Fashioning Brooklyn: Designing, Manufacturing, Selling and Recycling Apparel along Brooklyn's Waterfront
Join us for our next virtual Breakfast Talk on Friday, March 4th at 10am! Come hear speakers discuss the early days of fashion in Brooklyn and others talk about how the future of the fashion and garment industries is being created along the Brooklyn waterfront today. >> RSVP TODAY: Bit.ly/FashioningBrooklyn
“Moving to Brooklyn’s Industry City is proving a ‘no-brainer opportunity’ for fashion brands” exclaimed a recent headline in the fashion trade publication, Glossy.
“Made in New York Campus at Bush Terminal Announces First Major Tenant at Garment Hub” read a headline in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
FABSCRAP, an organization located in the Brooklyn Army Terminal, “endeavors to end commercial textile ‘waste’ and maximize the value of unused fabric.” Also, the Fashion Institute of Technology has an annex at the Terminal where it offers courses and certificates.
The Brooklyn Navy Yard offers fashion shows on Brooklyn Style and houses fashion brands such as Hip Hop Closet, Kirrin Finch, and Kaimin, whose designers have worked with Bjork, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry.
Despite what one might think with all of this ferment, the fashion and garment industry is not new to Brooklyn. In the late nineteenth century, fabric stores and sewing centers dotted Downtown Brooklyn and a major, unique fashion retail store, Lane Bryant, opened on Fulton Street in the 1920s and remains there today.
Our dynamic lineup of panelists will cover the history and ongoing evolution of fashion in Brooklyn.
MEET THE SPEAKERS:
Wanette Clyde
Wanett Clyde is the Collections Management Librarian at CUNY’s New York City College of Technology, where in addition to managing the library’s collection she oversees the university archives. Her research explores the intersection of Black history and fashion history, drawing out under credited African-American contributors, their critical innovations and accomplishments, and other meaningful connections in the overlapping research spheres.
Denise H. Sutton
Denise Sutton is a business historian and an Associate Professor in the Department of Business at City Tech-CUNY. She is the author of Globalizing Ideal Beauty: Women, Advertising, and the Power of Marketing (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, 2012) and is currently working on a book about innovation in the fashion and beauty industries (forthcoming 2024). An expert on advertising beauty, Dr. Sutton has lectured widely on the subject at universities and at corporations, e.g., Unilever and Firmenich. She developed and taught courses on advertising and gender at the New School University, New York City, and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology — SUNY. Dr. Sutton is a 2020 Fulbright award recipient.
Rick Davy
Rick Davy is the Founder and Director of Brooklyn Style Foundation (BKSF) and the Creative Director and Producer of Fashion Week Brooklyn (FWBK). Originally from Trinidad, Rick spent years traveling between New York and Montreal while training to be a professional dancer. Rick became a full-time assistant manager at NYU Tisch School of the Arts film department and subsequently studied photography and film production. He also became increasingly interested in fashion and worked as a stylist for the Black Entertainment Television (BET) show “106th and Park.” Rick Davy’s work in both the fashion and entertainment industries lead him to launch the BK Style Foundation in May 2006. The first Fashion Week Brooklyn show premiered in DUMBO to astounding revues and a full-page spread in the NY Times, which was a first-of-its-kind for a Fashion Week Event in Brooklyn. Rick was named one of the top 100 influencers of Brooklyn by the Brooklyn Magazine.
Tessa Maffucci
Tessa Maffucci is the Assistant Chair of the Pratt Fashion Department and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute. Her research focuses on the intersection of fashion and labor, with an emphasis on sustainability, technology and material culture. She coordinates the New York Fashion Workforce Development Coalition (NYFWDC), an advocacy collaborative of New York’s fashion community, including many Garment District manufacturers and designers. Tessa is the recipient of the Made in NYC Fellowship and an editor for The Fashion Studies Journal. She holds degrees from New York University’s Gallatin School and The Graduate Center at the City University of New York.
