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FIT: The MIT for the Fashion Industry?
One of FIT’s founders, Morris Ritter, famously said, “What we need is an MIT for the fashion industry.” Seventy-seven years later, we are well on our way. There is, after all, the very successful, ongoing partnership we forged with MIT three years ago to see what could be developed in workshops which bring together their…
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Activists in the Making
Fifty years ago, 20 million Americans from across the nation—20 million—took part in the first Earth Day. That is one-tenth of the population of the entire country at that time. They demonstrated, marched, did environmental cleanups, and so rattled Washington that soon enough, we had the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the…
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FIT Celebrates 50 Years of Earth Day
This year, Earth Day—which falls on April 22—celebrates its 50th anniversary. And this year, FIT is celebrating sustainability in a very different way. Although the coronavirus prevents us from supporting our commitment to sustainability with our annual conference, which typically takes over the campus for a day or two every spring, we are delighted to…
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FIT Team Wins, Again
One of the great pleasures of my job is that I get a first-hand view of the always-inspiring and innovative work FIT faculty and students create here on a regular basis. But sometimes, even I am surprised and taken aback by the ingenious, cutting-edge projects our researchers undertake. And it is very gratifying to me…
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FIT Grows a Pair of Baby Shoes
If you had told me when I first arrived at FIT—almost 20 years ago—that during my tenure, FIT students will be creating their own color dyes from plants they grow on our terraces, developing knitting yarn from fungi, and “growing” baby shoes from plant materials, I would certainly have accused you of indulging in too…