out not one but three collections during the pandemic.  She is the winner of the 2016/2017 International Woolmark Prize for Womenswear, the 2020 CFDA American Womenswear Des...

Elizabeth Hawes is known for her timeless fashion designs and her written critique of the fashion system, such as in her 1940 book Fashion is Spinach. In this conversation moderated by author and podcaster April Calahan, professors and fashion historians Lourdes Font (FIT) and Francesca Granata (The New School) discuss the importance of Hawes in American fashion. She was an American designer, auth...

In 2013, The Museum at FIT hosted its A Queer History of Fashion symposium in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name. The cultural commentator Fran Lebowitz was one of the more than twenty participants, and she joined Valerie Steele to discuss – in her quintessential acerbic style – Marlene Dietrich suits, San Francisco vs New York, the appeal of leather, and recurring ("horrible") fashi...

Philip Gefter’s book What Becomes a Legend Most: A Biography of Richard Avedon is a study of the legendary photographer’s life. A fashion photographer and portrait artist, Avedon’s subjects included some of the most notable figures of the twentieth century including James Baldwin, Audrey Hepburn, Truman Capote, and Marilyn Monroe, as well as iconic models such as Donyale Luna and Jean Shrimpton. T...

In 2019, Zandra Rhodes and Fern Mallis discussed "Zandra Rhodes: 50 Fabulous Years in Fashion," a book that celebrates Rhodes' 50-year career in fashion and textile design. Both a fashion trailblazer and a consummate textile designer, Zandra Rhodes influences the work of contemporary labels such as Mary Katrantzou and Alice Temperley. The book honors the centrality of textile design in Rhodes’s wo...

Berlin was a fashion capital in the 1920s, with hundreds of thriving clothing manufacturers, most of them Jewish, before it was destroyed by the Nazis. Author Uwe Westphal shares this history in a discussion with FIT historian Keren Ben-Horin and journalist Jennifer Altmann, whose grandfather ran one of Berlin’s fashion houses. Organized in collaboration with the Museum at Eldridge Street . Watch...

Couture designer Ronald van der Kemp and The New Fashion Initiative founder Lauren B. Fay discuss van der Kemp's career and his devotion to craftsmanship, upcycling and reducing waste in fashion. Ronald van der Kemp is a Dutch fashion designer and founder of demi-couture fashion house RVDK, his namesake label, which shows at Paris Couture week and uses exclusively upcycled fabric. Lauren Fay has s...

On November 5, 2022, Regan de Loggans (Mississippi Choctaw) moderated a conversation with Jeffrey Gibson and Korina Emmerich. Each discussed their experience working as Native Americans in creative industries, weaving in current issues of diversity and sustainability. Gibson is an award-winning Choctaw-Cherokee artist, whose work combines traditional Native American elements with contemporary refe...

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Robin Givhan, in conversation with Dr. Valerie Steele, discuss the current relationship between fashion, politics, and power. Drawing on her experience as The Washington Post's senior critic-at-large, Givhan addresses such potent sartorial symbols as the Hawaiian and golf shirts worn by the boogaloo boys and the yellow ensembles worn by mothers protesting in Portl...

On September 15, 2020, Fashion designer Prabal Gurung and MFIT Director Valerie Steele discussed the designer's innovative and international career. With over 80 percent of his collections made in New York, Gurung is committed to sustaining domestic employment, income, and production. His family’s Shikshya Foundation Nepal provides education to children to impact his country’s future. Watch the fu...

On October 16, 2019, model Veronica Webb and Rory Tahari, the CEO and founder of State of Mind Partners, discussed the future of fashion and the impact of digital technology. Drawing on their decades of fashion experience, Webb and Tahari addressed blogging, online/mobile shopping, and innovative manufacturing methods, such as 3D printing and robotic sewing. Watch the full video with captions on Y...

For The Museum at FIT's Pink Symposium, Tanya Melendez-Escalante, MFIT senior curator of education and public program, explored the history of the color “Mexican pink” and how it has been used by fashion designers and architects from Mexico. 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.  http...

Randy Cohen, creator of the public radio program Person Place Thing, says his guests are at their most engaging when they talk about whatever they find most meaningful. In an interview recorded for broadcast, Cohen asks MFIT Director Valerie Steele about her own most memorable person, place, and thing. Watch the full video with captions on YouTube. The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedic...

Stephen Jones is a milliner whose exquisitely crafted, quixotic hats attract a celebrity clientele that includes Rihanna, Mick Jagger, and Dita Von Teese. In this conversation with MFIT curator, Colleen Hill, Jones shares stories on how he came into millinery and why people wear hats.   Watch the full video with captions on YouTube.   The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusive...

Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco is an electrifying documentary that follows fashion illustrator (and FIT alumnus) Antonio Lopez from New York to Paris between 1969 and 1973. Alexander Joseph, Hue Magazine managing editor, leads a Q&A with the film's director Paul Caranicas and models Pat Cleveland and Corey Tippen. Watch the full video with captions on YouTube. The Museum at FIT (M...

The documentary Straight/Curve offers an unflinching look into the body image crisis in the world of modeling. Listen as director Jenny McQuaile and Meredith Rollins, editor in chief of Redbook magazine, discuss topics addressed in the film. 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.  http...

Susana Martinez Vidal, author of Frida Kahlo: Fashion as the Art of Being, presents the 20 fashion lessons she learned from Frida Kahlo. 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

Patricia Mears, deputy director of The Museum at FIT, explores the history of the tutu in ballet and fashion at The Museum at FIT's 14th annual fashion symposium, Dance & Fashion , held on October 23 & 24, 2014. This symposium explored how dance costume has inspired fashion, and how fashion designers have increasingly been creating dance costumes. Watch the full video with captions on YouT...

Colleen Hill, curator of costume and accessories at The Museum at FIT, discusses the romance and femininity but also discipline and pain of ballet shoes. 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

Accomplished supermodel and designer Liya Kebede joins MFIT Assistant Curator of Costume Elizabeth Way to talk about lemlem, Kebede’s collection of women’s, men’s, children’s clothing, and home goods made entirely in Africa. The core collection is handwoven from natural cotton sourced in Kebede’s native Ethiopia. Women artisans are at the heart of lemlem, and the brand is committed to helping them...