At The New School, leading artists, fashion designers, and scholars lead change in the classroom. Faculty like Hazel Clark who authors books on fashion, Allysn McDavid with experience in archaeological fieldwork, Grammy winning flutist Brandon Patrick George, or Dr. Sharon Egretta Sutton who taught professionals urban planning, landscape architecture and interior design, works directly with students.
Image: The New School
Parsons’ unique approach to interdisciplinary, real-world learning is interwoven throughout all their programs, from undergraduate and graduate degrees to executive education for professionals to continue and pre-college courses. Founded in 1919, The New School remains at the forefront of innovation in higher education, inspiring undergraduate and graduate students to challenge the status quo in design and the social sciences, liberal arts, management, the arts, and media.
Undergraduate Courses
Parsons’ undergraduate programs challenge students to create in broader, deeper, and transformative ways. Guided by expert faculty, they develop creative and critical thinking skills while producing work that responds to the global call for innovation. Parsons is part of a larger university, so students can elevate their work with courses at The New School — from social sciences and liberal arts to media and management. All undergraduate students share a first-year experience that provides an introduction to the tools, critical thinking, and skills essential for their journey. Integrated seminars and studios deepen the conceptual abilities and prepare them for a major.
Fashion Design BFA — offered in Paris and New York City — develops students’ design-thinking and creative problem-solving strategies as they explore form, silhouette, material, and process. Students create innovative, sustainable, ethically made, and beautiful fashion for global markets. Here, they balance hand-making and digital skills as they work on Collection, Fashion Product, Materiality, and Systems and Society, and develop a specialised, personalised approach to fashion design. Students also develop their design sensibility through projects with LVMH, Kering, Saks Fifth Avenue, Louis Vuitton, Swarovski, and COACH.
Design And Technology BFA focuses on emerging art and design practices, media storytelling, and interaction technologies. Here, code becomes a second language and expressive means of connecting with others. Choose one of two pathways — Game Design or Creative Technology — and solve design problems by remixing software, hardware, art, and design in new and creative ways. Students develop a sustainable process for researching, experimenting, designing, prototyping, iterating, and producing projects that keeps pace with evolving technology.
Associate’s Degree Courses
Associate’s Degrees in Design and Fashion combine rigorous training and hands-on experience for a career in fashion or design. Programs are offered in Communication Design, Fashion Design, Fashion Marketing and Communication, and Interior Design. These degrees are suited to students with college experience who are prepared for immersion in a professional course of design study.
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Parsons’ AAS Fashion Design enables students to shift careers and move into the fashion industry. Here, they study the process, techniques, and language of fashion design from concept to production, using ethical and sustainable methods. They have the opportunity to design womenswear, menswear, and accessories, learning everything from drawing, draping, pattern-making, and sewing to tailoring and haute couture. Graduates bring fresh perspectives to established firms and even launched their own collections. PS Industry access is a huge benefit; past partners include COACH, Louis Vuitton, Under Armour, Swarovski, Norman Norrell, and Cristobal Balenciaga Museum.
The AAS Fashion Marketing and Communication two-year program at Parsons is an intensive, flexible degree focusing on the fundamentals of communication strategy. Students explore the relationship between brand, product, and audience and the role of marketing and communication practices within fashion systems. They identify and distill social, cultural, and economic trends and influence discourse on topics such as gender, race, consumption, and well-being. Taught by working professionals, the curriculum reflects the evolving fashion industry and the forces that shape it.
Graduate Courses
Parsons’ MFA Textiles program is a dynamic hub of creativity in New York, where the school’s multicultural, cross-disciplinary community of designers engages in a rich exchange of ideas and perspectives through hands-on textiles making. Promoting authenticity, originality, and innovation, the faculty channel the power of textiles to transform art, design, and industry and raise awareness on a range of issues. Students learn and apply techniques such as fiber development, yarn sourcing and making, weaving, knitting, 3D printing, sustainable dyeing, pattern design, and embellishments.
Image: The New School
The Master of Arts in Fashion Studies emphasizes the cultural analysis of fashion as dress, bodily practice, media, and industry. Students engage in hands-on research, utilizing diverse methods such as archival research and ethnography, to challenge prevailing narratives and uncover alternative histories of fashion. The curriculum includes two specialized pathways: fashion curation and fashion writing, enabling students to focus on areas like exhibition development, archival practice, and fashion journalism.
Communication Design master’s program, with a concentration in Digital Product Design, offers students the cutting-edge conceptual and strategic design methods they need to meet a growing marketplace demand. This specialized course provides coding experience and involves collaboration and teamwork strategies. Students explore product development cycles—from idea conception and pitching to prototyping to post-launch analyses of user experience and user interface as they develop competence in industry-standard technologies. The program is tailored to designers who have a design practice in graphic and visual communications and are seeking to develop specialized skills in digital product design.
Certificate Courses
Image: The New School
Parsons also offers certificate programs for individuals seeking to enhance their skills in specific areas of fashion. These programs cover fashion design, marketing, and business, providing students with the opportunity to gain specialized knowledge and expertise. Additionally, the school offers summer intensives in art and design, allowing for immersive learning that can complement existing academic pursuits or serve as a standalone educational endeavour.
The Fashion Business Certificate program covers the best practices for fashion business, providing students with concrete and theoretical foundations to work in the industry or start an entrepreneurial career. Courses survey fashion history and recent developments and trends in consumer behaviour, merchandising, and fashion buying. They also examine the evolving marketing landscape for fashion brands and businesses.
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Jasmeen Dugal is Associate Editor at FashionABC, contributing her insights on fashion, technology, and sustainability. She brings with herself more than two decades of editorial experience, working for national newspapers and luxury magazines in India.
Jasmeen Dugal has worked with exchange4media as a senior writer contributing articles on the country’s advertising and marketing movements, and then with Condenast India as Net Editor where she helmed Vogue India’s official website in terms of design, layout and daily content. Besides this, she is also an entrepreneur running her own luxury portal, Explosivefashion, which highlights the latest in luxury fashion and hospitality.
