Also this issue: Icepack -A.D. Amorosi

April 24-30, 2003

naked city

Fashion Statement

Moore’s outgoing fashion department chair is leaving controversy, and some mystery, in his wake.

by A.D. Amorosi

Moore College of Art & Design is used to getting attention from big names in fashion, and having its students make fashion statements of their own. But the recently announced departure of fashion department chair Emil De John at the close of this semester (May 19) has garnered angry reactions from both students and industry names, like W and Women’s Wear Daily Editor Etta Froio, not to mention a mysterious rash of buttons and stickers reading "I love Emil." Mysterious because, depending on whom you ask, the buttons are either an omnipresent statement on campus or a complete fabrication.

De John has been with the school for six years, and his contract was not renewed by Moore President Happy Fernandez, Academic Dean Dona Lantz and Moore's board. Neither Lantz nor Fernandez could offer much comment on the situation. "It's not Moore's policy to talk about personnel issues," says Lantz. "I can only say it was a very lengthy and careful process that was followed. I was involved, as was the president and the board of trustees. It's just like any other hiring, firing or contractual situation. This is a contractual situation."

Moore President Fernandez says she hasn't seen Froio's letter, but she has read several others from industry professionals, none that she will name. She also says she hasn't seen any student buttons, banners or stickers, but she understands that they could easily exist. "It's an art school," she laughs. "You can see all sorts of creative things. It's not unusual if you have a faculty member leaving that there are students who are upset, who wish it wasn't happening. But you'd see that in any school or university, any business even. I've been around for so long -- I was in City Council for eight years, taught at Temple for 18 years -- nothing surprises me."

As for De John, he simply says, "I can't say anything. I don't know anything."

De John is widely admired by Moore's students, and two students have circulated a letter and petition stating their devotion to De John and seeking his reinstatement. The students asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal. "It had been rumored as far back as September 2002 -- that he was Œretiring' first, then that he was going to be let go. It didn't make sense," states one of two letter writers.

The letter was delivered not only to Moore's administration and student lockers, but taped repeatedly on walls designated for announcements. Why repeatedly? Because each time, the letters were torn down. Soon after, the buttons appeared, rough-hewn Xeroxed pins and stickers reading "I love Emil."

Letter writer No. 1 thinks that the decision was "personal." "Happy's angry he gets published, that department check donations often go to him. Happy has wanted to run fashion shows rather than Emil. Happy wants all the limelight."

"It's been rumored over a third of the department's money comes from pals of Emil's," states the other anonymous letter writer. "This sounds personal. But neither the dean nor the president will discuss it. They say it's Œfor personnel only.'" This letter writer states that while other fashion department chairs won't stand up for De John, members of separate departments have voiced concern. "Most faculty don't want Emil to leave but are too afraid of Lantz to say anything," the letter writer claims. "And every time we put the letters up in legal spots, some janitor -- under Lantz's orders -- rips them down," the student adds.

Fernandez would not comment on any details regarding De John's departure, citing her own sense of morality as well as her "professional ethics and [respect for] confidentiality." But she did add that "if you want more false rumors, you could just go out on the street and get them."

There are several senior fashion design majors and faculty members who, also on the condition of anonymity, say that "Moore will be fine" and that things will be "as they always have." And it's true that Moore has been known, within the last 40 years, as one of the best fashion-forward design schools in the nation, and De John has only been part of the college in the last decade.

But not having De John as a teacher still has many industry pros up in arms.

"When you have such a dedicated, devoted teacher who has guided so many for so many years it's a loss -- a loss for the students, a loss for the school," says W and Women's Wear Daily's Froio, who has known De John as a designer since she was but a reporter for WWD. "It's not easy to find a teacher who has designed, been in the business and been willing to pass on that knowledge."

Froio, like others (rumors include Betsey Johnson and Todd Oldham), has written a letter of protest to Moore's president and to its board. As for the buttons and stickers, they now seem to be totems as elusive and unattainable as the Holy Grail.

"I don't have the button but I might be able to get one," says letter writer No. 1 of the rudimentary badge of honor.

Yet, letter writer No. 2 says "there have been no buttons. There were some paper cutouts the seniors were going to wear for some photo shoot that they didn't. They may have had them that day and never beyond. It's the letter that's caused the trouble."

"The president and I got the letter," says Dean Lantz. "I never saw any buttons. I think I reacted to the letter appropriately, stating to the students that this was not a personal issue."

"The ŒI love Emil' thing was two pieces of paper, one stuck to Emil's door, one to the door of the fashion department," says Moore Director of Communications Henna Remstein. "I asked many faculty members and, as far as I know, no teacher saw any buttons. It seems like just a statement."

But unlike many fashion statements, it's one that may not go away so quickly.