FIT honors Calvin Klein, Anna Wintour

The Fashion Institute of Technology (New York) honored designer Calvin Klein and Vogue U.S. editor Anna Wintour at its graduation exercises on Friday, May 23, in Radio City Music Hall.

Klein, a 1963 FIT graduate, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree. It was one of his first public appearances since announcing last month that he was seeking treatment for substance abuse, and reportedly his first visit to the school in some time. “In my mind,” Klein told the assembled — including 2600 graduating students, “I'm still in school. I feel like I'm the one who's graduating.”

Wintour, who delivered the commencement address, said she had entered the fashion world in the 1960s when, she recalled, “couture presentations were confined to Paris and Rome, and fashion catered largely to the haute bourgeoisie. It was a narrow self-regarding cocoon,” she said, and one that had little use for movie stars. “J.Lo might be wearing 60s Valentino couture to the Oscars now, but she would not have been allowed anywhere near the show where that dress first appeared.”

Today, Wintour noted, designers are increasingly indebted to stars for exposing their work to an ever-widening public. “Just consider what Sarah Jessica Parker and 'Sex and the City' have done for the fortunes of Manolo Blahnik,” she said.