Title

Alan Fishman interview, 1996 May 21

Contributor Names

Poll, Carol (Interviewer)

Fishman, Alan

Date

1996-05-20

Date Digitized

2020

Description

Alan Fishman, the son of Shirley Goodman, discusses Goodman's role in the early days of FIT. Goodman had worked on the World's Fair with Grover Whalen, and was eventually introduced to the group of successful businessmen who were founding the institute out of the High School of the Needle Trades. Fishman describes his mother's intense and lasting advocacy for the institute, though she came in without fashion industry experience. Fishman began working in the FIT mail room during his high school years. He recalls putting fliers together to announce that FIT was building a new building with the firm Deyoung & Moskowitz. Fishman then launches into a colorful description of the exchange trade fair with the U.S.S.R. in Moscow. He witnessed the infamous "Kitchen Debate" between Nixon and Krushchev and performed with a host of American models to showcase the American take on fashion. Following that summer, Fishman attended Cornell and graduated in 1966 with two years spent in Italy. He was briefly drafted, but exempted from service in Vietnam due to his family situation. He returned to FIT in 1966 as a part-time faculty member in the Fine Arts Department. Fishman discusses FIT's international involvements and his placement at the Polimoda school in Florence, Italy for 7 years at the behest of Marvin Feldman. He describes FIT's demographics in the 1960s and how those have changed in the years since. He then discusses other roles he has held at the school including time spent working with Deyoung & Moskowitz on the development of the FIT campus. He explains the Fine Arts Department's role at FIT and the founding of the Artisan Space Gallery. Finally, Fishman notes his mother's involvement with the "Inner Circle," an elite group of leading women in the fashion industry.

Type

Moving Image

Oral histories

Sound

Subject

Fishman, Alan

Goodman, Shirley, 1915-1991

Deitsch, Samuel

Haft, Morris

Kuper, Theodore Fred, 1886-1981

Whalen, Grover A. (Grover Aloysius), 1886-1962

Fashion Institute of Technology (New York, N.Y.)

High School of the Needle Trades (New York, N.Y.)

Brown, Nat

Lee, Tom

Layton, Joe, 1931-

Bernstein, Leonard, 1918-1990

Polimoda School

Shenkar School

Bunka College

National Institute for Fashion Trades

Feldman, Marvin

Deyoung & Moskowitz

Lambert, Eleanor

Vreeland, Diana

Fashion

Education

Soviet Union

Arts

Architectural design

Women's rights

New York (State)

New York (State)--New York

Related Materials

Finding Aid

Rights

In Copyright

This video was produced by the Fashion Institute of Technology ("FIT") and is the property of FIT. FIT expressly prohibits the copying, displaying, or uploading to a website of any portion of this video, except for the purposes of fair use as defined in the copyright laws, without express written permission from FIT. This video has been made available online by the Fashion Institute of Technology Gladys Marcus Library strictly for research and educational purposes. If you are the copyright holder for content in this video and have any objections to this work being made available online, please notify us immediately at [email protected].

Identifier

FIT Repository ID: aod_000034

SPARC reference code: US.NNFIT.SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.4.3