Today Todd Oldham is opening his lower Manhattan studio for the MFAD students. This multifaceted designer made a splash on the fashion scene, was the host of his own television show and has moved on to producing books for children and adults and an entire rash of creative projects.

“His clothes were fun, but they were also beautiful,” wrote the New York Times, “and his shows were like dance parties, packed with the coolest kids, both on the runway and in the audience: drag performers like Billy Beyond and RuPaul; old-fashioned supermodels like Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell; and actors like Susan Sarandon, Rosie O’Donnell and Christian Slater. You might hear the theme song from ‘The Dating Game,’ or 1970s-era curiosities, like War’s ‘Low Rider,’ and the models didn’t stalk, stone-faced, down the runway. They skipped, jogged, shimmied and grinned, just as you did, watching them. It was a different era, to be sure.”