Tag Archives: fashion institute of technology

Johnson inaugurated as Council Speaker

City Council Speaker Corey Johnson with Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and other elected officials at his inauguration (Photo by Maria Rocha-Buschel)

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

Chelsea Councilmember Corey Johnson was inaugurated as Speaker at FIT’s Haft Theater last weekend, becoming the first openly HIV-positive elected official in the position. Johnson pledged to fight for affordable housing, small businesses and fixes for the MTA.

“These problems are incredibly complex and by confronting them, we will ensure that New Yorkers have good paying jobs, healthcare and good schools,” he said. “The city, state and federal governments have to work together to fix the subways. No person should be stopped and frisked. It’s our responsibility to stand up for immigrants, women, people who are transgender, seniors and the poor.”

Johnson especially stressed the importance of renewing the rent laws in state capital.

“We need to press Albany to renew the rent laws,” he said. “We need to close the loopholes that give landlords the ability to deregulate thousands of apartments a year.”

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Woman who called in Chelsea bomb honored with proclamation at event

NYPD Deputy Inspector Brendan Timoney of the 13th Precinct, State Senator Brad Hoylman, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Public Advocate Letitia James, honoree Jane Schreibman, Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, Daniel Campanelli , aide to Comptroller Scott Stringer, and Dr. Joyce Brown, president of FIT, at an event on Friday (Photo by Michelle Deal Winfield)

NYPD Deputy Inspector Brendan Timoney of the 13th Precinct, State Senator Brad Hoylman, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Public Advocate Letitia James, honoree Jane Schreibman, Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, Daniel Campanelli , aide to Comptroller Scott Stringer, and Dr. Joyce Brown, president of FIT, at an event on Friday (Photo by Michelle Deal Winfield)

By Michelle Deal Winfield

On Friday, September 30, a celebration was held to honor Jane Schreibman, a professional photographer, who reported finding a bombing device on September 17 in Chelsea. The event was held at the Fashion Institute of Technology and coordinated by Manhattan Borough President Gail Brewer.

At the event, Brewer presented a Proclamation from the City of New York naming Friday, September 30th “Jane Schreibman Appreciation Day” in the borough of Manhattan. Jane had found a pressure cooker with a cell phone attached in a plastic bag, a secondary bombing device, on 27th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. The proclamation was unusual because it contained multiple gold seals and multiple signatures of elected officials. Brewer read from the Proclamation, the “rigged device was ready to explode.” And called Schreibman her “Shero.”

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Pols cheer Fashion Week’s impact on city’s economy

Eric Gertler of the EDC, Polish Consul General Urszula Gacek, fashion designer Karolina Zmarlak, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Councilmember Dan Garodnick, FIT president Dr. Joyce Brown and State Senator Brad Hoylman (Photo by Maria Rocha-Buschel)

Eric Gertler of the EDC, Polish Consul General Urszula Gacek, fashion designer Karolina Zmarlak, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Councilmember Dan Garodnick, FIT president Dr. Joyce Brown and State Senator Brad Hoylman (Photo by Maria Rocha-Buschel)

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

Ahead of the beginning of New York’s spring Fashion Week today, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney released a report with the Joint Economic Committee detailing the economic benefits of both Fashion Week and the fashion industry as a whole for the city. The report highlighted the $887 million economic impact of Fashion Week, which makes it one of the largest industries in New York.

Maloney presented the report at FIT while wearing a dark mauve-colored dress designed by Polish-born designer and FIT graduate Karolina Zmarlak, stepping out from behind the podium and giving a quick spin.

“It would look much better on a model I’m sure,” Maloney joked. “But the point is that it was made in New York.”

Zmarlak is the first Polish-born designer to be sold in a US luxury retailer with Saks Fifth Avenue and she was an early recipient from the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) Fashion Production Fund, a new program that was launched by EDC and provides bridge loans to fashion designers to assist them in moving their products to market.

Maloney said she was surprised by the economic impact that Fashion Week has on the city, noting that it had a higher impact than the US Open and the 2014 Super Bowl, and more than twice that of the New York City Marathon. The fashion industry employs over 180,000 people in the city, including 16,000 manufacturing jobs. Jobs in the industry are paying approximately $11 billion in wages, generating almost $2 billion in tax revenue each year.

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