- Oct 17 ,2025
- by Karen Steffy
- Human Centered Design
- Human Ecology Building T01
Fast Fashion Before Fast Fashion: Rethinking Histories of Mass-Produced Clothing
Fast fashion is often understood as a recent business model defined by speed, low cost, and disposability. Yet many of its challenges—labor exploitation, environmental harm, and the normalization of overconsumption—have much deeper historical roots. This talk traces the emergence of “fast fashion” through the lens of nineteenth- and twentieth-century shifts in media, merchandising, and consumer culture at large, showing how notions of “progress” and “prosperity” helped obscure the human and environmental costs of mass-produced clothing
- Dec 4, 2023
- by Marisa LaFalce
- Social Impact + Justice
Hinestroza selected for SUNY Hispanic Leadership Institute
Juan Hinestroza, the Rebecca Q. Morgan '60 Professor of Fiber Science and Apparel Design, is one of 11 State University of New York (SUNY) employees selected as a fellow for the 2024 SUNY Hispanic Leadership Institute (HLI).
Established in 2017, HLI is part of SUNY’s commitment to become the most inclusive university system in the U.S. It is a demanding six-month experience for SUNY leaders of Hispanic descent and their allies that positions them
- Oct 10 ,2025
- by Karen Steffy
- Human Centered Design
- Virtual
What do we talk about when we talk about fashion?
As a society, we talk about fashion – a lot! What we do to and put on our bodies, the social and economic value of those products and processes, and the identities into which we might step by participating in fashion/style/dress are constantly being reconstituted through the text and images published at a near constant rate into the contemporary media landscape. In this talk I will share what I have learned from more than a
- May 2, 2022
- by E.C Barrett
- Alumni
Led by curiosity and creativity
Andrea Vizcarrondo ’72 has spent the last 30 years nurturing an appreciation for art in visitors to The Metropolitan Museum of Art as a member of the MET’s rigorous docent program. Vizcarrondo’s path from the College of Human Ecology (CHE), where she studied in the Department of Design & Environmental Analysis (now Human Centered Design), to the halls of the MET took her on some unexpected ventures in the fashion world as she followed her
- Nov 3, 2025
- by Marisa LaFalce
- Community Engagement, Holistic Human Health, Social Impact + Justice, Student Life
Visiting Scholar Jennie Joseph shares human-centered approach to maternal health
On a brisk Thursday morning, 65 first-year students sat in rapt attention in NS 1600 Introduction to Public Health as Jennie Joseph challenged conventional thinking with a powerful concept: materno-toxic zones. She described these as environments so harmful to pregnant or new mothers that they threaten the safety of the mother and/or her children.
“Think about a problem that you or your loved ones had with the health system and why,” urged Joseph, founder and
- Sep 5, 2025