Backstage With Michael Fink Before the SCAD BA Fashion Show

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Backstage before the SCAD fashion show this weekend, Racked caught up with Michael Fink, former women's fashion director of Saks Fifth Avenue, who, two years ago, became Dean of Fashion at the Savannah College of Art and Design, and talked mission statement, moving from industry to academia, and what happens to his students after graduation.

"I always say: If you're a talented student, you can make an entire collection out of bedsheets," says Fink. The school's job, he says is to "make [students] realize this is a real business, where your artistry is of course important, but also letting them know there's a whole other side of it that we don't want you to get smacked in the face when you leave here.

"My mission statement is, like, the easiest one I've ever had: To prepare talented students for professional careers. That's it. That's what I have to do every day. I want them to have jobs when they leave here. Our job fulfillment for students after they leave here is 86%."
· Inside the hallowed halls of SCAD [Racked]
· All SCAD Coverage [Racked]