FRIENDS FOR LIFE

They lived together in Nagler Hall in 1974. And just like that…

Gang says, “We’re in the dorm hallway. Sue is on top. Joanne is on the left. I’m probably taking the picture. We like to clown around. That jabot Sue’s wearing was very popular in the 1970s. Very chic.”

In 1973, four young women studying Apparel Design met at FIT. Hailing from different corners of the U.S., Ellen Schraub Gang from Brooklyn, Joannie Krejci Grzesiak from Wisconsin, Colette Hoffman-Wong from Ohio, and Suzanne Bartolf Langford from Pennsylvania, built a friendship that’s lasted half a century.

Gang, Grzesiak, and Langford, skilled at cut and construction, were attending the one-year accelerated AAS program. Wong, in the two-year program, joined their circle, bringing her artistic discernment. “She would say, ‘Change the line. White that out,’” Gang says. “It was all Wite-Out and Scotch tape then.” Throughout spring 1974, the group bonded during study sessions lasting till 4 am in Nagler Hall’s seventh-floor lounge.

“We are ice cream people. Joannie always made mint chocolate ice cream pies.”

“We worked like dogs,” Gang says with a laugh, “but nobody else got us like we got each other.”

Gang and Grzesiak chose the children’s wear specialization. “We were told that they were nicer people [in that segment of the industry], not as cutthroat,” Gang says. After graduation, she joined a children’s wear firm, Knit Waves, Inc., eventually becoming director of design and merchandising. Since 2001, she’s taught in FIT’s Internship Studies Department. Returning to Wisconsin, Grzesiak worked as a knitwear designer for several companies and later organized special events for her own, Touch of Whimsy. Langford founded her own specialty shop, Suzanne & Co., in Pennsylvania. Wong designed intimate apparel for companies including Victoria’s Secret, and eventually served two terms as the chair of FIT’s Fashion Design Program.

The four reunited on campus after fifty years.

Through it all, their friendship endured. “We’re like family,” Gang says. In an ongoing group text, they offer support and celebrate one another’s milestones.

The quartet gathers almost every year. This past March, to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of their friendship, they reunited at Nagler. The years had seen them through careers, weddings, births, and the weddings of their children (they have 11 between them—and 14 grandchildren). Often, the four collaborated on the brides’ and bridesmaids’ gowns; their families call them “the wedding fairies.”

As Wong puts it, “FIT didn’t just teach us fashion; it gave us each other.”

Gang and Grzesiak outside Nagler, spring 1974, with dress forms they purchased. “I draped my wedding gown on my dress form,” Gang says. “I named it Missfit.”.