The Museum at FIT in December

THE LATEST NEWS CURRENT EXHIBITION 'up river' - An Installation by Kingsley Parker  CURRENT EXHIBITION Daphne Guinness  CURRENT EXHIBITION The Great Designers: Part One  UPCOMING EXHIBITIONIMPACT: 50 Years of Fashion from the CFDA LINKS WE LIKEA world of fashion is on the web MUSEUM PUBLICATIONDaphne Guinness MUSEUM INFORMATION

THE LATEST NEWS ... What's Happening ... ** Daphne Guinness Website** The Daphne Guinness exhibition now has its own website. You can watch videos, listen to a playlist of Daphne's 10 favorite musical pieces, read what others have to say about this unique fashion icon, enjoy images of many of the ensembles on view in the exhibition, and much more. **2012 Artistry of Fashion Award** will go to Oscar de la Renta. The announcement was made last month, and the award will be bestowed at a benefit luncheon at Lincoln Center in New York City on Wednesday, September 12, 2012. As has become the tradition, this luncheon heralds the arrival of Fall Fashion Week. To learn more about event and Mr. de la Renta's response to the honor, visit our website! **Hudson River installation** Don't miss the last days of 'up river' by FIT Art and Design faculty member Kingsley Parker - a beautiful tribute to the inspiring and historic Hudson River. **Couture Council Events** Members of the Museum's Couture Council were invited to participate in a number of special events this year, including a special viewing of work by Lilly Daché held in the collections of MFIT and a private tour of the Harper’s Bazaar: A Decade of Style exhibition at the International Center of Photography led by Glenda Bailey, Editor-in-Chief of Harper’s Bazaar, and guest curator, Vince Aletti . ** Holiday Hours** This winter, our galleries will remain open during normal hours, however we will be closed Christmas Day, and New Year's Day.

CURRENT EXHIBITION 'up river' - An Installation by Kingsley Parker  Kingsley Parker November 12 - December 10, 2011 Kingsley Parker, a multi-media artist, has been a full-time member of FIT’s Communication Design Department for the past 15 years and is the subject of this year's FIT Art and Design Faculty Exhibition 2011. 'up river' is, in many ways, a romance -- Professor Parker’s romance with the Hudson River which he has been intimately connected with since he and his family left Brooklyn to settle permanently in Hudson, NY. Commuting to New York along the river on an almost daily basis, Professor Parker -- whose body of work already reflected an interest in mapping and boats -- became enamored with the Hudson as an idea, as a resource, and as a thing of beauty. The sewn nautical chart is 61 linear feet long and is accompanied by small ‘vignettes’ (in 2 and 3 dimensions) depicting life, commerce, and activities on the river. The exhibition also includes prints and sculpture.

CURRENT EXHIBITION Daphne Guinness  Photo © René Hebermacher.  September 16, 2011 - January 7, 2012 Approximately 100 garments and accessories from the personal collection of Daphne Guinness are featured in this exhibition, along with clothes that she has designed herself, a selection of her vertiginous shoes, and her films, The Phenomenology of Body and Mnemosyne. The exhibition is co-curated by Daphne Guinness and Valerie Steele. Visit the exhibition website Daphne Guinness has been made possible in part through the generosity of LEVIEV Extraordinary Diamonds. Additional support was provided by M∙A∙C Cosmetics and The Couture Council.

CURRENT EXHIBITION The Great Designers: Part One  Thierry Mugler evening gown - Metallic silver lilac lamé, lilac satin - Circa 1987, France, Museum purchase.  November 29, 2011 - May 8, 2012 The Great Designers: Part One is the first of two exhibitions that highlight masterpieces from the Museum’s permanent collection. More than fifty garments and accessories are featured by designers from Alaïa to Zoran, including work by Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, Christian Dior, and Miuccia Prada. Full portraits of all exhibition objects will be included in The Great Designers: Fashion's Hall of Fame from A to Z - an accompanying book to The Great Designers, Part One and The Great Designers, Part Two - to be published early in 2012. Read more here.

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONIMPACT: 50 Years of Fashion from the CFDA Thom Browne ensemble - Pheasant feather / wool suit with grey felted fur bowler hat - Autumn/Winter 2008-2009, USA - lent by Thom Browne . February 9 - April 17, 2012 Conceived by CFDA President Diane von Furstenberg and curated by Patricia Mears, deputy director of The Museum at FIT, IMPACT: 50 Years of Fashion from the CFDA will be an ode to the illustrious designs of the CFDA’s many members and will mark the organization’s fiftieth anniversary in 2012. The exhibition will include approximately 100 objects, both garments and accessories, by the CFDA’s most impactful creators of the last 50 years. Also included will be visual images and acknowledgement of the nearly 600 designers who have been members over the past five decades. Each living designer selected to participate in the exhibition is choosing a single object or ensemble that best represents his or her impact on the fashion world. A visually rich publication also entitled Impact, produced by the CFDA and published by Harry N. Abrams, will be the companion book to the exhibition.

LINKS WE LIKEA world of fashion is on the web Men in heels Are they daring, dangerous or just plain dumb? Valerie Steele Interview  Fashion Projects, the on- and off-line journal, interviewed Valerie Steele about fashion and art. Look at the Zoot Suit go!  This past month a zoot suit sold at auction for $78,000. But it’s not so surprising since it is a rare fashion item that also has an aesthetic, social, economic and cultural story to tell.  Daphne Guinness Interview  Interview Magazine’s Peter Brandt gets personal with Daphne. Photographs by Steven Klein.  The Beau Brummels of Brazzaville The Sapeurs of Congo are the world's unlikeliest fashionistas, ordinary workingmen whose inspired style helps them survive in a country torn by civil war. Urban Outfitters in the news....again...  The fast fashion retailer removes the word "Navajo" from its product line. What's in a name?  The earliest museum and first object label!  The story behind the world’s oldest museum which was built by a woman, a Babylonian princess 2,500 years ago. Daphne’s appearance at MFIT's Fashion Icons and Insider Symposium Women’s Wear Daily’s Rosemary Feitelberg presents on Daphne’s session with Valerie Steele. The Styles of Black Folk: How Race, Memory, and Social Media Is Changing Fashion A GREAT piece of fashion (and culture) analysis with an inspiring and inspired take on fashion.

MUSEUM PUBLICATIONDaphne Guinness Book Cover “She is one of the—if not the—most stylish women living,” says designer and film director Tom Ford, speaking of Daphne Guinness, the subject and co-author of this extraordinary book. From her platinum-and-black striped hair to her towering 10-inch heels, her to-die-for couture collection and amazing diamond jewelry, Daphne Guinness embodies the rarified, personal style of a true fashion icon. A designer, editor, model, muse, and stylist, Ms. Guinness is renowned for the way she uses fashion to transform herself. As her friend, the art historian John Richardson puts it: “She is the object of her own creativity. Her persona is her own masterpiece.” Karl Lagerfeld of Chanel, Valentino, Azzedine Alaïa, and the late Alexander McQueen are among the many great fashion designers whose spectacular garments form part of Daphne Guinness's personal collection of haute couture. But Ms. Guinness is far more than a great couture client, she is also an inspiration to designers because of her fearless personal style. In an extended interview with Valerie Steele, Daphne Guinness explains the origins and characteristics of her style. She also discusses her friendships and collaborations with other creative fashion personalities from the late Isabella Blow to the photographer Steven Klein and the jeweler Shaun Leane. Sumptuously illustrated with both high-fashion photographs and paparazzi shots, the book is a spectacular showcase for the world of Daphne Guinness. Available from 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 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