FIT Fashion History Club

Please join Fashion History Club, Costume Design Club and Film Club for a screening of The Women (1939, MGM, dir. George Cukor), introduced by fashion historian Raissa Bretaña! 💅🎥🎞️

🗓️Thursday March 26th
⏰5:30 Pm
📍Pomerantz Room D523

Bretaña will examine the dazzling costumes worn by the film’s all-female cast, designed by MGM’s head costume designer Adrian. She will draw parallels to contemporary fashion during the time of the film’s release, and chronicle Adrian’s legacy as a pioneering American designer from his tenure at MGM (1928–1941) to his career as a couturier in the 1940s.

Raissa Bretaña is a New York-based fashion historian who works as a writer, researcher, lecturer, and educator. She hosted a popular video series for Glamour in which she fact-checked historical costumes in film and television, and also appeared as a guest on Follow the Thread—a special programming series for Turner Classic Movies that explored the relationship between fashion and film. Raissa received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Costume Design from Boston University and a Master of Arts in Fashion and Textile Studies from the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she has served as adjunct faculty in the History of Art department. She currently works at the Museum at FIT and continues to freelance as a consultant to costume designers for period film and television productions. Raissa is the author of Shoes (2021), Moxie: The Daring Women of Classic Hollywood (2024), and the forthcoming Fashion of the Gilded Age (2026).

RSVP on FitLink:
https://fitnyc.campuslabs.com/engage/event/12320362

Image Credits:
Image 1:Costume designer Gilbert Adrian and Joan Crawford on the set of The Women (1939). Via IMDb
Image 2:Film promotional poster for The Women (1939) directed by George Cukor. Via IMDb 
Image 3: Eight of the one hundred and thirty all female cast members. Via IMDb

Please join Fashion History Club for “A History of Red Lingerie: From Suspicious To Seductive” with fashion historian Summer Anne Lee! 💌💋

🗓️Tuesday March 24
⏰1-2 pm
📍Room B736

When did red lingerie come to signify seduction and scandal?  This illustrated lecture traces how colorful undergarments shifted from being deemed improper in the Victorian period to acquiring romantic and erotic meanings after the Second World War. Early-twentieth-century fashion culture mocked red lingerie as vulgar, yet by the late twentieth century, popular media—especially magazines such as Cosmopolitan—promoted it as worn to attract and reward men. This framing sparked backlash from critics wary of its ties to the male gaze. 

Today, contemporary wearers and lingerie brands are challenging those narratives, reclaiming red lingerie as a form of self-expression and confidence rather than performance for a partner. Through fashion history and visual culture, this talk asks who gets to define what “sexy” means—and whether red lingerie can be claimed on one’s own terms. 

Summer Anne Lee received an MA in Fashion and Textile Studies from the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she currently teaches courses in the history of fashion. Summer acted as guest curator with the Underpinnings Museum to curate the 2022 digital exhibition Incendiary: A History of Red Lingerie and is a member of the museum’s committee.

Explore the digital exhibition on the Underpinnings Museum website: https://underpinningsmuseum.com/exhibitions/

Image Credits:
Image 1: The Underpinnings Museum
Image 2: Troedel & Co. lithographers
Image 3: LIFE magazine
Image 4: LIFE magazine
Image 5: Savage X Fenty by Rihanna

Please join the Fashion History Club and the Art History and Museum Professions Association for a guided tour of the MA Fashion and Textile Studies graduate exhibition: Beyond Utility! 🧥🪡🧵🪖

🗓️ Thursday, March 19th
⏰ 1-2 pm
📍 The Museum at FIT lobby

Beyond Utility examines utilitarian design within and beyond the fashion system. This investigation of dress archetypes of workwear, military uniforms, and craft alongside their reinterpretations reveals the interplay between materials, aesthetics, and cultural connotations. By exhibiting objects that have unique biographies and lived-experiences, Beyond Utility demonstrates how these objects have life imprinted on them, and evidence of wear and labor only enriches their stories.

This exhibition was conceived of and curated by the graduate students in the FIT Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory and Museum Practice MA program. Join us for a student-led tour exploring the history of utilitarian design.

Its election season!

Interested in getting involved on campus? Want experience programming events? Looking to meet peers who are passionate about engaging critically with fashion history? Hoping to connect with professionals in the field of fashion studies?

All of Fashion History Club’s E-board positions for Fall 2026 are opening up! Click the link in our bio and fill out the google form to apply for a role 👠✨

Thank you to everyone who braved the rain today to join our guided tour of Art X Fashion at the Museum at FIT, led by Dr. Elizabeth Way! Please make sure to check out Fitlink to see what other events we have coming up, some of which also will be in collaboration with Art History and Museum Professions Association (). Next up is “Puerto Rican Fashion: A Colonial Continuum” with Raúl J. Vázquez López () & José Blanco F () hosted with the Latinx Culture and Career Association ()! See you Tuesday in B736✨

Please join Fashion History Club & the Latinx Culture & Career Association for Puerto Rican Fashion: A Colonial Continuum 🇵🇷

🗓️ Tuesday, March 10
⏰ 1–2 PM
📍 B736, Business & Liberal Arts Building

Historians Raúl J. Vázquez López and José Blanco F. explore how Puerto Rico’s colonial status has shaped its fashion history and identity, from traditional jíbaro dress to Miss Universe pageantry and Bad Bunny’s global stage.

Raúl J. Vázquez López (FIT, Modern Languages) researches Puerto Rican cultural symbols and dress. He has published a variety of articles and book chapters on these topics.

José Blanco F. (Associate Professor, History of Art, FIT) specializes in dress, popular culture, and Latin American fashion, and is editor of The Meanings of Dress and the award-winning Clothing and Fashion: American Fashion from Head to Toe among other publications.

Check the event out on FitLink to learn more & RSVP!

Please join the Fashion History Club and the Latinx Culture Club for a lecture on Puerto Rican Fashion 🇵🇷!

🗓️Tuesday, March 10
⏰ 1-2 pm
📍Business and Liberal Arts Center, Room B736

Puerto Rican fashion enjoys a potential of movement that other countries do not. In this talk, historians Raúl Vázquez López and José Blanco will review both historical and current manifestations of Puerto Rican fashion to explore how the archipelago’s political status as a colony has shaped and continues shaping fashion production. We will review Puerto Rican fashion history in four levels: national identity in Puerto Rican fashion; its presence within the wider Latin American fashion system; its manifestation in the US diaspora; and, finally, its place within the US fashion framework: from traditional jíbaro (peasant) dress to Miss Universe parade of nation costumes and Bad Bunny’s residency and Super Bowl performance.

Raúl J. Vázquez López is an adjunct instructor in the department of Modern Languages at FIT. His research emphasis is on the production and consumption of Puerto Rican cultural symbols. He has published several articles and book chapters on Puerto Rican dress, costume, and fashion. Along with his husband, José Blanco F., he most recently co-edited a second special issue on Latin American Fashion for Fashion, Style and Popular Culture and co-authored Dress, Fashion, and National Identity in Puerto Rico.

Want even more fashion history? 🪭

The Museum at FIT has some amazing programs coming your way this semester that are FREE and open to the public!

The first event is coming up this Thursday February 26th. Dr. Hilary Davidson will be discussing her latest book A Guide to Regency Dress: from Corsets and Breeches to Bonnets and Muslins, and the talk will explore intersections between historic fashion of the early 19th century and its fantasy fictions on screen and the runway. A book signing is to follow!

RSVP for the upcoming and following events at the link in our bio

Please join the Fashion History Club and the Art History & Museum Professions Association for a guided tour of MFIT’s Art X Fashion exhibition with curator Dr. Elizabeth Way!

🗓️Thursday, March 5th
⏰1-2 pm
📍The Museum at FIT

Featuring over 140 objects from MFIT’s permanent collection, the exhibition explores the long-standing, symbiotic relationship between fashion and fine art—challenging the question, “Is fashion art?” Through garments, artworks, and historical styles from Rococo to Pop Art, Art X Fashion presents fashion as a powerful cultural, creative, and intellectual force.

RSVP HERE:

https://fitnyc.campuslabs.com/engage/event/12210803

Please join and for a symposium on the oral histories.

🗓️Monday Feb 23rd 2026
⏰2-5 pm
📍Katy Murphy Amphitheater

Developed in response to a perceived sense of loss surrounding the closing of a beloved New York institution, the Barneys Oral Histories were created to preserve memory and meaning. These interviews give voice to the people who worked there—buyers, creative directors, advertising executives, and visual merchandisers—whose labor shaped Barneys’ singular identity.

The Barneys Oral Histories Symposium examines shopping in New York in the 1980s and the production of New York culture through the department store catalogs. It also explores the Fashion Calendar and how parties, press, and publicity at Barneys helped construct a cultural ecosystem that extended far beyond retail spaces today.

Are you an FIT student interested in fashion history? 🪭🎀🩰👘👠

Come to our table at club fair anytime between 12-2 pm in the Great Hall to hear about our club programming for the upcoming semester!

Members of our board will be there to chat about all things history and fashion! ❤️

Please join Fashion History Club and Costume Design Club for a screening of an episode of Bridgerton, introduced by fashion historian Lucy Postal. 🎥👒

🗓️Thursday February 19th
⏰5:30 Pm
📍Pomerantz D523

Postal will explore how costume design contributes to Bridgerton’s world building and consider how this series utilizes period dress to establish itself within the period drama genre while creating an alternative and fantastical version of the past. Fictional series such as Bridgerton generate their own versions of historic dress resulting from intentional choices made by their costume designers, but many viewers assume that the costumes must be accurate if these shows borrow from the conventions of the period drama genre. By arguing that Bridgerton is actually a fantasy series, this talk will discuss how its popularity has led to an increased interest in fashion history despite depicting fantastical and inaccurate versions of period dress. This will be followed by a screening of an episode of Bridgerton!

Lucy Postal (she/her) received her B.A. in History and Theater from Vassar College and is a master’s candidate in Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice at FIT. Her current research centers on the depiction and interpretation of women’s historic dress in period. She interned at the Vassar College Costume Collection and the Locust Grove Estate in Poughkeepsie, NY and currently works in fashion and cosmetics archiving.