Directed by serial entrepreneur and executive director Al Bartosic, GABELLI ’84, the Foundry also oversees the Fordham Angel Fund, which offers investments of up to $25,000 to the University’s active student and alumni founders.

Fordham Magazine caught up with a handful of alumni who received funding, coaching, or other support from the Foundry to find out where they—and their businesses—are now, and how they got there.

Mary Goode, FCRH ’20
Founder and CEO, Nantucket Magic
Fordham Degree: B.A. in Economics

The launch: I grew up on Nantucket Island and watched the tourist landscape change dramatically over the years, becoming increasingly popular yet harder to navigate. The company uses local expertise to offer hotel-like concierge service and amenities to vacationers in Nantucket, Massachusetts, and Palm Beach, Florida, including pre-arrival fridge stocking, dinner reservations, private chefs, backyard movie nights, beach picnics, wellness experiences, and more.

The challenge: Our biggest challenge has been navigating how to scale the business while maintaining exceptional service. To surmount this, we have recruited hospitality experts to work seasonally in both locations.

The assist: The Foundry has played a huge role in the success of my business! I learned so much during the process of the pitch competition alone. The actual funds I won helped us pay for marketing campaigns as well as expand our team, among other things.

The goal: I have been trying to broaden the definition of what success means to me. No matter what happens in the future, what I have created so far feels like an immense personal success, chiefly because of the incredible people I have worked with over the past three years.

Marquice Pullen, GSE ’21
Co-Founder, DAB Pickleball
Fordham Degree: M.S.E., Curriculum and Teaching

The concept: DAB Pickleball is a one-stop shop for pickleball players worldwide. Comprehensive infrastructure, certified coaching tips, quality equipment, competitive prices. Events, tournaments, and a thriving community. Your ultimate pickleball resource. I can’t take credit for the idea. My business partner and brother, Antonio, stumbled upon the sport at Acworth Community Center in Georgia.

The process: We participated in three pitch challenges: Fordham Foundry Rams Den, Fordham vs. Bronx, and Black Ambition, all within one year, and were successful in all three, thanks be to God. Social media marketing, risk management, inventory management, tax filing, bookkeeping, and opening our first facility in July 2023 were all challenging aspects of the process. However, we found our momentum in late December 2023.

The foundation: Initially unfamiliar with Fordham University, my enrollment through the Army Civilian Schooling (ACS) program, driven by my aspiration to become an instructor at the United States Military Academy, inadvertently initiated our entrepreneurial journey. Rooted in Jesuit principles, my education at Fordham eventually led me to the Fordham Foundry. Without Fordham University as a catalyst, I might not have discovered the Foundry or ventured into entrepreneurship.

The win: Success is evident through our community of players and dedicated volunteers and supporters. Seeing the smiles on our consumers’ faces as they enjoy the game of pickleball and, more importantly, witnessing the competitive spirit of our elderly pickleball players, is a success story in itself.

Rachel Ceruti, GSAS ’20
Founder and CEO, Reclypt
Fordham Degree: M.A. in International Political Economy and Development

The vision: I kind of fell into the sustainable fashion scene in New York City and upcycling—when you or designers take something that was going to be thrown away and repurpose it, diverting textiles from landfills. I started a blog that transitioned into a marketplace for fashion, but our community told us they wanted to do the upcycling, not just buy it. We listened, and our mission is to use our platform to explore circular economy structures, with Reclypt as a hub that explores how we create change.

The challenges: Funding really comes to mind. You can’t rely on unfair wages and volunteers. Another challenge, too, is letting people know why circular fashion is needed and what it is.

The assist: I would go into the Foundry space and pop ideas off of the other entrepreneurs and the Foundry team. I benefited from the free office hours with a lawyer. The business aspects that are behind the scenes, I would have never been able to navigate without the Foundry.

The next step: We want to host consistent events; be able to grow and hire, including start monetizing my team’s time; gain more visibility; and establish a steady revenue stream.

Usman “Ozzy” Raza, PCS ’14, GABELLI ’21
Founder and CEO, Equepay
Fordham Degrees: B.A. in Economics, Executive M.B.A.

The concept: Equepay is at the forefront of simplifying billing and payment processing, not just in health care but extending our innovative solutions beyond. We aim to convert the complex financial operations in hospitals and clinics into streamlined, user-friendly processes, ensuring easy and efficient financial management for all involved.

 The launch: Equepay was born out of discussions with friends in the health care sector who highlighted ongoing challenges with payment processing and collections. Recognizing the untapped potential in this underserved market, I founded Equepay. Since launch, Equepay has been expanding its solutions across various hospitals in the U.S.

The foundation: My EMBA from Fordham has been crucial in shaping my entrepreneurial journey. The knowledge and skills acquired laid a solid foundation for Equepay’s strategies and operational methodologies.

The goal: Success is an evolving target. Our immediate goal is to integrate our platform into 196 hospitals by the end of the year, continuously enhancing our services to meet the growing needs of the healthcare sector.

Emmit Flynn, FCRH ’21
Co-Founder, Awful Cloth
Fordham Degree: B.A. in English

The brand: We started Awful Cloth to be an online apparel company for street and lounge wear, with a lot of colorful designs and bright, vibrant ideas. All of them were hand-drawn original designs and I was the designer.

The launch: For eight or 10 months, it was all planning. We got all the domains, Twitter, and Instagram very early on before we had anything produced. That made all the difference when we finally did start to get traction. Then it was a lot of workshopping and pushing it out to our friends and family to see what the response was.

The hurdles: The true hurdles were things that are intangibles. It wasn’t “where do we find this factory” or “how do we do this.” Those things were small hurdles, but we were so driven that there was nothing like that that would stop us. It was more about the mental hurdles: having patience and confidence and being sure of ourselves. Especially early on when things were slow, and we weren’t making any sales, and we weren’t making any profit.

The win: We recently sold the business to a medium-sized retail group called Lilac Blond. We were very happy to do it because selling was a goal of ours and we knew these people—and we were sure that they wanted the best for the brand.

“I’d go the place that I last remembered it was, but sometimes the bin was there, and other times it was moved,” said Goncharova, a recent graduate of Fordham College at Rose Hill.

That experience is one of the things that inspired Goncharova, who studied economics and environmental studies, to research consumer incentives for recycling unwanted clothing. Donating and repurposing textiles is a critical way that consumers can reduce landfill waste, she said. However, the process must be efficient to create impact.

“The final step of the supply chain is the disposal aspect, and that’s the thing that companies don’t usually think about,” she said. “Recycling bottles and paper comes easy. Everyone knows where to put them. But when it comes to clothes, particularly those from fast fashion brands, it becomes difficult to know what to do with them when you don’t want them anymore.”

According to Hitwise, a consumer insights firm, the fast fashion industry—which includes brands like H&M, Forever 21, and the web-based Boohoo.com—has grown 21 percent over the past three years. But this growth has presented a lot of challenges, particularly for the environment, Goncharova said. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Americans discard about 13 million tons of textiles annually, and only two million tons of those clothes were recycled.

Goncharova believes this can change if consumers and businesses work together to recycle textile materials instead of throwing them out.

“I love sustainability because it allows us to create a self-sustaining supply chain,” she said.

Identifying Motivations for Sustainable Fashion

Through a Fordham-funded research study, Goncharova hoped to identify ways to motivate consumers to recycle their unwanted clothing. She recruited a randomized group of 100 students from the University and conducted a preliminary questionnaire via email that was focused on demographic information, the participants’ shopping habits, and their knowledge of sustainability.

Next, the participants were given eco-friendly plastic bags that were manufactured from 25 percent recycled HD plastic, with three types of options for shipping. They could use shipping labels that were prepaid, and send them to the recycling companies Give Back Box and Schoola; schedule a donation pick-up with the Salvation Army for free; or pay their own shipping to send their clothes to denim recycling companies like Blue Jeans Go Green and Patagonia.

“One of the goals was to see if people would be more inclined to donate clothes if shipping was free or if they received a shipping label for donations in-store at the time of their purchase,” she said.

Along with the donation bags, participants of the study were given a follow-up questionnaire about their reactions to the mailable donation bags and the likelihood that they would use the bags again.

Through the study, Goncharova found that participants given the prepaid labels were most likely to recycle. Results from the questionnaire showed a significant correlation between a participant saying they would recycle clothes if it was as easy as online returns, and if brands themselves offered rewards for recycling. They also showed that prior knowledge of sustainability was not related to the participants’ desire to recycle once they were offered this option.

“A lot of people want to donate their clothes, they just don’t know what to do with them,” she said.

Goncharova stressed that creating opportunities for sustainable fashion should be just as important to companies as it is to consumers.

Some companies are already working to reduce landfill waste. In 2013, H&M launched an in-store recycling initiative, which allows customers to drop off unwanted clothing from any brand. And Madewell, a brand that generates most of its sales from denim, partnered with Blue Jeans Go Green, a denim recycling company. Other companies, like Patagonia, allow customers to trade and repair their brand’s used clothing.

“Businesses have a role in this,” she said. “They can’t just throw their hands up, and say, ‘I’m not a part of that.’  These materials are part of the supply chain and they can still add value to it by putting materials back in.”

With help from an environmental engineer, the company discovered that their ventilation system wasn’t regulating impurities in the air properly. According to Stanley, formaldehyde, a chemical found in cotton sportswear that was stockpiled in the store’s basement, was one of the culprits.

“The more we learned about the way that cotton is conventionally grown, the more concerned we got,” he said at an April 6 talk organized by the Gabelli School’s Center for Humanistic Management.

“One of our big concerns is how we look at the challenges of the planet and ensure that our company is not contributing to those challenges and instead contributing to the solutions.”

After making the decision to convert its entire sports line to organic cotton in 1996, Patagonia took employees on a trip to a conventional cotton field and to an organic field in the U.S. The goal was to show them why Patagonia needed to become a more sustainable business.

“The first thing they noticed when we opened the doors to the bus at a conventional cotton field was the smell of the chemicals,” said Stanley, who has been working with Patagonia, a company founded by his uncle Yvon Chouinard, since 1973. “There were also no birds and if you dug your hands in the soil, there were no worms or vegetation.”

In the late ‘70s, Stanley said Patagonia was growing at the rate of about 30 to 40 percent. Though it took about two years to earn back the level of margin that it had before using organic cotton, the experience shaped the company’s approach to manufacturing clothing for climbers, surfers, skiers, and other outdoor enthusiasts.

“Nobody ever came back from one of these trips saying, “This isn’t worth it,’” said Stanley. “We improved our relationship with our customers because we told the same story we did to our customers to our employees and we gained their trust.”

Becoming a Responsible Company

Since its founding, Stanley said, Patagonia—which started as a supplier of climbing hardware—understood the importance of protecting the environment. But back then, the company viewed nature as the “places where we went to play, climb, surf, or ski,” he said.

 “It took a couple of other developments for us to understand that our commitment to nature had to be much deeper than just giving 1 percent of our sales every year to an environmental organization,” said Stanley. “Nature is not just where we go to play. The health of our natural systems underlines all of our social and industrial systems, even in this tiny little town where we were based.”

In addition to the use of organic cotton, Stanley said Patagonia has addressed concerns about wool sourcing, synthetic microfiber pollution, animal welfare, climate change, and fair trade and wages in its global operations. In 2017, the company was recognized at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum for producing quality clothing that doesn’t contribute to waste or the depletion of natural resources. This year, Patagonia was ranked No. 1 in the social good sector of Fast Company’s World’s Most Innovative Companies list.

“There is no shortage of environmental and social problems,” said Stanley. “One of the things that I’m aware of when I’m talking to a group of young people is how much the world has changed since I started working in 1973. It’s a combination of population increase and a very wasteful consumer lifestyle that is putting extraordinary pressures on the environment.”

To discourage overconsumption, Patagonia launched Its Worn Wear program, which allows customers to trade and repair used Patagonia clothing. Stanley argued that buying fewer clothes of high value is a better option for consumers in the long run.

“I think some of the fast fashion companies are experiencing a slow death,” he added. “Fast fashion as a value might still be very good with young people, but [fast fashion companies]are losing millennials when they hit their 20s and 30s.”

Stanley cited Patagonia’s interactive website Footprint Chronicles, which shares information about the company’s supply chain, as an important tool in building transparency.

“Consumers are already very concerned about their food and I think consumers will be willingly concerned about their clothing if they don’t have to fight so hard to get the information,” he said.

What if someone told you it takes 2,700 liters of water to grow enough cotton for one T-shirt, an amount equal to one person’s drinking water for 900 days? 

This was just one of the statistics about the fashion industry’s social and environmental effects shared at this month’s United Nations Department of Public Information/Non-Governmental Organizations briefing, “Fashion and Sustainability: Look Good, Feel Good, Do Good: Using Fashion as a Vehicle for Change.”

Kelly Roberts, assistant director in Fordham University’s Office for International Services and the University’s representative to the UN, says the goal was “to empower people with knowledge about the impact on our planet by the fashion industry and explore new ways as individuals, within our own institutions, within NGO communities, and in the wider education community to live a consciously fashionable lifestyle.”

The briefing, moderated by Patrick Duffy, founder of the Global Fashion Exchange, featured panelists from global organizations working to enact change in the industry and was followed by a fashion showcase, the first of its kind at the UN. Five designers presented sustainable clothing collections to an audience comprising designers and companies, students from multiple New York universities, NGOs, UN officials, and ambassadors.

Briana Ottoboni, Gabelli ’19, helped Roberts to plan the briefing with the NGO/DPI Executive Committee. A business student with a minor in fashion studies, she was shocked when she first heard facts like the one about cotton.

“I didn’t know anything about sustainability in the fashion industry at that point,” she admits, “so I did a lot of research.”

Then she did something about it.

Linking up with Fordham’s Social Innovation Collaboratory, Ottoboni worked with Carey Weiss, director of sustainability initiatives, to create a sustainable fashion practicum for the university with a team of students from diverse disciplines.

To focus on the lack of knowledge surrounding the harmful cycle within the fashion industry, the group is currently drafting a proposal for a new course allowing any student at Fordham to learn about sustainable fashion solutions. Ottoboni says it should be up and running next year.

In the meantime, Ottoboni also contributed to a new online course on sustainable fashion. The free course, conceived by Roberts and offered through the UN’s Global Compact-affiliated GOWI platform, leads participants through various topics, from sourcing and production to fashion’s sustainable future.

“Anyone can take it, which is nice,” Ottoboni explains, and the course is “written in a way that everyday consumers can understand.”

She says average people can do a lot to help the sustainable fashion movement. While brands can make changes to their own practices, she affirms, “people don’t realize how much power you have as a consumer.”

One way Ottoboni wields that power is by avoiding “fast fashion,” a term referring to companies releasing new clothing collections quickly and cheaply, leading to more textile waste and consumption of resources.

While some sustainable purchases cost more, Ottoboni suggests those with limited budgets can consider spending more on a garment that will last longer instead of buying new clothes more often.

She also believes that in the long term, “ethical sourcing and things like that will become a norm and become less expensive as demand increases.”

The enthusiastic audience at the UN briefing and showcase suggests the trajectory is already in motion, and Ottoboni is especially encouraged by this statistic: 65 percent of consumers are now actively seeking sustainable fashion.

— Chelsee Pengal

According to ASILI president Amirah Brown, a Fordham College at Rose Hill senior, the show aimed to highlight fashions representing the African diaspora.

The fashion show featured clothing from Blipstar, JackRabbit, and BRWN, which were created by Fordham students and alumni. Models from all backgrounds also sported colorful dashikis by the Afrocentric, Brooklyn-based company Noni, and streetwear by TMS.

“We feel that showcasing clothing is the best way to represent the culture,” said Brown.

“We have some great examples of what life really was like for the ancients,” said Michael Sheridan, a member of the Class of 2018 double-majoring in history and art history, and one of the 18 students who took the class. “Most universities don’t have anything like this, so we really are lucky to have this collection here.”

The exhibit ran from May 6 through August 15. Students selected the objects—including imperial portraits, luxury household items, coins, and painted pottery—from the 260-plus antiquities in the museum. They researched the objects’ history, wrote the text to accompany them, and helped design the display in a newly created gallery at the museum.

One of the students in the class, Michael Ceraso, even teamed up with another Fordham student, Michael Gonzales, to develop an app for the exhibit that ran on three iPods in the gallery.

“They were involved every step of the way,” said Jennifer Udell, PhD, curator of university art and the seminar’s instructor, who realized her longstanding idea for the project thanks to a gift from Fordham Trustee Fellow Robert F. Long, GABELLI ’63, and his wife, Katherine G. Long.

01
Askos (flask) in the form of a reclining satyr
Roman, ca. 1st century C.E.
Bronze, l: 5¼ in. (13.3 cm)

02
Oil lamp inscribed “The light of Christ shines for all”
Byzantine, ca. 5th century C.E.
Terracotta, l (from handle to nozzle): 3¼ in. (8.25 cm)

03
Terracotta transport amphora
Greek or Roman, ca. 5th century B.C.E. to 1st century C.E.
Terracotta, h: 27 in. (68.5 cm)

“This jar served a concrete, utilitarian purpose from the time it was made until the day that it finally fell prey to the waves of the wine-dark Mediterranean. The barnacles make for an interesting aesthetic that might grab your attention for a moment or two, but [they also] tell us so much about the perils and realities of life and trade in the ancient Mediterranean.”
—Christopher Boland, Class of 2016, math major and theology minor

04
Patera (shallow bowl) with knob handles
Greek, South Italian, Apulian, red-figure, ca. 340 B.C.E.
Terracotta, d: 22 in. (55.89 cm)

“This particular patera is among the largest objects in the collection, and I, like others, am drawn to this sort of scale. It depicts the Amazonomachy, an ancient battle between the Greeks and the Amazons, a fierce race of warrior women emblematic of ancient feminism and girl power.”
—Maria Victoria Alicia Recinto, Class of 2016, art history and anthropology major

05
Fish plate
Greek, South Italian, Campainian, red-figure, Late Classical, ca. 340 to 320 B.C.E.
Terracotta, d: 6¾ in. (17.1 cm)

“This plate conveys the fisherman in an everyday life. It is easy to envision a small enclave of aquatic-based communities along the Mediterranean coast, coming home after a day at sea, and cooking the day’s catch. It is easy to imagine the smell of mackerel, sea bass, octopus, and other marine delicacies grilled and served on this plate with the pungent dressing of fresh olive oil, the scent carried away on a sea breeze after a hard day’s work.”
—Owen Haffey, Class of 2019, English major

06
Kernos (vase for multiple offerings with mold made figural protomes)
Greek, South Italian, Campanian, Late Classical, ca. late 4th century B.C.E.
Terracotta, h: 6¼ in. (15.9 cm)

07
Kylix (drinking cup with stem)
Greek, Attic, Late Archaic, red-figure, ca. 520 to 510 B.C.E.
Attributed to the Painter of Berlin 2268
Terracotta, d: 10½ in. (26.7 cm)

“I’ve always been amused by these dishes and how they’re used as drinking cups. … This finely made image of Dionysus shows him in a lunge gazing back at his own (possibly empty) goblet. When you finish your wine and are faced with the god of wine himself, it seems like a pretty good sign to fill up your kylix again.”
—Emma Cleary, Class of 2016, chemistry major and art history minor

08
Kylix (drinking cup with stem)
Etruscan, Archaic, black-figure, ca. 530 B.C.E.
Terracotta, d: 41/8 in. (10.5 cm)

09
Athenian tetradrachm
Greek, Attic, Classical, 430 to 413 B.C.E.
Silver, d: 7/8 in. (2.2 cm)

“What originally attracted me to this coin was the fact that it featured the portrait of the goddess Athena instead of a historical Greek ruler. This fact led me to wonder about both the representation of mythological figures and the representation of women on coins. … I wonder who might’ve used this coin and what they might’ve bought with it. It’s fascinating to think that we still read this piece of metal as a coin, but it now carries the monetary value of an ancient artifact instead of its original value as a circulated coin.”
—Katie Fredericks, Class of 2016, art history major

10
Coin of Lucilla
Struck under Lucius Verus, ca. 164 to 183, C.E., Roman
Bronze, d: 1¼ in. (3.1 cm)

“Lucilla was a Roman empress who was executed after she made a failed attempt to assassinate her brother, who was the Roman emperor at the time. Of course the coin was made before she fell out of favor, but how has it survived this long? I assumed the Romans would’ve melted down many coins depicting Lucilla in order to reuse the bronze as they so often did, and I think it’s amazing that we get the chance to get up close to this ancient scandal.”
—Katie Fredericks, Class of 2016, art history major

11
Lebes gamikos (wedding vase)
Greek, South Italian, Apulian, Late Classical, red-figure, ca. 340 B.C.E.
Terracotta, h: 14¼ in. (36.2 cm)

“One of my favorite things to do when I’m interacting with ancient artifacts is to imagine the stories of the objects and the people who used them. How were [they] like me and how were they different? Who has touched and used this object? What was the wedding like? Was it a perfect ceremony or did anything go disastrously or hilariously wrong? What was the couple like? Were they in love or was the marriage motivated by other factors? Asking such questions really brings these objects to life for me and lets me look at them in a whole new way.”
—Sarah Homer, Class of 2016, English major and music minor

12
Engraved mirror
Etruscan, Late Classical, 4th century B.C.E.
Bronze, h: 11 in. (28 cm)

“The engraving on the mirror shows three goddesses: Uni, Turan, and Mea, whose Greek names are Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena, respectively. Although the goddesses have Etruscan names, they are the same ones involved in the incident which incited the Trojan War. According to the myth, three goddesses were attending the nuptials of Peleas and Thetis, when a wedding crasher, Eris, threw a golden apple with the label ‘to the fairest.’ The goddesses fought over this apple and thus over who was the most beautiful. So the fact that this engraving is placed on a mirror is very interesting, because it is an object of vanity.”
—Jane Parisi, Class of 2019, classical languages major

13
Torso of Herakles
Roman, Imperial, ca. 1st to 2nd century C.E.
Marble, h: 15¼ in. (38.7 cm)

“When I was younger, the legend of Herakles was always one of my favorite tales from antiquity, and this and the presence of drapery are what initially attracted me to this figure. I am taking my fashion minor at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus and, as a student of fashion, the classic Greek drapery and the beautiful form of the sculpture called to me as soon as I saw it.”
—Hans Singer, Class of 2018, art history major and fashion studies minor

14
Hydria (water jar)
Greek, Attic, Late Archaic, black-figure, ca. 520 to 510 B.C.E.
Terracotta, h: 19 in. (48.2 cm)

“This is truly a prime example of high-quality Attic vases. The scenes are brilliant and reflect the tendency of vase painters to encapsulate an entire myth through just a few images. Here we have the most popular myth: the 12 labors of Herakles. … Viewers are shown the beginning and the end of Herakles’ story. It’s one complete beautiful cycle.”
—Masha Bychkova, Class of 2018, double major in classical languages and classical civilizations, with a minor in visual arts

15
Portrait of the Emperor Caracalla as a youth
Roman, Severan, 198 to 204 C.E.
Bronze, h: 11½ in. (27 cm)

“I was first attracted to this portrait because it’s bronze, which is rare in ancient sculpture, and also because there are few portraits of Caracalla as a child. It’s not just a portrait of a child but also effectively a portrait of a mass murderer, a delusional religious fanatic, and a mentally ill person. At the same time, it is a portrait of the emperor who would become responsible for the bath houses in Rome and the Edict of 212, which granted Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire. This sculpture gives insight into the human condition. This is a man who lived thousands of years before our time, yet embodies the same emotionality, conflicts, and mortality of humans in the 21st century: family power struggles, envy and insecurity, murderous rage, religious fanaticism and superstition, and celebrity obsession.”
—Olivia Ling, Class of 2017, classical languages major

16
Portrait of a Severan woman
Roman, Severan, ca. 220 to 222 C.E.
Marble, h: 21 7/8 in. (55.4 cm)

“I was initially attracted to the portrait bust of the Severan woman because of my background in working with Roman imperial commemorative statues that were meant to honor prominent societal women. These statues were representative of the changing atmosphere in ancient times, one in which women possessed the ability to honor their status in society as much as their male counterparts. I was also interested in the statue because of its current location in the museum, since it’s right next to the entrance and it’s one of the first subjects visitors see.”
—Simek Shropshire, Class of 2017, art history and English double major

17
Cylindrical krater (wide mouth vessel) and lid
Etruscan, Archaic, white-on-red ware, ca. 650 B.C.E.
Terracotta, impasto, h: 21 in. (53.3 cm)

18
Ossuary and lid
Etruscan, Archaic, white-on-red ware, ca. 580 B.C.E.
Terracotta, impasto, h: 16 in. (40.6 cm)

19 to 23
Antefixes in the form of a kneeling kore (maiden) and of women’s heads
Etruscan, Late Archaic to Early Classical, ca. 500 to 480 B.C.E.
Terracotta, h: 11 in. to 20½ in. (28 cm to 52 cm)

“These women represent maenads, who are the servants of the god of food and wine, Dionysus. It is said that Dionysus put these women under a drunken spell and, as a result, they became praised and protective, which is the role they play as they watch those who enter temples. This would bother most feminists, because it indicates a man’s power over women. However, I think that they exude the power and fury of women. Their intense eyes and beauty would force anyone to enter with caution and reverence.”
—Madeline Locher, Class of 2018, art history major

24
Ram’s head drinking cup
Greek, South Italian, Apulian,
mold and wheel-made, Late Classical,
5th to 4th century B.C.E.
Terracotta, l: 7½ in. (19 cm)

“The beauty of [this cup]lies in its simplicity. It’s terracotta and unpainted, and to me this draws all the attention to the ram. … If you notice, there’s no way to put this down if it’s filled with anything, so you best be drinking all night!”
—Christos Orfanos, Class of 2018, economics and classical civilization major, and marketing minor

“The name means New Hope in Latin,” said Erick Rengifo Minaya, PhD, associate professor of economics. “We’re a 501c3 based out of Fordham but independent of Fordham.”

Rose Hill students may be familiar with the company as it sells its products—such as jewelry, knick-knacks, and sweaters—from a cart outside of the McGinley Center on Wednesdays and Thursdays. But this month the company, which initially grew out of the Fair Trade Club, will take its products online at SpesNova.org.

The products are purchased from around the world by issuing microcredit loans to artisans who might not otherwise qualify for normal bank loans. But while some microfinance organizations charge as much as 30 to 40 percent interest on loans, Spes Nova charges just 2 to 3 percent.

“In Nicaragua we have seen some companies charge up to 100 percent interest,” said Rengifo. “Microfinance has grown incredibly around the world, and some of these institutions are really profitable. But we basically charge the cost of sending the money.”

Rengifo said that a scandal involving Mexican drug cartels funneling money through microloan institutions led to a crash of the industry in 2013. New laws dictated that banks identify the people who were receiving the money—not just those sending the money.

“It’s not worth it for big banks that are sending the money, especially if people are only sending $100,” said Rengifo. “So we are prefinancing the production by giving the artisans the money up front, and then they produce and send the products. When we sell the merchandise, we recover the money.”

Spes Nova connects artisans they know with lenders they trust. Often, they also know the circumstances that many of the borrowers are in—such as women in Bolivia who have escaped abusive relationships and are now making sweaters bearing the Fordham name.

The growing business has also been incorporated into a marketing research class at the Gabelli School.

“Every single business school in the United States has a marketing research class, but this one uses real-world experience,” said Rengifo, who foresees the creation of a fair trade entrepreneur class as well as a product evaluation class.

He said that the marketing class wraps up by examining Spes Nova’s impact on the communities. The examination will determine if the business is helping produce more labor, improve nutrition, and improve the schools in the communities.

“And if it looks like it’s not working, that’s fine because we need to learn,” he said. “We’re not biased here. This is not a for-profit business; we can immediately correct things to find a way that works.”

The event, “Fashion + Sustainable Development + Women’s Empowerment,” brought together designers, models, academics, and fashionistas for a runway show and panel discussion about the unique ways that the fashion industry is embracing sustainable practices and improving social and environmental conditions.

The event was sponsored by the Institute for Women and Girls at the Graduate School of Social Service (GSS) and hosted by Lyn Kennedy Slater, PhD, a clinical associate professor at GSS and creator of the popular blog The Accidental Icon.

“GSS and the sustainable fashion movement share the goals of environmental, economical, and social justice, and the realization of human rights and the empowerment of women and children,” Slater said. “When one comes to a conversations about similar issues from different perspectives, new and creative approaches to solving social problems can emerge.”

In her introduction to the event, Veronique Lee, merchandising director for Modavanti, said that fashion is the second largest “dirtiest industry” in the world, coming in just behind the oil and gas industry. Besides producing large amounts of toxic dyes and chemicals, the fashion industry is a significant consumer of natural resources and is notoriously wasteful.

The industry is in need of major overhaul to meet the global challenges we face, Lee said.

“We’re seeing this revolution happen with cars and with food, and now it’s time to start impacting our awareness of how we get our clothes, where they come from, and who is making them,” she said.

Nearly a dozen designers were present for the runway portion of the event, which showcased clothing and accessories that were sustainably made and ethically sourced. Models wove through the aisles of Pope Auditorium wearing clothes made from recycled water bottles and fishnets and sporting artisanal jewelry made by Alaskan and Peruvian natives.

Several designers emphasized that through their brands they aim to make positive social as well as environmental change. Panelist Chid Liberty, owner of the fashion company Uniform, said that for every purchase made, the company donates a school uniform to a child in Liberia.

“It’s about human, environmental, and financial well-being,” said panelist Amy Hall, director of social consciousness for Eileen Fisher. “This means [products or initiatives]that have the lowest environmental impact possible, the greatest social impact possible, and enough financial return to make that work possible.”

Lee recommended that consumers be mindful of what they are buying. Modavanti, she said, created a badge system to make it easy for consumers to tell whether the items they purchase are eco-friendly and ethically sourced. Smartphone apps can also help buyers research products and brands.

Most importantly, Lee said, don’t underestimate the power that consumers—particularly women—have in revolutionizing fashion. According to Forbes, women control $20 trillion in annual consumer spending, making them the largest market opportunity in the world.

“Women have enormous control through their purchasing power and influence, and it’s increasing,” Lee said. “Women can change fashion—the companies are listening.”

The panel was moderated by Jeff Trexler, associate director of Fordham School of Law’s Fashion Law Institute, and included:

• Amy Hall, director of social consciousness for Eileen Fisher;
• Rebecca van Bergen, executive director of Nest;
• Debera Johnson, executive director at the Pratt Institute; and
• Chid Liberty, co-founder of Liberty & Justice.

Slater, a clinical associate professor at the Graduate School of Social Service (GSS), has long had an interest in fashion, although it usually was only in service to her personal wardrobe choices.

So, she never expected that just a year after launching her fashion blog, Accidental Icon, she would top 21,000 followers on her Instagram account, make the cover of Grey magazine, and amass fans worldwide.

“Somehow, accidentally, while living my ordinary life, people seem[ed]to think I was a fashion icon,” she wrote in her first post. “Every day a person approaches and asks, ‘Do you work in fashion?’ (no) . . . or asks what fashion magazine I work for (none).

“If I got this far ‘accidentally,’ how far could I really go if I start learning and thinking about fashion with people who really do it and know it?”

An Accidental Icon

Slater is an unlikely candidate for fashion iconicity. She is the former director of the Child Sexual Abuse Project at Lawyers for Children, and is a designated child abuse expert for the New York City Family Courts. In addition to co-publishing the go-to book on social work practice and law, Slater established the first child advocacy centers in the city and developed a handbook for family court judges. At Fordham, Slater helped develop of the Law School’s Interdisciplinary Center for Family and Child Advocacy, and she currently teaches child welfare at GSS.

Over her four-decade career, fashion was not so much a hobby as an integral part of her daily routine. She dressed up to give lectures and even took classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology. As she approached her 60s, fashion became a means to confront the aging process.

“I began to use clothes and my appearance as a way to counteract some of the invisibility that comes with age,” she said. “As I started to take more risks, it in fact made me very visible. And people began to say, ‘You should start a blog.’”

With her daughter grown and her career settling into a steady pace, Slater decided to investigate the fashion blogosphere more deeply. Almost immediately she noticed the dearth of blogs written by or for older women.

“They weren’t really speaking to a woman like me—women who are not famous or celebrities, but are smart, creative, fashion-forward, engaged,” she said. “So I designed my blog almost in opposition to everything else out there.”

Slater launched Accidental Icon in September 2014. Barely a month later, a stroke of serendipity came during Fashion Week.

“I was decked out that day—I had on a Yohji Yamamoto suit, a top from Japan, and a Chanel bag,” she said. “I was walking by Lincoln Center, and all of a sudden, I was swamped by photographers taking my picture. And then tourists started taking pictures, because they saw the photographers doing it. And it was all because they liked what I was wearing.”

The encounter landed Slater’s photo in Downtown magazine and put Accidental Icon in the spotlight.

A Fashion-Forward Rebel

Accidental Icon largely consists of short essays that reflect on some aspect of Slater’s life and how her apparel gestures to her various identities, including as an academic, as a New Yorker, and as an older woman. The essays are paired with photographs taken by her partner Calvin in various spots throughout the city.

Later in the week, Slater posts an itemized list of what she was wearing in the photo from that week’s essay. Fridays feature a “Fashion Bibliography” of articles that she found unusual or inspiring that week.

The blog offers an outlet from the constraints of academic writing, Slater said. However, she doesn’t consider blogging to be inconsistent with her work as an academic or as a social worker.

“I think academia has always thought that fashion is a frivolous topic, but it’s not frivolous at all,” Slater said. “The more I research fashion, the more I realized it’s a powerful force. We talk a lot about how it’s oppressive, or how it promotes ideal body types, but we don’t talk about how it can be productive.”

To that end, Accidental Icon has helped shatter age biases in fashion. In a culture that extols youth and beauty, a fashion blog run by a 60-something college professor has been an act of rebellion. Surprisingly, the majority of her followers are young people who are drawn to the fearless authenticity that she promotes.

“There is a tide change among the younger generation. They’re getting sick of celebrities and want to think more about style and who they are,” Slater said.

“There aren’t age parameters in fashion. My motto has become, ‘Don’t tell me there are rules.’”

What started as an innovative idea of Fordham Law professor Susan Scafidi—to create a special field of law for those working within a distinct industry—has gained respect within academia and is establishing a long-term direction for the industry. Since its launch in September of 2010, in fact, similar programs and courses have been launched at other institutions, including Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and New York University. (That irony is not lost on Scafidi, who is a pro at spotting a designer knockoff and who blogs at a site called counterfeitchic.com.)

“It’s been a real supernova,” said Scafidi, who also acts as the institute’s academic director. “We just keep managing to break new ground.”

Created in 2010, the nonprofit not only serves as a center to educate lawyers with a focus on fashion, but is “about something more,” Scafidi says—providing the fashion community with legal advice, training programs, and information about industry issues.

But it wasn’t an easy walk in this lawyer’s Manolos. Nearly 10 years ago, Scafidi’s idea to found the institute and the field of fashion law was ridiculed, with endless comparisons to Elle Woods in Legally Blonde.

“When I started this, people laughed. They said, ‘Really? It’s too girly, too frivolous. No one will take you seriously.’ It was like fashion law had a question mark after it,” she said. “But it is a multibillion-dollar industry… one that touches all of us, quite literally.”

In 2006, Scafidi convinced Fordham Law School to offer the first-ever fashion law seminar, under the condition that at least three students register. Much to everyone’s surprise, students frantically signed up.

“But we always realized it was more than just a class,” said Scafidi.

In just one year, enrollment doubled. It also became apparent to Scafidi that those outside of law school also needed services and that the industry needed legal protection and education.

Thanks to backing from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) and the support of CFDA president and iconic designer Diane von Furstenberg, the center became a reality on the same day in September 2010 that New York Fashion Week moved to its new home at Lincoln Center, just across the street from Fordham.

Since then, the institute has continued to expand, solidifying a permanent track at Fordham Law, now with seven classes ranging from Fashion Ethics, Sustainability & Development to Fashion Law & Finance, and bridging the gap between the fashion and legal communities.
“Everything happened because there was a need,” said Scafidi.

The nonprofit institute has now extended beyond Fordham, evolving into a fashion law epicenter with a monthly legal advice clinic called a “pop-up”—a nod to retail pop-up stores—where designers are paired with volunteer lawyers who are assisted by law students. There’s a summer Fashion Law Bootcamp (now in East and West coast editions thanks to a partnership with Levi’s®) and countless symposia open to lawyers and fashion professionals. The institute’s next daylong event is slated for this April 4.

“It’s like a foreign exchange program,” Scafidi said. “The lawyers have to learn to speak fashion and the fashionistas have to learn to speak law.”

The institute has become a regular fixture on the semiannual Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week calendar, where it offers students more than just a look at the business of fashion law—that is, real-life experience working with production legalities. At last September’s Fashion Week, the institute celebrated its third anniversary with a fashion show to showcase designers who participated in its clinics. One of the clinic’s designers, Eden Miller of Cabiria, made international headlines by showing the first-ever plus-size line under the tents.

During this spring’s Fashion Week, which runs from Feb. 6 through 13, the institute will host a Feb. 7 discussion of the latest fashion trend: wearable technology.

Scafidi has inspired fashion law committees at several New York bar associations and encouraged the establishment of three specialty law firms by program participants—one each in New York, London, and Paris. She helped found the Model Alliance and create a monumental state law protecting underage models, a law that took effect last November and which requires better adult supervision of child models on the job.

“I’m so proud of getting that law passed,” she said. “It’s wonderful to be able to help models who are the faces of the industry actually have a voice in the industry.”

With New York conquered, Scafidi is taking her idea global, having attracted students and program attendees “from every continent except Antarctica.”

“We’ve done a lot, but we’re not done yet,” she said, adding that she hopes to “continue establishing fashion law around the world”—with Milan, Hong Kong, and Dubai next up.