‘RACIST’ FASHION FALLOUT
FIT duo on leave amid runway furor
The Fashion Institute of Technology has placed two top academic officials on leave after hosting a “racist” fashion show which featured models parading down the runway in oversized red lips and “monkey ears.”
FIT President Dr. Joyce F. Brown said Mary Davis, dean of the School of Graduate Studies, and Jonathan Kyle Farmer, chair of the MFA Fashion Design Department, had both been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation into the program, in an e-mail to students Friday evening.
News of the controversial show was first reported in The Post. “We cannot expect our community to trust us without a full examination of how this came about,” Brown wrote. “Those in charge of and responsible for overseeing the show failed to recognize or anticipate the racist references and cultural insensitivities that were obvious to almost everybody else.”
The message came after a Tuesday statement from Brown apologizing for the event.
In her latest e-mail, Brown also said the school had retained the law firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King to conduct an external investigation into what happened and urged the fashion community to take out their anger on FIT — a taxpayer-funded, SUNY-run school — rather than designer Junkai Huang.
“It also appears — based upon information available — that the styling and accessorizing used in the show were provided to him rather than chosen at his discretion,” she wrote. “Junkai has said, and his thesis notes and sketches support, that the collection he designed and produced was not aimed at invoking or provoking racial implications.”
She did not specify who may have supplied the racist couture.
In her note, Brown also revealed plans for a series of meetings next week including Monday sit-downs with the college’s Diversity Council and executive committee of the Faculty Senate. “More such meetings with students, faculty and staff will follow,” she said.
Brown additionally said she sent a letter of apology to every model who participated in the fashion show expressing her regrets, including to Amy LeFevre — who refused to wear the pieces.
LeFevre, 25, said she was pressured by show organizers to wear the accessories, though ultimately walked the runway without them.
“I was told that it was fine to feel uncomfortable for only 45 seconds,” she told The Post. “I was literally shaking.”