Mary’s work centers on building collaborations and partnerships, in the classroom and across the world
Since 2022, Mary has taught capstone courses at Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs. Her classes focus on policymaking related to fashion, and have included study of supply chains, labor conditions, wage equity, and sustainability in the industry. Organized in partnership with global organizations, these courses hav included “Female Athletes: Fashion and Equity” done in partnership with the Sport Integrity Global Alliance; “Dress, Dignity, and Disability,” done in partnership with The Valuable 500; and two courses done in partnership with The Global Fashion Agenda: “Fashion and the Future: Climate, Conscience and Commerce,” and “The Circular Economy, the Fashion Industry, and Global Citizenship.” Each course has involved an international field study; students have traveled to Paris, London, Copenhagen and Malmo to meet with leaders and key players in each field.
As a Faculty Affiliate at the Center for Business and the Environment, Mary has been a leader in the university’s Moving the Needle program, which focuses on addressing the social and climate imperatives associated with the fashion industry. She is co-lead for “Unravelling Fashion,” a discussion course open to faculty, students, and staff from across the University, as well as members of the New Haven community. She speaks regularly on fashion as a force in global commerce and international policymaking. Her just-completed book chapter on artist Nicholas Roerich’s costumes and décors for Stravinsky’s infamous ballet, The Rite of Spring, shines fresh light on the inner workings of what was arguably the greatest creative collaboration in modern history, Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets russes—a collective she’s written about in her book Ballets Russes Style. In a separate essay, for a book on the multi-media artist William Harper, Mary is writing about his “Diaghilev” series, a collection of jewelry inspired by the very idea of bringing the liberated and louche group of artists and dancers back to life.
Bringing people, institutions, and ideas together to challenge convention and encourage fresh thinking is the main theme of Mary’s work. As a professor and Department Chair at Case Western Reserve University, she brought the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Orchestra, and other major institutions into broad and lasting partnerships with the school and its students, creating boundary-stretching programs and courses. As a Dean at the Fashion Institute of Technology, her reach was global, as she built collaborations with leading fashion and design schools in Paris, Milan, Hong Kong, Mexico City and Saudi Arabia. Her interviews with musical legends--from avant-garde composer Pierre Boulez to guitar legend Les Paul—dug into the style of sound, and her take on topics ranging from Women, Fashion and Rock to the history of department stores have made her a sought-after speaker and writer.