Post Date: December 10, 2018

AAS Design alum Gabriella Wells is the founder and designer of fashion brand HISAURA, created to offer designs for all levels of ability. Her beautiful, flowing designs focus on the wearer. “We offer an inclusive approach to fashion design, providing a positive outlook on human abilities.” Gabriella has a global perspective to fashion having lived across the U.S. and in Latin America. The overarching goal and mission of her brand is to bring a new standard of functionality and excellence to the fashion landscape. The silhouettes she crafts are fluid with a modern aesthetic, elegance, ease for the wearer and…

Post Date: November 30, 2018

Earlier this semester, textile artist and lace expert Elena Kanagy-Loux (@erenanaomi) visited Sara Idacavage’s (@historyalamode) “Fashion Textile Survey” classes to teach our AAS marketing and design students about the social impacts of lace throughout history. Over the centuries, lace has been connected to a number of aspects related to wealth, power, and politics, making it one of the most significant (and expensive!) textiles in the history of fashion. After providing an overview of the numerous ways that lace has impacted fashion design and sociopolitical divides, from sumptuary laws to the democratization of fashion made possible through the industrial revolution, Elena…

Post Date: November 23, 2018

On October 23rd, veteran fashion journalist Katharine Zarrella spoke with AAS Fashion Marketing program director Emily Huggard about Fashion intersections, influencers, the changes in fashion journalism, fashion culture and the future of fashion. Katherine described her site, Fashion Unfiltered, as serving a growing need by offering tightly curated, in-depth fashion journalism of a type that is growing consistently less available in glossy consumer fashion magazines. Her entertaining online resource is designed to be accessible and informative to all with a passion for fashion. Intelligent, playful and smart, it captures forward moving fashion trends, as well the idiosyncratic and eccentric.

Post Date: November 19, 2018

AAS Fashion Design alum Qiaoran Huang is the cofounder of the brand BABYGHOST (@babyghost_nyc), founded in 2010 to bring together the energy and diversity of New York. Both her and her partner Joshua Hupper worked with Diane Von Furstenberg and met while working for Nathan Jenden before joining to launch their first collection. The brand’s style is reminiscent of the Lower East Side and is true to the see-now-buy-now concept. Qiaoran explains their inspiration saying, “Things around us really affect us. So instead of just one inspiration, we looked at different things and just kept going.” Their Fall 2018 collection…

Post Date: November 9, 2018

This semester, Sara Idacavage, Collections Manager of the Parsons Fashion Study Collection, is partnering with Parsons AAS Fashion Design director Francesca Sammaritano for the first-ever couture studio class that incorporates regular visits to our study collection, allowing students to complement their design practice with ongoing archival research. During midterm presentations, AAS design student Jummy Thomas explained how a 1950s Sophie Gimbel evening dress inspired the silhouette and construction of her own design (shown in muslin), which she is developing for this special section of “Fashion Techniques: Couture”. Jummy plans to combine the innovative draping elements of the classic Gimbel dress with her…

Event Date: October 5, 2018

The Redefining Luxury conference was held on October 5th at Parsons School of Design, as part of the Redefining Luxury initiative. The event was opened by Kay Unger (Parsons Board of Trustees) and included panel discussions throughout the day with prominent industry speakers including Christopher Lacy, Director of Customer Experience, Learning and Strategy, Barneys New York; Lisle Richards, Chief Operating Officer, The Metrics (Kola House); Noa Raviv, Fashion Designer; Marie Driscoll, Fashion Tech Lab, Fashion Tech Advisor; Ben Prosky, Executive Director, Center for Architecture; Carol Chen, Covetella; Karin Raguin, VP of Global Talent, Christian Dior Couture; Preeti Gopinath, Parsons, Director…

Post Date: October 26, 2018

  A G A A T I by S H A L O N I  S H R E S T H A Saloni Shrestha, 2015 Parsons alum, has several years of experience specializing in women’s ready-to-wear pieces and collections that tell the stories of nature, culture, and people. Born in the Himalayas, Saloni has been surrounded by the purity of nature, diverse cultures, music, vibrant textiles, and bold colors which are major influences on her creative process. Passionate about the impact she is leaving on nature, artists, and women, Saloni is leading her brand into the powerful and much-needed…

Post Date: October 19, 2018

AAS Fashion Marketing student Gina Paljusevic tells us about her experience with Barneys New York Collegiate Intensive Program. “The Barneys New York Collegiate Intensive Program was an all-access pass to what goes on behind-the-scenes at the Barneys New York headquarters. In my three weeks working with the company, I met close to the entire team. We had a daily schedule of different departments to meet with and were allowed to ask them anything we wanted, not only about the store operations, but their career paths and experiences in the industry. Seeing such a close-knit group of people who collaborate and…

Post Date: October 10, 2018

AAS Fashion Design alumni Varalee (Mel) Sangsomsap started her brand SSAP fresh out of school in 2012 while working freelance with Antonio Azzuolo. In 2011 she was a finalist for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and moved back to Thailand in 2014. Earlier this year, she applied to Vogue Thailand’s’ program, ‘Vogue Who’s On Next, The Fashion Fund 2018’ which aired on Television complete with design challenges and a runway show finale. Ten finalists were selected from hundreds of applicants and Mel secured the ‘Runner-up’ position receiving 100,000 THB (approximately 3,000 USD) and a one-year mentorship to grow her brand. Mel…

Post Date: September 6, 2018

Post Date: August 16, 2018

Each year, the AAS Fashion Design program partners with the Parsons Photography program to professionally document the graduating students’ garments. Thanks to the incredible relationships of our photography team, we were able to use Splashlight Studios in TriBeCa which provided students with the opportunity to experience a live industry photoshoot. Check out a selection of images below.  

Post Date: August 16, 2018

Students from the AAS Fashion Marketing Spring 2018 Retailing course worked on a live brief with H&M. Austin Halbert, CEO of ImpactEd, a social enterprise that connects college classrooms with meaningful real-world projects, helped develop the project with assistant professor Michelle Alleyne. The project was designed to allow students to develop competencies in systems thinking and sustainability while engaging with pressing challenges. On the first day of the course, students were introduced to the mission: to design a retail strategy that H&M could roll out to accelerate customer adoption of clothing made from sustainable materials, and to rethink the company’s…

Post Date: August 16, 2018

AAS Fashion Marketing students Gina Paljusevic, Jane Choi and Sunmin Park were awarded with the 2018 ISKOOL Marketing prize in Milan. Developed by ISKO, the world’s leading ingredient brand in quality denim manufacturing committed to developing an integrated field-to-fabric approach in every step of the value chain, the ISKOOL prize is an international award for students of fashion marketing and design. The competition aims to stimulate the expression of creativity while teaching students how to industrialize ideas, letting talent take shape and thrive. The students were asked to develop a complete marketing strategy intended for an existing consumer brand which…

Post Date: August 16, 2018

This year, the School of Fashion launched a partnership with fitness retailer BANDIER for students in the BFA Fashion Design and AAS Fashion Design programs. The winning student was AAS Fashion Design student Kayla Conklin who received funds to design her capsule athleisure collection which will launch at the BANDIER store at the end of 2018. Colene Yap received second prize and an internship at BANDIER, and third prize winner Marissa Petteruti received a BANDIER design mentorship.

Post Date: August 16, 2018

In 2017, HUGO BOSS embarked on a journey to tackle the problem of “take, make, dispose” economic model, which relies on cheap, easily accessible materials and energy in the production of clothes. By joining the Call to Action organized by the Global Fashion Agenda, HUGO BOSS is committed to the transition to a circular economy in the fashion industry. Parsons has been in partnership with HUGO BOSS for the past six years and this past academic year, we extended the partnership to include a project with the goal of researching circular design practices and global production systems. Students were put…