Dr. Brown told the audience that the school had hired an outside law firm to investigate the circumstances around the fashion show. So far, the school — which is moving to teaching classes online later this month during the coronavirus crisis — has suspended two administrators.

She said the student designer, who is Chinese, was let down by F.I.T. faculty and administration. The student designer has said his professor directed him to buy the accessories.

“Given his limited knowledge of American history, he really didn’t seem to understand the historical and cultural connotations, and that is where we failed him,” she said. “We did not guide him in such a way that he would fulfill his vision and at the same time not use offensive accessories.”

Still, she acknowledged that the fashion show controversy was not an isolated episode. “During times like this, other issues have a way of surfacing — allegations, accusations that sound similar, pending lawsuits and incidents,” she said.

Dr. Brown, in a statement provided to The Times, said what happened at the show was “appalling and indefensible,” adding that she was developing a “multipronged action plan and procedures to ensure that nothing like this can ever happen again.”

The tensions at the school, which is part of the State University of New York system, reflect broader concerns about race and racism in the fashion industry arising from a string of controversies, including H&M’s using a black child to model its “coolest monkey in the jungle” sweatshirt and Burberry’s using a noose as a drawstring on branded sweatshirts.