Title

Eleanor Fried interview, 1984 November 29

Contributor Names

Fried, Eleanor L.

Finger, Mildred (Interviewer)

Date

1984-11-28

Date Digitized

2020

Description

Eleanor Fried, the first head of FIT's placement office, discusses her upbringing and the circumstances that led her to FIT in 1947, shortly after its founding. She describes the early academic departments at FIT and its demographics. Fried then details the institute's successful management program and how the placement office went about developing close relationships with department stores and other employers in the Industry. Fried emphasizes the vocational maturity of many of FIT's two-year graduates, but explains that some students chose to go on to four-year degrees elsewhere. While the placement department was extremely successful in placing most students, it was severely understaffed; so Fried often ended up employing students to help with outreach. She explains how she stayed in contact with alumni and asked for their ongoing input regarding the school's curriculum. Fried then describes the positive changes brought about by affirmative action, especially in regards to staffing her office. She finishes the interview by describing a book she published following her retirement as well as two she wrote while at FIT including, "Is The Fashion Business Your Business?"

Type

Moving Image

Oral histories

Sound

Subject

Fried, (Furman) Eleanor

Ritter, Mortimer

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

Zelin, Beatrice

Snyder, Rosalind

Brandriss, Marion K.

Illustration

Fashion

Education

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

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_000213

SPARC reference code: US.NNFIT.SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.12.6