FIT Grad Update: Lydia Baird on Changing Careers & Sustainability
For many students, college coursework is the first step toward building a career in their chosen field. Exemplifying this, a number of graduates from the Fashion Institute of Technology’s denim class have gone on to work in the industry. Carved in Blue is catching up with students from the course to see where their post-graduate lives have taken them.
Prior to FIT, Lydia Baird worked in film and television costuming for about a decade. Wanting to make a change, she was initially looking into design programs, but “the textile program just spoke to me and it was a lot about the intimate connection with the industry and the projects they were doing.” She graduated in 2016 and is currently raw materials manager at Calvin Klein.
Here, Lydia discusses what drew her to textiles and the benefit technical knowledge has had during her career.
Carved in Blue: What attracted you most to a career in denim and textiles?
Lydia: I was a designer before entering textiles, and it was always my favorite part of the process. I love the technical engineering and chemistry aspect. It’s also a great area to work in sustainability.
Carved in Blue: Since graduating from FIT, what has been your career path?
Lydia: I have been working in fabric R&D. For five years, I managed the Liz Claiborne brand at J.C. Penney, and now I work for Calvin Klein. I am most proud of launching a sustainable channel under Liz Claiborne and the relationships I built with that team.
Carved in Blue: Reflecting on your time at FIT, what has been the most useful lesson (from in or outside the classroom) that you’ve been able to apply to your work?
Lydia: The hands-on lessons have been most valuable to me, especially in the knitting and QA labs. Having handled the machinery myself makes it much easier to problem solve when discussing fabrics with mills thousands of miles away.
I also loved how small and supportive the TDM (Textile Development and Marketing) program was. Each professor was deeply engaged in my development.
Carved in Blue: If you could give your collegiate self one piece of advice, what would it be? What do you wish you knew when you were a student?
Lydia: Take chemistry courses now!
Carved in Blue: What would you like to see more (or less) of in the denim/textile industry?
Lydia: I’d like to see more scalable sustainability innovations.