November Goings on at The Museum at FIT

THE LATEST NEWS Myoyoco Anno. Sakuran, 2003. © MOYOCO ANNO/KODANSHA **Annual Fashion Symposium: Japan Fashion Now **MFIT's two-day symposium begins this Thursday. 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. Pre-registration is closed, but walk-ins are welcome! Schedule and speaker information are available on our website. **MFIT "in the round" ** MFIT has partnered with Leica Camera AGand Synthescape Art Imaging to digitize highlights from Japan Fashion Now. Follow this link to view high-resolution and interactive 360° views of selected works from the show.  **Event Photos Galore ** We've been busy putting event photos up on Flickr!! Check out our photosets of the Lolita Tea Party (held October 5, 2010), a conversation with Matthew Williamson (held October 21, 2010), and MFIT's Couture Council Luncheon in honor of Karl Lagerfeld (held September 10, 2010). **More Japanese fashion than ever ** MFIT is thrilled to announce that our exhibition Japan Fashion Now has been extended through April 2, 2011!!

PUBLIC PROGRAMS Fashion Culture: Special Programs Reservations are required. Space is limited.  To RSVP for a program, Register Online Here Pre-registration for the Symposium is closed but walk-ins are welcome. 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. Special Event Japan Fashion Now Symposium Thursday and Friday, November 4 and 5, 9am - 5pm Morris W. and Fannie B. Haft Auditorium Marvin Feldman Center, second floor This international, interdisciplinary symposium will bring together scholars, curators, authors, and designers to explore contemporary Japanese fashion—from the avant-garde to street and subcultural styles. Topics will include the historic roots of Japan’s fashion culture, the role of uniforms and uniformity, the Japanese “fashion revolution” of the 1980s, the geography of Tokyo fashion, the rise of the young male fashion consumer, and the significance of cuteness in Japanese girls’ culture. Walk-ins welcome. Free to FIT students, faculty, and staff, this program has been made possible in part through funding by the FIT Student-Faculty Corporation. Lecture and Book Signing Bye Bye Kitty!!! - Joe Earle Thursday, November 16, 6 pm Katie Murphy Amphitheatre Fred P. Pomerantz Art and Design Center, first floor Joe Earle, director of Japan Society Gallery, will preview Japan Society's spring 2011 exhibition, Bye Bye Kitty!!!: Between Heaven and Hell in Contemporary Japanese Art. This exhibition will move beyond semi-ironic narratives of cuteness and powerlessness to find traditional viewpoints melded with perceptions of the present in radically creative, unsettling combinations. Mr. Earle will introduce paintings, objects, photographs, installations, and video by the artists included in the show. Fashion Conversation Julie Gilhart in Conversation with Colleen Hill and Jennifer Farley Thursday, November 18, 6 pm Katie Murphy Amphitheatre Fred P. Pomerantz Art and Design Center, first floor Julie Gilhart, fashion director and senior vice president of Barneys New York, has inspired many designers to develop "green" product. In 2007, she spearheaded development of an all-organic collection of casual, sexy clothes for Barneys. Join her for a discussion about what the fashion industry can do in order to leave a lighter footprint on the earth.

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 each 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 / Extended through April 2, 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 Tsusho 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.

UPCOMING EXHIBITION Lightness Jessica Wynne, Trurobay, 2010. November 13 - December 11, 2010 The focus of Lightness is to embrace, explore, and exploit the many meanings, interpretations, and associations of "lightness." Lightness is a theme that emerges in many cultures, world religions, and ideologies. Ideas of lightness have also been explored by philosophers and writers such as Friedrich Nietzsche and Milan Kundera. Some definitions of lightness: blaze, glow, sparkle, illumination, weightlessness, buoyancy, levity, play, joy, grace, agility, ease, freedom, light in value, light in color, light as a feather.

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? Lavishly illustrated, Japan Fashion Now is 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 212-217-4558 For 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