Tidbits from graduation

Oh Lordy. I still cannot believe that grad school has come to a close. As much as I'd like to go on about what it all means and what a big accomplishment it was, it doesn't feel real. Maybe because I know I still need to finish that pesky thesis, or maybe I am just in denial. In any case, here are some tidbits from the end.

-On my last day of class I was about 10 minutes into my walk to school when I realized that I had left a crucial part of my final assignment at home. I ran home to get it and then had to decide if I would still walk to work (probably arriving to class about 15 min late) or take a taxi. Really, there would have been no harm in arriving late for that particular class, but I felt that after two years of punctuality and on-time assignments I shouldn't break the streak on the last day. So, I chose the glamorous New York route and took a taxi to school. Class got started late.

-On Monday I went to the FIT awards dinner and got my medal. In true FIT fashion (hah!) it was a totally weird event. It was at a fancy space and the food was amazing but the whole thing seemed to be organized to be as dull and awkward as possible. My medal was nowhere near as fabulous as I hoped. It looks ok, but on the back it has the oh-so-personal inscription: "Honors 2011."

-One more note about the awards dinner food- it struck me as totally odd that they seemed to have no alternate meals for various dietary restrictions. For the main course we were all served a plate of beef and potatoes. Hasn't the era past in which you can serve a hunk of meat and just assume everyone is fine with it?

-At Graduation we walked in to a techno-remix of Pomp and Circumstance. Not classy.

-Simon Doonan was given a lifetime achievement award by the school. His speech ended up being the most memorable, probably because one of the key pieces of advice was "Always have a drag queen in your life."

-None of the undergrads got to walk across the stage but they did read the names of everyone who was there. The largest international student population at FIT is from South Korea and there are a lot of American students with Korean heritage as well. There were about 10 people with the last name of "Kim" and after about the 6th, everyone seemed excited to see exactly how long the streak would last. When the announcer finally moved on to "Krauss" there was an audible groan.

-We were told that as graduate students we would get to walk across the stage but there was a seemingly last minute decision that we would also get "hooded." So we all had to carry our M.A. hoods in a very specific way over our right arm and walk on stage when the announcer (who had an awesome, movie trailer voice-over delivery) said our name. It was kind of a great moment. Except that once you were on stage you could see that most of the undergrads had left by that time.

-The only moment that got to me was when one of my classmates said goodbye. Most of us are staying in the city for the summer but this girl's parents were driving her back that day to her upstate hometown. I almost cried and that was the only moment it started to feel real.

-After it was over I went out for lunch with the two other classmates who hadn't had any family or friends attend. We went to a bar in our graduation robes. We failed to get free drinks.

Gone so soon

On Wednesday this week I will go to my final grad school class and turn in my last assignment. On the following Tuesday I will walk at graduation in a robe complete with a master's hood and extra long sleeve thingys. While the act of picking up my robe suddenly filled me with pride and excitement, my dominant feelings have weirdness and sadness. Weirdness because wow...where did the two years go? Moving out to New York seemed like such a big leap in the first place, and I remember there were times during my first semester where I would zone out in class and start thinking to myself "Is this really happening? Did I really move across the country and start grad school?" And sadness because overall this program has been amazing and my classmates have been wonderful, and this school experience is all going to vanish in just a few days. Lately my zoning-out moments have led to thoughts of "I should savor this."

The strongest "I should savor this" moment came with last weekend's Symposium. It was a rousing success. We all presented very well and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. I was proud of myself (several people said that mine was the most entertaining) but I was also brimming with pride for my classmates and being part of such a great group. At my suggestion, my parents opted to come to the symposium instead of graduation-- and unless the ghost of Coco Chanel turns up to give the keynote address, there is no way graduation is going to be more interesting than that symposium. (and let's be honest, even if the ghost of Coco Chanel DID show up, neither my parents nor I speak French, so it would probably be a bit letdown anyway).

In case you are concerned with all this talk of "zoning out" in class, never fear. I do pay attention most of the time. As proof of this fact I am going to be awarded some sort of medal for academic achievement the night before graduation. A medal! Don't you think of medals as more for athletic achievement? Maybe the chain will be a string of faux pearls and the pendant will just be a picture of Karl Lagerfeld giving a thumbs-up. On the back, as a nod to the conservation aspect of my program, it will be engraved to read "Cleaning is not reversible." Even if it isn't quite that cool, I think I should wear it if I ever join another active trivia team. What better way to say "I have a lot of knowledge about something weird and specific" than a medal from fashion grad school.

Undressing the Fashionable Myth

This coming Saturday is our big Symposium in which I will finally present my paper on the hemline index. Although I've mentioned it a few times on this blog, I realize I haven't barraged you with info on it, even though it has been something I've labored over all semester. The main myth I'm proving wrong is this idea that the concept was invented in 1926 by George Taylor (a "fact" which is repeated all over the internet). After finding nothing from him in 1926 I found a few sources that pointed instead to his 1929 thesis about the hosiery industry. I got the thesis from interlibrary loan and wasn't able to find a hemline theory anywhere. He did point out that shorter skirts in the 1920s meant better times for legwear manufacturers, but that really isn't the same thing as proposing a correlation between the world economy and hemlines.

As far as the hemline index itself, I think I make some pretty sound arguments against it. The message of my paper, as with many others in my class, is that fashion is so much more complicated that these myths lead you to believe. There is no one thing (like the economy) that influences trends, and there is no single way that people express themselves with fashion. Other people's papers have taught me to be suspect of any claim about someone "inventing" a fashion item (the little black dress, the mini-skirt), and to be careful about seemingly familiar terminology (What design elements are actually reminiscent of ancient Greece? Were all women in the 1920s flappers? What exactly is couture?). By the time the symposium is over I will have heard each of the papers four times, so I've become a secondary expert on all the topics. So next time you see me, you can use the below as a guide "things I shouldn't bring up if I don't want Clara to talk incessantly."

(click to enlarge)