The Soul Club Oral History Project is an initiative of the FIT Library, inspired by the Soul Club fashion shows’ exuberance, positivity, dynamism, and joy. For this oral history project, FIT alumni and faculty members are interviewed about their participation and experience in the Soul Club. The goal of this project is to explore FIT’s rich and diverse history and uplift, amplify, and publicly share the stories of Black fashion students and faculty members as told by the community members themselves.
Taur Orange, interviewer, is the head of Educational Opportunity Programs at FIT.
This oral history collection contains close to 400 interviews of prominent 20th-century fashion industry insiders, including Ralph Lauren, Liz Claiborne, Princess Grace of Monaco, and Vera Maxwell, as well as members of the FIT faculty and staff. This collection of in-depth interviews with individuals in every segment of the fashion business creates a broad historical record that is drawn directly from the knowledgeable, informal, and often colorful verbalization of its practitioners. FIT's Oral History Project is a unique record of facts, ways and means, points of view, practice and personality that could be preserved in no other way.
This collection includes the records for the annual day long Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice Symposium. Each year a theme is selected and the graduate students present papers relating to the theme. Included are students papers, print version of their presentations, advertising materials for the symposium, and schedule of events. Further accruals are expected.
The Integrated Service-Learning Project is an extension of the Interior Design Relief Project which was founded in 2013. It aims to integrate the efforts of like-minded interior designers, architects, and contractors who believe that the design of the physical environment matters, shapes lives, and can empower people. Documents relate to projects conducted with FIT Interior Design students and various New York and New Jersey area organizations including the Bowery Mission Women’s Center in the renovation of their laundry room, the Community of Friends in Action of Leonia, NJ, the Leonia Presbyterian Church, and Hug-it-Forward, to build a “bottle school” in Guatemala, presented proposals for the renovation of the communal kitchen at Hephzibah House in New York City and Living Waters Community Center in Brooklyn, Restore NYC during the Spring semester and moving on to summer with The Bowery Mission Men's Center and St. Paul's House and more. These projects became part of the curriculum and the content is now taught in the 6th semester in liaison with New York Cares
The records of Joyce F. Brown include correspondence, speeches, and written works as well as documents regarding the Diversity Council and Sustainability Council.
Video and web material that discusses leadership in social justice, diversity, corporate responsibility, and innovation in the fashion industry. Students, faculty, industry leaders, and entrepreneurs, from FIT and numerous other institutions, discuss emerging trends, network with peers, and share innovative solutions for a sustainable future.
This folder includes digital video presentations and the symposium invitation graphic delivered by the Fashion Textiles Studies Symposium 2021: Wiggle Room - The Lived Experience of Dress, which occurred completely online due to restrictions placed upon students and faculty due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Presentations include
“I Was a Mighty Dressed Up Bride”: Wedding Dress in the WPA Narratives by Kenna Libes;
“Hippety-Hop, I'm a Bunny”: An Examination of the Objectification of the Female Body Through the Bunny Costume by Ellen Greene;
Building the Wardrobe that Lasts: The Aesthetic Formula of 1970s Fashionable Anti-Fashion, by Alina Osokina;
Afropunk: A Carnival of Fashion Consciousness by Christianna Rice
Documents describing the planning, formation, and implementation of various oral history projects administrated by the FIT Library and other FIT departments. Includes meeting minutes, class documents from John Touhey's oral history studies, histories, and documentation. Bulk of the content relates to the Oral History Project of the Fashion Industries series within the Oral History collection.
