Interview with Michelle Fite about Philadelphia Fashion — Part 1

Tell me about your early relationship to the Philadelphia Art Museum

When I was little I lived in Levittown and I was in Mrs. Crawford’s Gifted and Talented program at Clara Barton Elementary School. I was in first or second grade and we would take little cultural field trips. One day we went to the Philadelphia Art Museum — it's an impressive art museum when you're an adult but when you're a child that's very receptive to anything creative it is a life-changing place. 

I remember being in the room on one of the upper floors where all the post-impressionists galleries are and understanding how special it was to be surrounded by that work. Specifically, to walk into the room and see one of Van Gogh's paintings of the sunflowers. I loved all of his paintings but that one really made an imprint on me because I just felt like I understood that he was painting the way the light of the flowers felt and not just how it looked. 

It was just kind of a lightning bolt moment for me where I just knew that I needed to be an artist. I felt like if there is a way that I can make anything in my life that made anyone feel the way I felt as a child in that spot then that was success. Even if it was just one thing. It didn't have to be a painting. 

Although, that moment did make me a painter. I pursued painting as my bachelor's degree and I even went to MICA in Baltimore (which has an excellent painting program) because of that moment in the museum. Now looking back, it was also a moment that impressed upon me how important it is to not gate keep culture of any kind. How important it is to expose children to every part of every kind of culture and to not keep your skills all hoarded up to yourself. 

So, I think that a lot of different things happened to me in that space and it's still such a very sacred place. That place is one of the parts of Earth that I call a place of worship.

Why did you decide to start a fashion house in Philadelphia and what drew you to the city?

I think because I had such an impression that day in the museum. I think it was imprinted upon me that Philadelphia was a place where I could be someone who was surrounded by amazing architecture and works of art, that I could be encouraged to grow those ideas and those gifts in myself. As I moved through the world and lived in other places and pursued my degrees that specialness of that moment is something that I kept with me. I shared it as often as I could. 

When people would say things to me like that they hadn't been to Philly and ask where should they go I would say “Oh my God, you have to go — if you're going to take an east coast trip you have to go to Philadelphia.” There are just so many reasons why it's a special place. Sure, there are problems, like every city, but there's such a convergence of the cosmopolitan culture and there is an inner resolve to the people. If you want to make something happen it’s a city that you can do that in. There's no phoniness — there's authenticity and there's work ethic. People in Philadelphia will tell you exactly what they think. But it's also a place where what you receive from people is often just based on what you give out, so if you walk into situations genuinely wanting to bring your curiosity and your sincerity then you can absolutely create in Philadelphia. It is still an affordable place compared to pretty much every other city that I could consider living in. And you're connected, but you're also separate in a special way. 

If you went to South Philly and you said that Philly was essentially a suburb of New York, that would be a great way to get punched. Definitely fighting words! You best be prepared with that nonsense. So, while there is access to every important city, there's still the ability to not need it. And we have resources, and we have fashion schools, and we have space. 

I always thought about that and so as I traveled and I lived in other places I always tried to find the other makers. I always try and pick everybody's brains. I try to seek out people who are keeping particular crafts alive and who are really hard working and innovative and rooted in deep artistic knowledge. 

I just kept finding that no matter how hard I tried in most other places that I was not finding those people. I was not able to grow my brand really at all, or to find my audience. So when the time came for us to consider buying a house after I had graduated, we were living in Portland, Oregon and I just wasn't finding people to help me advance my skills or to then appreciate them once I did overcome some hurdles.

It just was obvious to me that I couldn't efficiently learn the skills that I needed if I stayed elsewhere. I knew that I didn't want to move to New York — I don't have roots in New York. I don't want to compete in a place where you're already at a disadvantage if you're not wealthy. So many of those students and people who are entrepreneurs come from wealth and I don't. I needed to be in a place where people didn't look down on me for that. 

I've never ever felt those things in Philadelphia. I’ve never felt like if I was having a conversation about business or artistic obstacles that anyone would even ask if I had borrowed money from family or where I went to school. There's a disdain for the display of pedigree in Philadelphia that I greatly appreciate. I just felt like coming from a punk/goth background that ideal has always resonated with me. The people that I loved the most when I was a teenager in art school were people who never even thought to care about those things.

The thing that a lot of people don't realize is that fashion is a very closed world. It is very cliquey and judgmental and even though I am a mostly white presenting woman who people assume automatically would fit into those things, the truth is I don't come from that. Even within the fashion world you might think that someone like me would be at an advantage, and it's not true. I didn't go to Central Saint Martins and I didn't go to FIT and I didn't hobnob with any of the people who are the main this-and-that in any of the fashion components. I never was a classmate with someone who summered in the Hamptons with all the people who published all the fashion magazines or are their stylist or managers. 

Whether I like it or not there's still a lot of favoring of people from those worlds in fashion, especially high fashion. I also know that there is a tendency in the fashion world to look down upon and delegitimize anything that is more casual or street. I knew that if I was going to legitimize myself that I needed to be in a place that the start-up costs wouldn't kill me, that the culture wouldn't lock me out because I don't have pedigree, and that I had an opportunity to have access to everything I need when I need it. 

Also to be able to be in a space that I did not need to have other people's work in my thought process while I was creating or presenting. It just made the most sense to me to consider really working my network in Philadelphia as a place to be based. Of course, I do work my network in New York and I value it and there's a lot that I have learned from it. 

But in Philadelphia I have access – I have whatever kind of access I want and need. But I also don't have to have that and I don't believe that anyone does. I think you have to decide for yourself what you need most. What I need most is a more open path. New York has intense resources like the Garment District but that again is also a very closed world and it is not convenient or easy to navigate. I appreciate that I do have access to that. Sadly, it's true that Philly has lost its garment district. We used to be a manufacturing center. We have Fabric Row on 4th Street in South Philly but it is a shell of what it was. You can't even get your pinking shears sharpened there and that makes me sad.

Because I have a love for what Philadelphia has to offer I'm not someone who's just going to be like “Well, it used to be this and now you just have to go to New York. That time has passed. It can't happen.” I don't believe that at all. I look at the available space in Philadelphia, the potential for purchasing real estate, which I could never do in New York. How could I just walk into New York City as someone who is not a multi-millionaire’s daughter and just be like “I'm going to buy a boutique or a building or workspace!” The thought of that is laughable. 

It just makes sense for me to not be in New York because one, my heart's not there, and two, it's competitively prohibitive. New York City has a good handful of fashion schools, that’s true. But so does Philadelphia! I felt like if I wanted to be someone who wanted to have more space and less start-up costs, and to really set myself apart, that it made more sense to do it in Philadelphia.

We have four fashion programs – we have Moore, we have Drexel’s undergrad and grad, we have Jefferson and we have Made Institute. Between those resources there are people who are absolutely willing and able to put out high-quality garments of every kind, and I want to be a part of that. I want to prove to other people that Philadelphia is not a city to look down on. These schools should be working harder and making a more concerted effort to promote the scene as a whole instead of just looking out for their handful of students right before they kick them out the door. I want to pull the best and brightest from Philadelphia, whether they are in school or not.

If I circle back to the idea of gatekeeping and why that's problematic in places like New York, I don't want to in turn start creating gatekeeping in Philadelphia. In fact, I think that because we're so much less entrenched, we are not a city that has to do things in the way that the Garment District has been doing them for 75 or 90 years. We actually have a really fantastic opportunity for people like me who want to do things differently, who want to be very ethical and sustainable. I get to say, “You know what? You don't even have to have a degree to apply to work with me. What you have to have is an ability to create, to solve problems, to show up, to put your heart into your work, and to prove that you know how to do the thing — or you will soon.”

I would love to help people who are interested in fashion, who could not get student loans for somewhere like FIT or Parsons. Because there are amazing people in Philadelphia who just need a chance. I want to be part of that. I want to help grow the scene, instead of just throwing up my hands and letting it die. 

When I see people like Kevin Parker really trying to get Philadelphia its own Fashion Week and to pull the CFDA into it, and to have Fern Mallis (who started New York Fashion Week) as a mentor I see these things happening and I want to nurture them. It makes a much bigger difference to do such things in Philadelphia, than it does in New York. That’s already there.

People need access to the resources and the networks in a lot of different cities. To the CFDA’s credit, the 360 Runway program they're currently doing and the outreach that they've done in places like Indiana and Georgia is going to make a difference in people's lives. It's sad that it started because of the pandemic, but it's fantastic that it's happening. I really applaud that. 

I want to help the CFDA find talent everywhere and to decentralize more because the whole world is far more connected than it was when New York Fashion Week started. We need to just keep moving in ways that make the most sense for what we're doing today, and I think that I can.

I think it's also hilarious that I am simultaneously trying to be progressive by baking sustainability and ethics into every aspect of my work, and using whatever cutting-edge materials I can get my hands on – things like pineapple leather or mushroom leather. But I'm building off a classic high-quality solid foundation and I'm trying to keep very old techniques alive, because they're still good and they still work. I really want to prove to the world that Philadelphia can make dresses that are just as good as anything that you're going to find on a New York runway, or anything that you're going to find in the fashion ateliers in Paris.

When I toured the Chanel workroom north of Paris, what I saw were the tambour beading frames that they use that I know how to use. I want to show the world that people in Philadelphia are doing things that are just as good as what's being done in a Chanel workroom and that my work will photograph just as well as what you're already seeing in Vogue or Elle or Grazia. I think that with enough planning and enough training and enough persistence that it can be done.