Marist Fashion Debuts 'Spill the Tea'
For Marist students with an interest in fashion, fall semester typically brings a visit to the Payne Mansion for a revival of ‘The Brunch.’ This year, however, participants in the Fashion Program’s Event Planning course who plan and execute the event extended a slightly different invitation to Marist students.
Though it was still held at the Payne Mansion, the event featured brunch-esque foods, and provided “future fashion leaders” with the opportunity to gain insight on the industry from professionals themselves. The event formerly known as “The Brunch,” adopted the name “Spill the Tea: A Conversation with Boss Ladies.”
One obvious change was the introduction of a panel instead of a lecture from a keynote speaker. For senior fashion merchandising student Jordan Kerr, who served as the student director, the driving force for this change was encouraging a compelling conversation.
The panel at “Spill the Tea.” Photo courtesy of Madison Zoey Vettorino.
“We wanted to make it a little different, so that’s where we came up with ‘The Brunch presents Spill the Tea,’” Kerr said. “And we wanted to really emphasize leadership within women and entrepreneurs was our theme that we wanted to focus in on. We were like, ‘How cool would it be to have not one speaker, but multiple, and have more of a panel discussion and make it more interesting?’”
According to senior fashion merchandising and business student Alyssa Cogliandro, head of guest relations, students enrolled in the course were deliberate about ensuring that the panelists all had their own expertise. This allowed for an array of topics to be covered and a lively conversation to emerge during the discussion.
“Having all different representatives from all different sides of the fashion industry, I think, was really important because not only was it about design, or merchandising, it was everything from social media to design to merchandising to running your own business,” she said. “I just think that the audience responded well because there was something that they could take away from each speaker, no matter what their major was.”
The panelists, two of which graduated from Marist College, spoke on a multitude of hot button issues including sustainability in fashion, inclusivity, entrepreneurship, science, mental health and more.
A Harney & Sons employee helps serve tea. Photo courtesy of Madison Zoey Vettorino.
For Kerr, who moderated the panel, finding speakers who were knowledgeable on a wide variety of topics was intrinsic to the success of their new vision of ‘The Brunch.’ She noted that the event was called ‘Spill the Tea’ not only in reference to the event’s featured beverage, tea, which was donated by Hudson Valley based tea company Harney & Sons; it was also intended as word play. ‘Spill the tea’ is a popular idiom meaning to divulge important information. Though the idiom is often connotated with relaying gossip, the Event Planning students wanted it to be more sophisticated.
For their purposes, ‘the tea’ that was spilled included information regarding the intricacies and inner workings of the fashion industry.
“We didn’t want it to be gossip,” Kerr said. “It was more like, spill the important stuff going on in the industry, and what matters. Like, mental health, science and fashion, global trade tariffs, how does that affect your business, if it does?”
The panel discussion was noticeably different from past iterations of the event. This was not the only diversion from tradition; however; this year’s event boasted food catered by Adams Fairacre Farms, Harney & Sons tea, as well as a new event name.
Cogliandro (left) and Kerr (right). Photo courtesy of Cogliandro.
Kerr and Cogliandro added that the participants in the Event Planning course wanted to ensure the event was “attractive” and “still relevant,” as Cogliandro described.
“Basically, it’s like taking what has been done in the past, and [asking] how can you make it better? How can we make it different? Because, you know, people have been going to it for... years,” Coligandro said. After deciding how to tackle that, the class began planning.
Cogliandro noted that many visits to the site were required, as well as collaboration from students on a variety of teams in the course. According to Cogliandro, there was a degree of pressure that came with putting on an event of this caliber, especially considering it was held at the Payne Mansion, which houses the Raymond A. Rich Leadership Institute.
“This is a big event,” she said. “This goes beyond the Marist Fashion [program]. This goes to the President, the Dean of the School of Comm. It’s definitely a very looked-at event by the college.”
To succeed, Event Planning students must draw on their strengths.
“Basically, at the beginning of the semester, we started off with, okay, who would like to be on each team? We said a little bit about what it entails, and then somebody steps up to be a group leader,” Kerr said. From there, the group leader was expected to distribute roles within their team and be in close contact with the student director, Kerr, to provide updates on the team’s progress.
Kerr said that the experience she has gained through her tenure as Student Director was “priceless,” especially considering that upon graduation, she intends on working in event planning. Professor Juan-Manuel Olivera-Silvera, who teaches the course, gave Kerr an important piece of advice at the beginning of the semester that impacted how she approached the course, which served as her capstone project.
Kerr moderates the panel discussion. Photo courtesy of Madison Zoey Vettorino .
“In the beginning of the semester, he taught me being an event planner is being a problem solver. I’ve definitely learned so much,” she said.
Donna Covino, a senior fashion merchandising student also in the Event Planning class, agreed.
“I think it’s a really good experience, just moving forward, like when you graduate…to have had the experience with reaching out to like professionals and stuff,” she said.
For panelist Jessica Kliwinski, the experience of attending ‘Spill the Tea’ was valuable in a different way. Kliwinski, the creator of Spotted Fashion Group which celebrates inclusivity, real women, and empowerment through style, graduated from Marist herself. She was grateful to have the opportunity to return to the program and provide the next generation of women in fashion with advice.
“I think that’s the ultimate goal, hopefully, of every woman, from wherever she graduates or gets her education and insights, to be able to come back and give back to the same community where I really got my start, that’s really so important,” she said. “Being here and seeing all of these women who are actively listening, I hope that they take away a little bit of confidence as they start to get their career…jump started in the industry.”