Lifestyles Podcast
Lifestyles is a six-episode original short podcast series from The Museum at FIT. MFIT Digital Media Manager Tamsen Young sits down with people whose distinct expression of style is outside conventional fashion trends. Discover how they use clothing to define themselves on their own terms.
New episodes drop twice a month.
Subscribe and listen to find your own style inspiration.
Latest Episode: Elena Kanagy-Loux
Lacemaker and textile historian Elena Kanagy-Loux has followed a remarkable path leading to a personal style that beautifully bridges historical research and the handmade arts.
Episodes
New episodes released on the 1st and 16th of the month.
Episode 6: Elena Kanagy-Loux
Lacemaker and textile historian Elena Kanagy-Loux has followed a remarkable path leading to a personal style that beautifully bridges historical research and the handmade arts. She asserts a true individualism: "Wear what you want to wear because, as far as we know, we only have this one life. So we might as well be true to ourselves and our vision for ourselves."
Elena's creative journey began in both the United States and Japan. She descends from the Amish and growing up was immersed in traditional Mennonite crafts, as well as the DIY fashion scene in Tokyo's Harajuku neighborhood. In 2007, she moved to New York City to work in fashion, and was hired as the costume designer for the rock musician Courtney Love and worked for the independent fashion brand Electric Feathers.
In 2015, Elena won a grant which funded a four-month trip to study lacemaking in over a dozen European countries. Upon returning to New York, she co-founded Brooklyn Lace Guild, an organization dedicated to the preservation of making lace by hand.
Episode 5: Wren Britton
Using flea market finds, thrifted pieces, and found objects, FIT alum Wren Britton creates truly inventive clothing and accessories under the name PUREVILE! He is influenced by a wide assortment of cultural touchpoints, including: Victorian mourning, comic books, New York underground nightlife, Queer icons and confrontational drag, the Brothers Quay filmmakers, and icons of the '80s, such as the British designer Judy Blame and the Blitz Kids. His work can be dark and gothic but also includes camp and humor!
Wren designs windows and visuals for many New York retail establishments and has DJ'ed at goth and new romantic nights around the city. And in his spare time, he enjoys making stained glass!
Episode 4: Cheyney McKnight
Cheyney is a historical interpeter, artist, and founder of Not Your Momma’s History, a platform which helps museums and historical sites develop programming about slavery and the African experience. Her YouTube channel of the same name brings to life the day to day lives of Black people throughout American history in fun and interesting ways. Her video channel currently has over 250,000 subscribers and 9 million views.
As an artist, Cheyney envisions a future in which Black descendants shape the interpretation of former sites of mass enslavement. She uses clothing designs that meld 18th and 19th century silhouettes with modern textiles that speak to the Black experience in America. In 2021 Cheyney was chosen to be an African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund Fellow for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Her project, titled The Ancestor’s Future: An Afrofuturist Journey Through History, was both a piece of performance art and a conversation inspired by Afrofuturism about the future of historic preservation on former sites of enslavement.
Episode 3: Cynthia Alberto
Cynthia Alberto is a multidisciplinary artist and designer and the founder of Weaving Hand, which is a Brooklyn based weaving and healing art studio and cultural center. Cynthia's interdisciplinary practice engages traditional and contemporary weaving techniques through socially engaged, community centered work. Drawing from textile histories and collective making traditions across Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa, Cynthia approaches weaving not only as a material process, but also as a framework for care, resilience and collective experience.
Her work emphasizes sustainability through a zero waste ethos and spans sculpture, performance and large scale participatory installations that have taken place in cultural institutions, civic organizations and public spaces. Cynthia has received numerous awards and been exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently at the Museum of Modern Art in conjunction with the exhibition Woven Histories, Textiles and Modern Abstraction, and she has a forthcoming fellowship at Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens.
Episode 2: Dandy Wellington
Dandy Wellington, born and raised in Harlem, New York, is a bandleader, entertainer, event producer, and creative consultant. He has performed with his jazz band all around the world and, as a vintage menswear savant, he has consulted on events throughout the United States, including the fashion exhibition Superfine: Tailoring Black Style at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Dandy's look epitomizes the undeniable cool of the Jazz Age. He is an impeccably dressed man-about-town whose signature style has earned him features in outlets such as The Financial Times and Vogue magazine. Dandy's appreciation for the swinging big bands, elegant parties, and beautifully tailored clothing of the 1920s and '30s makes him a certifiable Renaissance man and a true modern dandy.
Episode 1: Debra Rapoport
The artist and maker Debra Rapoport brings a playful exploration of beauty and ingenuity to both her fashion and her life. Her style, a blend of making and thrifting, reflects a lifelong commitment to sustainability. Debra studied weaving in Stockholm, Sweden, holds a BFA from Carnegie Melon University and an MA from UC Berkeley where she graduated in 1970. She taught throughout the 1970s at UC Davis and continued teaching here in New York City, including at the Museum of Modern Art, MAD Museum, and NYU, just to name a few. Debra's work has been featured in numerous art museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the National Museum of Sweden. Debra was featured in Advanced Style, a film about the style of people over the age of 60, as well as in the three Advanced Style books that followed.