H-ton Fashion Program Students Visit NYC Gallery

Huntington High School Fashion Design & Illustration students trekked to Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan this week to take in a gallery exhibit titled “Africa’s Fashion Diaspora.”

A dozen students enrolled in Fashion II, Fashion III and Portfolio in Fashion accompanied art teacher Kim Valerio on the trip. The group traveled on the Long Island Railroad and then walk seven city blocks to the FIT campus.

“Africa’s Fashion Diaspora is an innovative exhibition that explores fashion’s role in shaping international Black diasporic cultures,” states an overview of the exhibit. “This exhibition is the first to examine fashion as a mode of cross-diasporic cultural production. Sixty ensembles and accessories by Black designers from Africa, Europe, North and South America, and the Caribbean are placed in dialogue with each other, showing how these designers take complex inspirations from their own Black cultures and others across the diaspora.”

“At the fashion exhibit we happened to run into a former Huntington High School fashion student who is now attending Pratt Institute,” Mrs. Valerio said. “Her class from Pratt was also on a field trip to FIT’s gallery, coincidentally at the same time as us.”

Besides taking in the fashion exhibit, the Huntington students shopped at FIT’s Artist Alley Flea Market. “It was a one day only fair where FIT students sold handmade arts and crafts and promoted sustainability by selling second hand and upcycled clothing,” Mrs. Valerio said. “The weather was great and my students told me they enjoyed walking in the city and taking lots of photographs.”