Whether it’s in a corporate office, a furnished basement, a coffee shop, or anywhere else, where we work is where we live. Hue sent a call for submissions asking alumni, faculty, staff, and students to share images of their workspace. Take a look at these fascinating photos—and even a painting!—of where our community earns their daily bread.
Miranda Chen
International Trade and Marketing ’13, Fashion Design ’11, fashion illustrator and live sketch artist, How Heart Thou
My workspace is also my dining room table. My biggest inspirations include the colorful outside landscape and the blissful smile on my son’s face when I create something that brings him joy.
Denton Tillman
Adjunct assistant professor, Photography and Related Media
Within my iMac screen is a self-portrait. Beyond that are memories and mementos from my entire life. Above my computer is a stationery cubby my father crafted for my photography studio on East 20th Street. In and on top of the cubby are photographs of many of my dearest loved ones.
On the top left is a button from the first showing of the first Star Wars film. The graphic Santa Claus was a design I would see in one form or another every year for the last 40 years. Sadly, the designer/artist, Jim Swan, passed away this past year. He was one of my best male friends.
The Chinese doll and the little plane in the same box were gifts from another great friend who also passed this past year, a great art director, Woody Litwhiler. My original baby shoes from when I was brought home from Lenox Hill Hospital are in the cream-colored box on the top shelf in the center. The photograph on the top shelf is Sidney Geist, the professor at Pratt Institute who influenced me the most. It’s still one of my favorite pictures.
Finally, I will mention that my partner, Diane Epstein, is the woman smiling all the way on the left next to my photograph of Fontainebleau, France.
Anwar Morse
Illustration MFA ’11, counselor associate, FIT Admissions
I draw pictures here. This is the book cover for my novel, Humans Are != Automatons (EarthTone Kingdom, 2025). It’s a watercolor painting with a pencil underpainting.
Renee Cooper
Retired professor, Fashion Business Management
My workspace, in Los Angeles, has a view of traffic and the marina. The computer at the top is old, and I use it as a second monitor.
Cooper taught at FIT for 24 years, serving as department chair for two years.
Chantel Chance
Fashion Merchandising Management ’16, founder, KZMT & Co. fine jewelry
This is my workbench, where all my fine jewelry is created. My microscope allows for more precision and accuracy when setting stones and helps me really appreciate the craft.
Danielle Stein Gonzalez
Accessories Design ’12, founder, Verona Black
This sanctuary is a small handmade-accessories business that I grew from the ground up. The star-shaped handbags [top framed photo, second from right] were my senior thesis collection.
Pamela Navarro
Illustration ’19, founder and artist, L’Etoile Arts
My studio is located in Guanajuato, a beautiful town in the center of Mexico. Inside, I feel like I am in another place out of this world. I have prints from some of my favorite illustrators for inspiration, and I have a little bed for my dog.
Deborah Gregory
Fashion Buying and Merchandising ’75, author and creator, The Cheetah Girls novels
The Cheetah Girls dolls are my pride and joy. They surround my workroom and office where I make handcrafted items for my Etsy shop and write my books and articles.
Sally Caswell
Millinery Certificate ’08, founder, Sally Caswell Millinery
Hat blocks help milliners create all kinds of amazing hat shapes, but they’re also sculptural creations in their own right. Before using a block, it needs to be covered in plastic wrap to protect the wood from the heat and moisture needed to create the hat shape, as well as from any dyes that might be on the material being blocked.
Angela Rizza
Illustration ’11, children’s book illustrator and tattoo artist
In my space I surround myself with oddities, old naturalists’ drawings, and my six birds, who always make little cameos in my work. Having the birds in my workplace helps alleviate stress or artist’s block. They also help remind me to take breaks and not sit there hunched over for over three hours at a time. They’re very social animals and if I don’t spend time with them, they let me know they’re upset. I’m teaching Sabich, the blue Indian ringneck, to speak, and he’s got a nice list of phrases so far, like “Gimme kiss, muah,” laser noises, and the “Bacon Pancakes” song from Adventure Time.
Jenna Gang
Photography ’11, photographer and director for many clients including Fanta, Target, Amazon, Corona, and Celsius
My studio, Lemon Poppy Studios in Long Island City, Queens, is where I shoot most of my commercial jobs. I also rent it to other photographers and productions.
The kitchen gets a lot of use! Our incredible food stylists whip up whatever’s needed for the shoot—like a half-cooked turkey that somehow looks perfectly golden and done on camera, or 100 slices of bacon just to find the one that works best for a bacon tie (yes, really). It also doubles as a catering prep zone and, once, even hosted my whole family for Thanksgiving.
Giselle Habert
Footwear and Accessories Design ’22, founder, Gisessories
My studio—in the basement of my home—is equipped with everything from industrial and home sewing machines to a leather skiver. I’ve got fabric, notions, a mannequin, a cutting table, head forms, and more. You’ll probably find scraps of leather, pins, and patterns scattered everywhere.
Tania Stone Frey
Graphic Design ’95, founder and creative director, Stone DesignWorks
My dog, Ollie, keeps me company all day. I collect vintage cameras and vintage binoculars, and I always need a disco ball nearby. The illustration hanging above my desk was created by an FIT student for my aunt Elaine Stone, professor emerita, aka “The Hat Lady,” who watches over me while I’m working.
Chaya Topas
Home Products Development ’07, writer, designer, project manager
This is my “home office,” where I write books, answer emails, and design print media.
Kristen Kells
Fashion Design ’09, founder, Kristen Kells Interior Design
I have two wild little boys, so I was looking to create a space that could be entirely mine and utterly feminine. I am a former fashion designer and I have transitioned into interior design, but much of what is in my home office is very much connected to my love of fashion. Glamorous fashion photography has always been a huge source of inspiration for me.
The birds on my wallpaper connect to the feathers in the vintage model’s hat in the black and white portrait. This portrait has been with me since my first apartment while attending FIT.
Tara Kawas
Advertising Design ’10, artist and high school teacher
I create drawings, paintings, and mixed media collages inspired by the natural world. My desk was created with love by my dad, and the gallery wall is always changing and growing. I am grateful for my art space, even if it is small and in my living room!
Danielle Canfield
Fashion Business Essentials certificate, founder, Danielle Canfield Designs
This gallery wall took me several years to curate. The 1930s Singer sewing machine was gifted to me by my stepmom.
Anthony Freda
Adjunct assistant professor, Illustration; artist for many publications, including Time, The New Yorker, and The New York Times
I surround myself with Americana ephemera, skulls, vintage black boards, and oddities I find in flea markets. I incorporate some of the items into my work and upcycle them into their new lives as “art.”
The artwork pictured are my pieces, painted on distressed wood. I sometimes tile several objects into a sort of patchwork/rough grid format. I love the textures and patinas that years of natural aging give to wooden objects. The 19th century school chalkboard slates possess a very special energy. I can feel echoes of the life force of the students who originally used them reverberating through time and space.
Zaldy Goco
Fashion Design ’90, Emmy-winning designer for Lady Gaga, Cirque du Soleil, and RuPaul’s Drag Race
My desk is always overflowing with inspirational samples from projects past and present. The mural was hand-painted by my best friend Miguel Villalobos over Covid lockdown, while I made papier-mâché planters! I told him I wanted an imagined jungle to escape to everyday.
Jada Hairston
Fine Arts ’23, multidisciplinary artist
As a doll maker, I like to collect toys, trinkets, and other playful things. They provide a dialogue with my own creations. On my desk is a work-in-progress doll.
Julia Jacquette
Assistant chair, Fine Arts
“Studio,” gouache on paper, 12 by 16 inches, 2019.
I’ve been working in the same studio in the East Village for over 20 years. I love it dearly.
I created this work for a show called Artists Draw Their Studios at the Hewitt Gallery at Marymount Manhattan College, and then it moved on to the Kleinert/James Center for the Arts in Woodstock, NY. I was making a body of work that featured figures often seen in the media. I would create “still lives” consisting of bought figurines, or I printed out (and cut out) images of individuals I was thinking about a lot. In this work, you’ll see Anita Hill, Bella Abzug, Princess Leia, among other folks, as well as a few puddles of novelty vomit. The news of the day was making me queasy at the time (and it continues to).
Charlemane Shel Reyes
Fashion Business Management student
The pleated paper was for a wearable art project about how love is like paper in that it is fragile. The paper was then attached on a mannequin to form a vest.
