Goings on at the Museum at FIT

MAY EVENTS NEWSLETTER  THE LATEST NEWS  PUBLIC PROGRAMSFashion Culture: Special Programs CURRENT EXHIBITIONHis and Hers UPCOMING EXHIBITIONArt & Design Graduating Student Exhibition 2011 UPCOMING EXHIBITIONSporting Life UPCOMING EXHIBITION Daphne Guinness  MUSEUM PUBLICATIONJapan Fashion Now MUSEUM INFORMATION

THE LATEST NEWS  **What's Happening** Both Japan Fashion Now and Vivienne Westwood, 1980-89 ended their successful runs last month. Staff are busy installing the Art & Design Graduating Student Exhibition that will be on view in the Museum from May 11-24. And the latest thematic exhibition in our Fashion & Textile History Gallery is Sporting Life which opens on May 25th. (If you missed seeing our previous exhibitions in person, you can still visit the exhibition websites via the links above.) **Ahhhh Valentino** The Museum at FIT has chosen the recipient for the 2011 Couture Council Artistry of Fashion Award. Director Valerie Steele announced that “Valentino was chosen in recognition of his status as a world-historical figure in modern fashion, a man who has dressed every beautiful woman of the past 50 years, from Jacqueline Kennedy to Madonna. Valentino’s concept of beauty is Apollonian in its classicism and perfect taste. Yet red, the color of love and passion, runs like a leitmotif through his career, asserting his passionate love of beauty. In today’s world of an often debased celebrity culture, Valentino’s dresses continue to assert an aristocratic ideal of art and beauty.”

PUBLIC PROGRAMSFashion Culture: Special Programs 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. Reservations are required. Space is limited. To RSVP for a program, Register Online Here The former editor of Time magazine's Style and Design section, Kate Betts, presents her latest book. With her unique perspective both as a journalist and a fashion industry leader, Betts takes a historical look at the influence First Ladies have had on American style and fashion. Everyday Icon: Michelle Obama and the Power of Style ~ Kate Betts Lecture and Book signing Thursday, May 12, 6pm

CURRENT EXHIBITIONHis and Hers Yves Saint Laurent, suit, black leather, checkered wool, fall 1983, France, gift of Roz Gersten Jacobs. - Photograph by Eileen Costa ©MFIT. November 30, 2010 - May 10, 2011 His & Hers explores the relationship between gender and fashion over the past 250 years. Clothing can act as an immediate signifier of gender - however, while making distinctions between "masculine" and "feminine" styles of clothing may seem natural, gendering is not a biological phenomenon. The exhibition discusses the changing ideas of "appropriate" attire for each gender; it also includes examples of so-called unisex and androgynous fashion. More than 100 garments, accessories, and textiles from the Museum's permanent collection are featured chronologically, from a seemingly "feminine" 18th-century man's velvet suit to a woman's "power suit" from the 1980s. Also included are works by innovative designers such as Giorgio Armani, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Gianni Versace, and Vivienne Westwood. Visit the exhibition website

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONArt & Design Graduating Student Exhibition 2011 Katie Sacchi, soft toy “Alex” - Photograph by Guenter Knop. May 11 - 24, 2011 This show presents the work of more than 800 students receiving AAS and BFA degrees from the School of Art & Design and is on view throughout the main floors of the Marvin Feldman Center, the Fred P. Pomerantz Art and Design Center, the Shirley Goodman Resource Center, and the John E. Reeves Great Hall. The exhibition features work in seventeen areas of study - Accessories Design, Advertising Design, Communication Design, Computer Animation & Interactive Media, Fabric Styling, Fashion Design, Fine Arts, Graphic Design, Illustration, Interior Design, Jewelry Design, Menswear, Packaging Design, Photography, Textile/Surface Design, Toy Design, and Visual Presentation & Exhibition Design. The art selected is the culmination of each student’s unique experience in the Fashion Institute of Technology’s diverse, challenging, and demanding undergraduate Art & Design programs. Featuring juried, award winning, and thesis projects, this presentation is the manifestation of several years of research, experimentation, critical thinking, and artistic proficiency. The Graduating Student Exhibition advances the College’s applied philosophy that integrates practice in industry with theory and teaching inside the studio.

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONSporting Life Left: Stephen Sprouse t-shirt and leggings, 1985, Gift of Stephen Sprouse, Inc. / Right: Raleigh/Giordana Sport man’s bicycling ensemble, 1985, Gift of Raleigh Cycle Co. - Photograph by Eileen Costa ©MFIT. May 25 - November 5, 2011 Sporting Life explores the relationship between active sportswear and fashion from the mid-19th century through the present. Clothing for sporting activities has often influenced fashion—and vice versa. Sportswear manufacturers have been responsible for many innovations in performance apparel, even as they recognize that “fashionability” is an important factor. Indeed, much of today’s active sportswear is just as fashionable as it is functional. Read more here

UPCOMING EXHIBITION Daphne Guinness  Photo © René Hebermacher.  September 16, 2011 - January 7, 2012 Approximately 100 garments and accessories from the personal collection of Daphne Guinness will be featured in this exhibition, along with clothes that she has designed herself, a selection of her vertiginous shoes, and her films, The Phenomenology of the Body and Mnemosyne. The exhibition will be co-curated by Daphne Guinness and Valerie Steele.

MUSEUM PUBLICATIONJapan 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 at212-217-4558