The Museum at FIT Fashion Culture Podcast

Fashion is Spinach: The Life and Work of Elizabeth Hawes | Fashion Culture

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, author, labor organizer, and social critic whose ideas many praise to be decades before her time. Over the course of her career, Hawes questioned the division between menswear and womenswear, advocated for what we call today “slow fashion", designed elegant yet practical pieces, and sought to reform working conditions in the fashion industry. 

(Recorded March 7, 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

Fran Lebowitz in conversation with Valerie Steele | Fashion Culture

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") fashions.
(Recorded Friday, November 8, 2013)

View transcript.

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

Zandra Rhodes: 50 Fabulous Years in Fashion | Fashion Culture

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 work, while exploring the versatility of her imagination throughout her long career.

 

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

 

 

Fashion Metropolis Berlin | Fashion Culture

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 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

Fashion and Political Power | Fashion Culture

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 Portland.

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

Mexican Rose | Fashion Culture

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. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum

Person Place Thing | Fashion Culture

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 dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City. https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum

Frida Kahlo: Fashion as the Art of Being | Fashion Culture

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

From Sylph to Swan: The Tutu and Fashion | Fashion Culture

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 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

Ballet Shoes: Function, Fashion, and Fetish | Fashion Culture

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