Design Fashion

[Charlesetta Blare]

Parsonsoffers rigorous interdisciplinary programs across the spectrum of art and design, from fashion and technology to urban design, fine art, and management. Here, creators and scholars master established disciplines and develop emerging ones, fostering innovation that transforms business, advances sustainability, and enhances social impact and health.

Parsons faculty comprises world-renowned artists, scholars, and practitioners who lead their industries and academic fields. You work closely with them, benefitting from their scholarship and professional experience and networks. Our small class sizes enable you to benefit from their real-world experience and industry access.

Our school is animated by progressive creativity, activism, and its setting within a dynamic urban environment and university. Parsons is where ambition, ingenuity, and collaboration tirelessly converge, and New York City is the ideal setting for starting your journey.

At Parsons, your career begins your first day on campus. Here, you gain the creative and critical foundation you need to turn passions into a professional life of your own design. With your toolkit of hands-on, collaborative methods and global support network, you enter prepared for sustained success in your field or in advanced studies.

Parsons welcomes applicants who seek a rigorous education in an environment where creativity, critical thinking, and global perspectives thrive together. If you are ready to take first steps toward your creative education and career, you have come to the right place. Learn more about visiting, applying to, and attending our school.

Graduates of the BFA Fashion Design are ready to play a variety of roles within the professional field of fashion, including design, creative and research practice, styling, visual merchandising, textiles, marketing and public relations, and production.

Connect to the organizations, businesses, and entrepreneurs driving global creativity and commerce. In classes, internships, and extracurricular projects, you gain marketable problem-solving skills in sectors ranging from government and nonprofits to tech and creative industries.

Enrich your learning and prepare for work in global contexts with study abroad that exposes you to new perspectives and settings in which to apply your creativity. Our study abroad destinations include, Paris, London, Florence, and more.

To apply to any of our undergraduate programs (except the Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs) complete and submit the Common App online.

The cornerstone of our Fashion Design curriculum is providing students the opportunity to work directly with successful industry professionals. These mentors help our students gain fresh, industry-focused perspectives on design.

Sustainability is core to our approach to fashion. Every mentor project touches on this concept in some way. Some of our brand partners also provide fabrics or recycled materials that are sustainably utilized in projects.

The AAS program provides an essential foundation in computer-aided design, sketching, draping, patternmaking, construction, sewing techniques, and textiles. Once you earn your AAS, you can apply for a BFA in Fashion Design. You are also eligible to apply to the BFA programs in Fabric Styling, Textile/Surface Design, and Toy Design, along with BS programs in Production Management: Fashion and Related Industries, Technical Design, and Textile Development and Marketing.

The PETE Prize is administered by the FIT DTech Lab as a jury-selected merit award competition that recognizes excellence in developing fresh, insightful and creative ideas that demonstrate design-oriented and innovative thinking.

A multidisciplinary fashion designer focused on innovative technical approaches and design thinking, Sperber aims at creating sustainable systems and creative solutions in clothing. She holds her BFA and MFA in Fashion Design from FIT and teaches in the undergraduate Fashion Design program.

As a student in the MFA Fashion Design and Society program, your design identity and existing skill sets and design approaches take center stage through one-on-one mentorship. The curriculum challenges your perceptions and convictions with the aim of educating you as a well-rounded, independent designer in the field of fashion.

Career opportunities already begin to arise during your final semester of the program, with in-house visits from headhunters, recruitment agencies, and company design teams. Graduates pursue diverse careers, including fashion design, art direction, curating, and teaching. Alumni have taken positions within the industry at Alexander Wang, Burberry, Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs, Nike, Theory, Thom Browne, Tory Burch, Proenza Shouler, and Uniqlo, to name a few.

The interdisciplinary approach of the program is reflected in its select faculty who are practitioners currently active within the field of fashion design, fashion consulting, art direction, graphic design, photography, film, fine art, performance, PR, and communications.

Research is integral to the Parsons learning experience, and students and faculty work together to challenge existing paradigms and advance emerging scholarship and practice. Explore the thematic research laboratories housed at Parsons and throughout The New School.

Funds are earmarked for graduate travel, research, and work to support your study. Opportunities include paid teaching assistantships, research fellowships and assistantships (including ones offered throughout The New School), ample student employment, and other grants available to U.S. domestic and international students alike.

The site is secure.

The ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that anyinformation you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Fashion designers work in wholesale or manufacturing establishments, apparel companies, retailers, theater or dance companies, and design firms. Most fashion designers work in New York and California.

About 2,300 openings for fashion designers are projected each year, on average, over the decade. Many of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.

Larger apparel companies typically employ a team of designers headed by a creative director. Some fashion designers specialize in clothing, footwear, or accessory design; others create designs in all three fashion categories.

For some fashion designers, the first step in creating a new design is researching current fashion and making predictions about future trends, such as by reading reports published by fashion industry trade groups. Other fashion designers create collections using a variety of inspirations, including art media, their surroundings, or cultures they have experienced and places they have visited.

After they have an initial idea, fashion designers try out various fabrics and produce a prototype, often with less expensive material than will be used in the final product. They work with models to see how the design will look and adjust the designs as needed.

Although most designers first sketch their designs by hand, many now also sketch their ideas digitally with computer-aided design (CAD) programs. CAD allows designers to see their work on virtual models. They can try different colors, designs, and shapes while making adjustments more easily than they can when working with real fabric on real people.

Designers produce samples with the actual materials that will be used in manufacturing. Samples that get good responses from fashion editors or trade and fashion shows are then manufactured and sold to consumers.

The design process may vary by specialty, but it generally takes 6 months, from initial design concept to final production, to release either the spring or fall collection. In addition to releasing designs during the spring and fall, some companies release new designs every month.

3a8082e126