Goings on at The Museum at FIT

OCTOBER EVENTS NEWSLETTER

THE LATEST NEWS PUBLIC PROGRAMS Fashion Culture: Special Programs CURRENT EXHIBITION Eco-Fashion: Going Green CURRENT EXHIBITION Japan Fashion Now MUSEUM PUBLICATION Japan Fashion Now MUSEUM INFORMATION

THE LATEST NEWS Myoyoco Anno. Sakuran, 2003. © MOYOCO ANNO/KODANSHA **Annual Fashion Symposium: Japan Fashion Now" **The schedule and speakers for MFIT's annual fashion symposium have been announced. Registration is now open!! Don't miss talks by fashion designer Hirooka Naoto of h.NAOTO, curator Dr. Miwako Tezuka from the Asia society, fashion editor and blogger Tiffany Godoy, and professors from around the globe with fascinating insights on contemporary Japanese fashion and culture. **MFIT "in the round" ** Keep an eye out for our latest digital project, in which MFIT has partnered with Leica Camera AG andSynthescape Art Imaging to digitize highlights from our forthcoming exhibition, Japan Fashion Now. Launching in October, the project will feature high-resolution 360° views of selected works from the show.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS Fashion Culture: Special Programs Reservations are required. Space is limited.  To RSVP for a program, Register Online Here Fashion Culture programs and events are free unless otherwise indicated, and are organized by The Museum at FIT to provide insightful and intriguing perspectives on the culture of fashion. Fashion Conversation Matthew Williamson and Laura Brown in Conversation with Patricia Mears Thursday, October 21, 6 pm  Katie Murphy Amphitheatre Fred P. Pomerantz Art and Design Center, first floor Join fashion designer Matthew Williamson, Laura Brown, features/special projects director at Harper's Bazaar, and Patricia Mears, MFIT deputy director, for a lively conversation to mark the release of Matthew Williamson, a new book by fashion historian Colin McDowell. A signing of the book will follow. Lecture and Book Signing Eco Fashion - Sass Brown Tuesday, October 26, 6 pm Katie Murphy Amphitheatre Fred P. Pomerantz Art and Design Center, first floor Sass Brown, FIT faculty member, presents her new book, Eco Fashion, a comprehensive look at the environmentally conscious designers who are changing the fashion industry. By promoting recycling, redesign, reuse, sustainability, fair trade, and community development, these artists combine concern for the planet with love for exceptional fashion. A signing of the book will follow. Lecture and Book SigningJapanese Fashion in New York - Steven Alan Thursday, October 28, 6 pm Katie Murphy Amphitheatre Fred P. Pomerantz Art and Design Center, first floor The incredibly precise yet remarkably unstudied tailoring for which menswear designer Steven Alan is known finds its complement in his personal search for perfection in Japanese fashion. He will talk about that search, its rewards, and the discoveries he has made along the way.  Programs in November are listed on the MFIT website.

CURRENT EXHIBITION Eco-Fashion: Going Green FIN, marble print dress in organic bamboo satin, Fall 2010, Norway. Gift of Per Sivertsen of FIN. - Photograph by Eileen Costa ©MFIT. May 25 - November 26, 2010 The Museum at FIT presents Eco-Fashion: Going Green, an exhibition exploring the evolution of the fashion industry’s multifaceted and complex relationship with the environment. By examining the past two centuries of fashion’s good—and bad—environmental and ethical practices, Eco-Fashion: Going Green provides historical context for today’s eco-fashion movement. Presented chronologically and featuring more than 100 garments, accessories, and textiles, the exhibition uses contemporary methods for “going green” as a framework to study the past. The objects displayed touch upon at least one of six major themes: the re-purposing and recycling of materials, fiber origins, textile dyeing and production, quality of craftsmanship, labor practices, and the treatment of animals. Curated by Jennifer Farley and Colleen Hill, the exhibition features some of the finest examples of 21st-century sustainable fashions by current, cutting-edge labels, including Alabama Chanin, Edun, FIN, and NOIR. Read more here.

CURRENT EXHIBITION Japan Fashion Now h.NAOTO Autumn/Winter 2008. Photograph courtesy of h.NAOTO September 17, 2010 - January 8, 2011 Japan Fashion Now explores how Japanese fashion has evolved in recent years. Japanese fashion today embraces not only the cerebral, avant-garde looks associated with the first wave of Japanese design in the 1980s, but also a range of subcultural and youth-oriented styles, such as the Elegant Gothic Lolita style and the Cosplay phenomenon. In addition, Japanese fashion often has a strong component of realism and an obsessive interest in perfecting classic styles. Contemporary Japanese fashion is significant globally precisely because it mixes elements of the avant-garde (pushing the aesthetic envelope at the level of “high” art) and elements of realism (such as high-tech fabrics or an obsession with the perfect pair of jeans) with popular or subcultural elements, especially those associated with electronic manifestations, such as animated cartoons and videogames. Generous support for Japan Fashion Now has been provided by Yagi Tsugho Limited. Additional support has been provided by the Couture Council of MFIT, Sokenbicha, and the Consulate General of Japan in New York. Read more here.

MUSEUM PUBLICATION Japan Fashion Now Book Cover Scholars have long acknowledged the significance of the Japanese “fashion revolution” of the 1980s, when avant-garde designers Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto, and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons introduced a radically new conception of fashion. But what has happened in the years since then? Lavishly illustrated, Japan Fashion Now will be the first book to explore how Japanese fashion has evolved in recent years. During this time, Japanese pop culture has swept the world, as young people everywhere read manga, watch anime, and play video games. Japan has had a profound impact on global culture, often via new media. With essays by Valerie Steele (“Is Japan Still the Future?”), Patricia Mears (“Formalism and Revolution”), Hiroshi Narumi (“Japanese Street Style”), and Yuniya Kawamura (“Japanese Fashion Subcultures”), Japan Fashion Now explores how the world of fashion has been transformed by contemporary Japanese visual culture. Valerie Steele is chief curator and director of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Patricia Mears is deputy director of The Museum at FIT. Yuniya Kawamura is associate professor of sociology at FIT. Hiroshi Narumi is associate professor at the Kyoto University of Art and Design.  Yale University Press

MUSEUM INFORMATION The Museum at FIT is dedicated to advancing knowledge of fashion through exhibitions, programs and publications. The Museum is open to the public free of charge,Tuesday - Friday, Noon - 8pm, and Saturday 10 am - 5pm. Located on the Southwest corner of Seventh Avenue at 27th Street in New York City, the museum can be reached by subway: 1, C, E, F, M, N, or R, and by bus: M20 and M23. Penn Station is close by at 31st Street for the Long Island Railroad, New Jersey Transit, and Amtrak. For more information, be sure to visit our website at www.fitnyc.edu/museum or phone our information line at 212-217-4558For Press Information about any of our exhibitions or programs, please call the Office of Communications and External Relations, 212-217-4700

The exhibitions and programs of The Museum at FIT are supported in part by the generosity of the members of the Couture Council