Oral Histories

FIT Talks, the oral history program of FIT, contains circa 400 interviews of prominent 20th-century fashion industry insiders, including Ralph Lauren, Liz Claiborne, Princess Grace of Monaco, and Vera Maxwell, as well as members of the FIT administration, faculty, and staff. This collection of in-depth interviews with individuals in every segment of the fashion and related industries creates a broad historical record that is drawn directly from the knowledgeable, informal, and often colorful expressions of its practitioners. FIT Talks is a unique record of facts, ways and means, points of view, practice and personality that could be preserved in no other way.  

» Some of the recordings (video and audio) are available via Archive on Demand

» FIT Talks

» Oral history project of the fashion industries 

The Oral history project of the fashion industries began informally in the late 1970s, and was officially funded by a grant from the Educational Foundation for the Fashion Industries beginning in 1981. The project was guided by an industry advisory committee chaired by Mrs. William Randolph Hearst, Jr.