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Archivistische beschrijving
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US NNFIT SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.8.2 · Stuk · 1982 May 14
Part of Academic Affairs records

Arthur Jablow reflecting on his father-in-law, Maurice Rentner. There is a most interesting section in the Oral Memoirs of Maurice Rentner, (his father-in-law) which provides considerable insight into other facets of the ready-to-wear business.

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US NNFIT SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.3.4 · Stuk · 1986 November 19
Part of Academic Affairs records

This conversation covers very little of Lester Gribetz' life and career at Bloomingdale's. There is a brief intro in which Gribetz lays out his professional trajectory from trainee under Martin S. Traub to his role in merchandising. Like most of Traub's employees at Bloomingdale's, Gribetz praises Traub as a boss and as a person. He describes him as exciting, challenging, enlightened, and demanding. Gribetz attributes Traub's high standards to keeping workers excited and motivated. Traub is described as charitable in a number of the Bloomingdale's interviews but Gribetz shares a specific story of Traub organizing a massive fundraising effort for AIDS research after one of his buyers passed away from the disease. In describing the retail environment, Gribetz explains that a retail career is demanding and varied, and the hard work has discouraged many where others have thrived. Prompted several times to define Bloomingdale's milestones, Gribetz first discusses the team before Martin S. Traub's era and then the transitions and departmental changes that marked a real turning point with Traub. Bloomingdale's food business is discussed as a distinction among other retailers as well as the elaborate country promotions which were at their peak success at the time of this interview. The Bloomingdale's customer is described as being educated, affluent, adventuresome, and inventive. While Gribetz describes these qualities as being somewhat inherent in New Yorkers, he goes on to say that these ideas are present in customers in all regions and that Bloomingdale's still appeals to the mass market because it grants these qualities upon the customer.

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US NNFIT SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.3.7 · Stuk · 1986 November 21
Part of Academic Affairs records

This conversation takes place only a few weeks after Schaefer had joined Bloomingdale's as the Vice President of Marketing. Schaefer gives a quick recap of the previous 13 years of his career before talking about his thoughts on his new boss, Marvin S. Traub, as well as his new position at Bloomingdale's. Coming from first a marketing background and then, briefly, a retail background, Schaefer discusses the importance of retailers being fully aware of what people are reading, wearing, listening to, and even eating. This awareness is a qaulity of Traub's that Schaefer praises and which he attributes, in part, to making Bloomingdale's stand out in the retail industry. Schaefer also talks about Bloomingdale's distinguising itself by being a place of diversion, entertainment, and fun as opposed to being simply a mode of distribution. When discussing his job interview for Bloomingdale's, Schaefer recalls being impressed by the amount of thought and planning that evidently went into the future of the store and uses the country promotions as an example.

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US NNFIT SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.1.4 · Stuk · 1990 September 5
Part of Academic Affairs records

This interview with Ralph Lauren explores his life growing up in the Bronx and how he started his career in the fashion industry. He provides insight to his design process and the company products, which vary from clothing to furnishings and linens.

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US NNFIT SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.10.11 · Stuk · 2017 June 20
Part of Academic Affairs records

Stan Herman discusses his career as a fashion designer starting in the mid century and continuing into the 2010s with a successful design business for QVC.

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US NNFIT SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.4.4 · Stuk · 1994 November 14
Part of Academic Affairs records

This is an interview with four executive members of the Union of United College Employees (UCE) at FIT: Joseph Garofalo, Judy Wood, Juliette Romano, and Arthur Levinson. The four begin by explaining their backgrounds and initial involvement with FIT in the 1960s and 1970s. They discuss how difficult it was to get promotions under the administration of Lawrence Bethel, and how the union had to fight for many rights such as faculty status for “non-classroom faculty.” They also discuss the crowded state of the FIT offices before 1976 and the steadying role the union played in such chaos. The four then describe their connections to the NYC labor movement and close relationships with the Central Labor Council and the Municipal Labor Coalition. State and federal connections also played an important role, and Judy Wood describes her active political involvement with councilman Ed Sullivan. The group then mentions their parent organization, the AFL-CIO, and further union connections with the United Federation of Teachers. They take a moment to remember a strike at Radio City Music Hall, and how they convinced a union to pause the strike to facilitate an FIT graduation, kick-starting a long friendship. The group pays homage to Marvin Feldman, an FIT president they found especially supportive. They mention an upcoming negotiation and go one to detail how union negotiations with the school and city work. Finally, the four describe the union’s relationship to students and the creation of the George Levinson Scholarship Fund in fond memory of his legacy.

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US NNFIT SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.1.89 · Stuk · 1982 June 02
Part of Academic Affairs records

This interview opens with Mollie Parnis talking about her latest project, a prize for three young journalists that she began in memory of her son. She then segues into the origins of her company and her early biography. She commenced her career by designing blouses after being frustrated at the quality of the designs while working in a design showroom on Madison Avenue. The Parnis-Livingston company began in a studio Seventh Avenue about five-years after Mollie Parnis and Leon Livingston married in 1930, with Mollie designing and Leon managing the business needs. After her husband died in 1960 she closed the business for three-months. Diana Vreeland convinced Mollie to stay open by putting two of her sketches in Harper’s Bazaar. The name of the business remained Parnis-Livingston until 1970 when it changed to Mollie Parnis. She now has three divisions: Mollie Parnis, Inc.; Mollie Parnis Studio; and Mollie Parnis at Home. Upon success, she began doing philanthropic work, including a grant foundation called “Mollie Parnis Dress up Your Neighborhood”; scholarships at FIT and Parsons; and the aforementioned journalistic prizes. Topics touched on include: the impersonalization of the current fashion industry; her friendship with various First Ladies, including Mamie Eisenhower, Lady Bird Johnson, and Nancy Reagan; how the changes in the industry have necessitated changes in her business-model, including the prevalence of licensing from designers in the 1980s.

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US NNFIT SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.10.1 · Stuk · 2014 January 6
Part of Academic Affairs records

April Calahan, Curator of Manuscripts at the Special Collections and College Archives unit of the Fashion Institute of Technology library, interviews street style fashion photographer Jamel Shabazz. Mr. Shabazz talks of his life growing up in New York City as a child of divorce. He recalls how he started learning photography in Germany while serving in the armed forces. He began documenting his world in 1980 when he began taking photographs of young people who reminded him of his own life growing up, and found his camera facilitated his ability to engage with and mentor young people. He talks about the importance of mentorship, the trust that he honed between him and his subjects. He discusses how discounted clothing was often purchased from stores around Delancey and Orchard streets in the 1970s as well as other hubs where urban fashion originated from. He compares the photographic work he's done in the studio to his preference to shooting on the street. Calahan and Shabazz review the specific processes behind a number of Shabazz's favorite photographs. He finally discusses his respect for FIT, and his reasons for donating a collection of photographs to FIT's archive, and how important he believes photography is for documenting history. Alex Joseph, editor of Hue Magazine, joins in as interviewer to ask Mr. Shabazz about his personal clothing collection, which consists of pieces he designed himself or has kept over several decades, and which he uses in his fashion shoots. Finally, Mr. Shabazz recalls how fashion has changed over time.

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