Fashion That Works Production Collaborates with Iona College

In their first commissioned project, FTWP produced custom-made lab coats for Iona College’s graduating class.

This spring, Fashion That Works Production completed their first major project in collaboration with Iona College - a prominent university in New Rochelle, NY. Born out of Custom Collaborative’s Fashion That Works Cooperative Development program, Fashion that Works Production (FTWP) is a worker-owned cooperative run by four CC Training Institute graduates. In an effort to mitigate mask shortages, Iona College Board Member Manon Clavel Solender and CC Entrepreneurship Coach Veronica Jones fostered a relationship between FTWP and Iona College that will far outlive the pandemic. 

For months, Iona College was hoping to partner with a community-based organization and found their match in June of last year with Custom Collaborative. With the guidance of our Executive Director Ngozi Okaro, Dean of Iona College Joseph Stabile began spreading awareness amongst his students and colleagues on CC’s mission to support and uplift women. The relationship soon morphed into a contract for FTWP, marking their first major commissioned project. 

Throughout the course of the pandemic, CC makers have been working to manufacture masks for institutions with shortages, but Iona was in need of something different - custom made lab coats for their White Coat Graduation Ceremony. In July, the college’s Speech and Language Pathology Department commissioned CC makers for the task, but it was soon passed over to the newly established FTWP team, run by Training Institute graduates Nanya, Christina, Irma, and Momoka. 

Initially, the coats were scheduled for completion in Fall, 2020, but the pandemic made it difficult to source materials and organize production virtually. For FTWP, everything was a new process as they worked on their first project. “The biggest challenge we had as a team was working with all our different schedules, adjusting our timeline, and dealing with the budget to make sure we were paying ourselves,” said Christina, a FTWP founder. At the time, Iona was also going through administrative changes, and the Fall deadline was pushed to Spring, 2021, giving the team sufficient time to create beautiful, one-of-a-kind lab coats for Iona’s 2021 graduation. 

Irma, a founder and member of Fashion That Works Production, working on the coats.

With the help of Anthony Galante, newly appointed Production Manager at CC, FTWP produced 23 custom-made, hand sewn and embroidered lab coats for Iona’s graduating class of 2021. “Although it was frustrating at times, we all had the same feeling of relief when we completed the project!” Christina said of her and her colleagues. Each coat features the college’s logo as well as the recipient's name in elegant, professional script. Veronica and Christina were invited to Iona’s graduation, which they were thrilled to attend. The coats were presented to graduates on May 15th, and a photo of them was featured on the ceremony brochure. 

As vaccination rates rise and case rates drop in New York and nationally, an end to the pandemic seems likely on the horizon. In its wake, we hope that positive relationships that arose from the struggles of the past year, like that between Iona College and Custom Collaborative, will continue to grow. We congratulate FTWP on their first completed project and can’t wait to see what they create in the future! 

The lab coats in the Custom Collaborative office.