Parsons re:D Magazine 2024 - Designing Beyond Borders

re:D (Regarding Design) 2024 EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Anne Adriance EDITORIAL BOARD

Cecilia Cammisa, Natalia Dare, Mike Fakih, Dustin Liebenow, Lisa Sarma, Craig Tiede PARSONS ADVISORY BOARD

Ben Barry, Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo, David J. Lewis, Sam Mejias, Rory O’Dea, John Roach, Yvonne Watson MANAGING EDITOR

re:D (Regarding Design)

2024

re:D—an award-winning showcase of work by Parsons students, faculty, and alumni—celebrates more than a century of changemaking creativity and critical thought

Audrey Singer EDITOR AND LEAD WRITER

John Haffner Layden CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Hannah R. Brion, Sarah Fensom, Tory Mast, Julia Lynn Rubin, David Sokol DESIGNER

Grace Hopkins PRODUCTION COORDINATOR

Sung Baik

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COPY EDITOR

Leora Harris LETTERS AND SUBMISSIONS

re:D welcomes letters and submissions. Include your year of graduation, the degree completed, and your major or program. Unsolicited materials will not be returned.

CONTACT US/ADDRESS CHANGES

re:D, Attn.: Marketing and Communication, 79 Fifth Avenue, 17th floor, New York, NY 10003; red@newschool.edu REGARDING DESIGN, SEPTEMBER 2024

Designing Beyond Borders

POSTMASTER

Send address changes to re:D (Regarding Design), 55 West 13th Street, New York, NY 10011.

In this issue of re:D, creativity takes our community across

CREDITS

boundaries of all kinds: geographical borders, disciplinary

Cover—Grace Hopkins; News—Alejandro Aguirre, MFA Photography ’24; K. C. Amable; courtesy of Andrew Bernheimer; © Holt/Smithson Foundation and Dia Art Foundation/Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York; courtesy of © Yasmine Anlan Huang; MacKenna Lewis; Phaidon; courtesy of Michael Popp and Emrys Berkower; courtesy of Proenza Schouler; Roy Rochlin/ Getty Images; Photography Martin Seck; courtesy of Taylor & Francis/Routledge; Best of Both Worlds— Noa Griffel/courtesy of Tory Burch; Alexi Lubomirski/ courtesy of Tory Burch; Moveable Feast—Photography Martin Seck; Field Notes—Nina Cinelli; courtesy of Rachel Joo and Kyleigh Mogilewski; Charlene K. Lau; CiCi Yuanxi Mai; Photography Martin Seck; Valentina Shen; courtesy of Swissnex in Boston and New York; courtesy of Craig Wei and Melis Dizdar; Filip Wolak ©Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York; Profiles—(Aradhita Parasrampuria) Cellsense; Kuan Hsieh, MFA Photography ’23; courtesy of Aradhita Parasrampuria; Nathalie Sommier; (M. Florine Démosthène) courtesy of M. Florine Démosthène; Osram-Ba Studio, SCAD/Savannah College of Art and Design; (Aviva Shulem) @arifirshad74; Yanting Chen; Donghia Inc.; (Demir Ramazanov) Oihana Lasa Pérez; courtesy of Demir Ramazanov; (Shelley Selim) Esther Boston; courtesy of Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields; Donald Reid (courtesy of Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Julie Hyde-Edwards in memory of Robert Edwards, 2022.161); (Mark Randall) Andrew Baseman; courtesy of Mark Randall; (Arav Tewari) courtesy of Arav Tewari; (Hanadi Almarzouq) courtesy of Hanadi Almarzouq; Al Sadu Society; (Petra Fagerstrom) Andreas Bach (with Sabrina Lefebvre, Evangelina Polevik); courtesy of Petra Fagerstrom; Fionn O’Toole; (Arley Torsone) Lauren Memarian; (Tanya Taylor) courtesy of Tanya Taylor; We’re Parsons—Ben Ferrari, Photography Martin Seck, Michael Kirby Smith; re:WIND—Travel diary, 1948.

Lyman Martin interior decoration work and papers, The New School Archives and Special Collections.

The New School is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution. Published 2024 by The New School. Produced by Marketing and Communication, The New School.

This brochure is printed with UV inks that conserve energy and material and do not release VOCs into the atmosphere and on paper containing post-consumer recycled content, reflecting the university's embrace of environmental responsibility.

limits, and the division between the academy and industry.

We join students, faculty, and alums from Parsons’ School of Constructed Environments and School of Fashion as they meet in a new class focused on inventing and sharing new forms of making and inclusive research with the aim of advancing sustainability and social justice. We explore French and Italian architectural marvels visited in the 1940s by students attending Parsons’ Paris satellite school, established in 1921, the first academic center opened in that city by a U.S. university. And we listen in as industry leaders and members of our community discuss the mutual benefits of external partnerships—including a multistage engagement with the fashion brand Tory Burch and others in every school at Parsons—that are unlocking innovation and opening doors to professional success for our students. And as always, you’ll find news and profiles of students, faculty, and graduates who are dissolving boundaries and bringing together people and ideas with the goal of creating a better world.

NEWS Recent achievements of our community of student, faculty, and alumni innovators

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS Tory Burch and Parsons are joining forces to dissolve the walls between classroom and company in a multistage partnership aimed at taking fashion into the future

A MOVEABLE FEAST Discover Decolonized and Decarbonized Dinner Party, a new course that challenges students to move across disciplines and toward climate equity ABOVE: The borders crossed in this issue range from geographical frontiers, as in the sketch shown above, made by a midcentury Parsons student traveling in France and Italy, to disciplinary boundaries, as in the waste awareness app created by MS Strategic Design and Management students Irmak Senyurt and Lucia Jaramillo (see page 20).

FIELD NOTES Students throughout Parsons are tackling real-world challenges in ways that demonstrate the benefits of collaboration—for students and external partners alike

PROFILES Meet our changemaking students, faculty, and alumni and discover work that is making the world a better place for all

ABOVE: Arav Terawi’s creativity took him beyond the classroom to Times Square, where his prize-winning animation for the electronics company LG—a screengrab of which is shown above—was displayed publicly. The choker shown above is the product of a collaboration between Cellsense, a company founded by Aradhita Parasrampuria, BFA Fashion Design ’20, MFA Textiles ’22, and jewelry designer Nathalie Pommier.

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WE’RE PARSONS Learn more about us and what we offer

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RE:WIND In the 1940s, Parsons students visited important European architectural sites and collections, learning about art and design and refining their hand rendering skills by creating sketches in travel diaries, now preserved in The New School Archives

n�w�

Recent achievements of our community of student, faculty, and alumni innovators

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2 1

practice focusing on systemic transformation

partnership. The imaginative, provocative

This past May, The New School Board of

of the field of architecture through

pieces drew parallels between human brains’

Trustees selected Joel Towers as the next

innovation in construction methodology

adaptation to new technologies and society’s

president of The New School. A University

and material practice.

handling of technological advances.

Professor of Architecture and Sustainable

newschool.edu/red/president

newschool.edu/red/ai

1

A NEW PRESIDENT

Design and a former Parsons executive dean,

FASHION ABLE

4

PARSONS FESTIVAL

Towers succeeded Interim President Donna E.

2

Shalala and assumed duties August 1. Towers’

With the leadership of School of Fashion

This year’s May festival brought campus to

practice focuses on sustainability, resilience,

(SoF) dean Ben Barry, Parsons launched the

life with end-of-year exhibitions of student

and the development of policy around and

Parsons Disabled Fashion Student Program

work. BFA Illustration and BFA Photography

design-based approaches to climate change

in partnership with disability activist Sinéad

students and MFA Fine Arts students

and the creation of healthy environments.

Burke, founder of the advocacy organization

exhibited in the SJDC. The BFA Illustration

Most recently, he served as co-director of the

Tilting the Lens (see page 21). The initiative

program also hosted an animation festival

university’s Tishman Environment and Design

is designed to diversify the school’s fashion

with screenings and Q&As with the makers.

Center, an interdisciplinary research center

programs—and ultimately the industry—

BFA and MFA Design and Technology

he founded in 2006. As Parsons executive

through mentorships, funding, and specialized

students hosted a joint popup show in the

dean from 2009 to 2019, he led initiatives

services for Disabled students. Recently

SJDC as well. The School of Art and Design

to develop multiple new undergraduate and

featured on NPR’s Morning Edition, the

History and Theory’s MA Fashion Studies and

graduate programs, transformed the first-

program has attracted global attention and

MA History of Design and Curatorial Studies

year curriculum, and augmented students’

received support from the Ford Foundation.

graduating students presented research

creative resources by establishing Parsons’

Applications are open to incoming students

at a symposium held in Kellen Auditorium.

Making Center. In 2019, Towers was appointed

in the BFA Fashion Design, AAS Fashion

The MA History of Design and Curatorial

by Mayor Bill de Blasio to co-chair the New

Design, and MFA Fashion Design and

Studies program also hosted its 30th annual

York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC).

Society programs.

Voorsanger Symposium on campus. BFA

The panel was tasked with assessing the

newschool.edu/red/disabled

Fashion Design students presented work in SYNERGIES, a livestreamed runway show; MFA

state of the science on climate change and

AI, ART & DESIGN

Fashion Design and Society students installed

providing the mayor and the City Council

3

with recommendations for adaptation and

School of Design Strategies (SDS) faculty

pieces at 39 West 13th Street. Students from

mitigation policy. Towers earned a BS in

members Jeongki Lim and Mark Randall

the BFA Integrated Design, AAS Fashion

Architecture from the University of Michigan

curated an exhibition that invited members

Design, and AAS Fashion Marketing and

and an MArch from Columbia University. In

from throughout the New School community—

Communications programs showed work

1992, he co-founded SR+T Architects, which

faculty, staff, students, alumni—to submit

at the Theresa Lang Center; AAS, BFA, and

completed award-winning projects over nearly

work created using artificial intelligence.

MPS Communication Design students also

two decades and provided a testing ground

On view in the Sheila C. Johnson Design

held a reception there. BBA Strategic Design

for the integration of research, scholarship,

Center (SJDC), the show was presented in

and Management students presented senior

and creative practice. In 2021, he and architect

partnership with the LG AI Research team, with

capstone projects at a symposium at 66

Martina Kohler established a research-based

whom Parsons has maintained a multiyear

West 12th Street. The MS Strategic Design

2 Parsons re:D

4

6

5

and Management program hosted capstone

changemakers such as Donna Karan, Andrew

Sparkowich, who began painting while serving

presentations at 66 Fifth Ave and at 2 West

Bolton, and Tory Burch. Benefit co-chairs

in the U.S. Marine Corps, says of his experience

13th Street, where both MFA Textiles and

were Carolina Herrera creative director Wes

at Parsons, “For fine artists, there’s no place

MFA Photography students also displayed

Gordon; Liz Rodbell, Hudson’s Bay CEO and

like it. My professors, all working artists,

their work. The School of Constructed

chair of Parsons’ Board of Governors; and

encouraged me to stay open, and my practice

Environments (SCE) exhibited work in all

Gena Smith, chief human resources officer

expanded quite a bit.”

disciplines at 39 West 13th Street and 25

of LVMH Inc. North America.

newschool.edu/red/military

East 13th Street. Work by BFA Fine Arts

newschool.edu/red/benefit 7

students was on view at 25 East 13th Street.

CREATIVE SERVICES

FIT FOR ALL

At Wollman Hall, MS Data Visualization

6

graduating students delivered keynotes

The New School’s Center for Veteran Services

fashion design and social justice, and Emily

and demonstrated their theses. BFA Design

was recently renamed in recognition of the

Huggard, an assistant professor of fashion

History and Practice students displayed their

university’s support for military-associated

communication, recently established the Size

thesis exhibitions at Someday Gallery in lower

individuals. Now called the Center for

Inclusion in Fashion Lab (SIF Lab), a School

Manhattan. MFA Transdisciplinary Design

Military-Affiliated Students, the office

of Fashion–based center aimed at promoting

students held a forum at which they shared

develops strategies to reach and assist service

body diversity and equity through research,

their theses at the Williamsburg Public Library.

members, veterans, and military families

partnerships, and programming. The first of its

newschool.edu/red/festival2024

who can benefit from New School offerings.

kind, the lab critiques the use of conventional

Under the direction of Betsy Montanez, the

sizing practices, works to destigmatize

center’s specialists—many connected to

plus-size fashion, and develops industry

This year’s Parsons Benefit, the 75th annual

military branches themselves—consider the

best practices. Research initiatives include

event celebrating NYC’s fashion innovators,

community’s unique contributions and needs.

Fat/Sew: Making, Identity, and Fatness, a

was held at Cipriani Wall Street and raised

The center advances the mission of programs

collaborative project exploring the relationship

funds for scholarships. Hosted by actor and

such as the Bachelor’s Program for Adults

between making and wearing. Last fall, the

entrepreneur Nicole Ari Parker, the gala

and Transfer Students (BPATS), which was

lab presented at the De-fashioning Education

showcased work by emerging designers and

created for returning World War II veterans.

conference in Berlin and in coming months will

the transformative role fashion, design, and

Montanez says her community brings new

support Kelleher’s new co-authored book, Plus

the arts play in society. Each year, the Parsons

perspectives and international experience

Size Patternmaking (Bloomsbury). An SIF Lab

Table Award recognizes people who have

to campus: “The more diverse businesses,

course, Fat Fashion, challenges students to

made notable contributions to the design

organizations, and teams are, the stronger

design innovative plus-sized apparel. Students

industry and inspired students. Recipients

and more resilient they are. We’re seeing new

recently partnered with The New School’s

this year included award-winning designer

students thrive and reimagine their futures.”

College of Performing Arts to create two

and Council of Fashion Designers of America

Recipients of The New School’s scholarships

gowns for opera singer and body inclusivity

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PARSONS BENEFIT

Leila Kelleher, an assistant professor of

(CFDA) chair Thom Browne, fashion advocate

for military-affiliated students include three

advocate Tracy Cox, who wore them in a

and documentarian Bethann Hardison, and

at Parsons: Kevin Sparkowich, BFA Fine

campus recital.

J.Crew CEO Libby Wadle. They were joined

Arts; Alejandro Aguirre, MFA Photography;

newschool.edu/red/size-inclusion

by donors, professors, students, and industry

and Staci Brundage, BFA Fashion Design. news 3

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Design alum Noemi Florea ’23, founder of

Management graduate Adrian Schmidt ’24

Yingfei Zhuo, MFA Industrial Design ’24,

the tech start-up LÆRO, was selected to

founded Ant-Mobility, a company receiving

won in this year’s Best of the Best category

join UNICEF’s Innovation30 initiative, which

investment from Mercedes-Benz to launch

in the Red Dot Design Award competition

sponsored presentations of her low-cost

a line of small electric ambulances for use

for EcoShell, her corrosion-resistant oyster

compact water treatment system, Cycleau, at

in India. Parsons Paris graduate Logan Goff,

shell–based exterior tiles. Mara Hoffman,

events worldwide. First-year students Alesya

BFA Fashion Design ’23, is one of ten finalists

BFA Fashion Design ’99, recently won the

Zaytseva, BFA Communication Design, and

competing for the main award, the Première

CFDA Environmental Sustainability Award for

Tamara Benarroch, BFA Photography, won

Vision Grand Prize; the 19M Chanel Métiers

her ethical practices. CFDA Design Scholar

AIGA Worldstudio Scholarships, awarded to

d’Art prize; the Mercedes-Benz Sustainability

Awards, which carry prizes of up to $50,000,

students who demonstrate a commitment

Prize; and the Atelier des Matières Prize, to be

went to BFA Fashion Design ’24 alums Leonard

to promoting social change, environmental

presented at the 39th Festival D'Hyères. Kylie

Guarin-Peters, Evren Nelson, and Emily

responsibility, and cultural awareness. The

Rose Carroll, MFA Fashion Design and the

Caslli and MFA Fashion Design and Society

2023 Women in Architecture Award, presented

Arts ’23, won the Absolute Prize for Creativity

student Kishan Singh Tehara. This year's

by Architectural Record magazine, was given to

from the International Lab of Mittelmoda. BFA

Guggenheim fellows include Arthur Ou,

Distinguished Visiting Professor of Architecture

Illustration professor Nora Krug received the

associate director of the MFA Photography

Dr. Sharon Egretta Sutton. Two recent fashion

Gerty-Spies-Prize for literature and political

program, and Ben Thorp Brown, a part-time

graduates, Mel Corchado, MFA Fashion Design

education for her book Diaries of War: Two

assistant professor also in the School of Art,

and Society ’23, and Ahmrii Johnson, BFA

Visual Accounts from Ukraine and Russia.

Media, and Technology (AMT). The firm of

Fashion Design ’23, were included on Teen

Atlason, the studio founded by Hlynur

associate professor of architecture Andrew

Vogue’s list of six “exceptionally talented

Atlason, BFA Product Design ’01, recently won

Bernheimer received Architect’s Newspaper’s

creatives.” Healthy Materials Lab co-

a Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

2024 Best of Practice Award in the Northeast

founders Alison Mears, associate professor

National Design Award for Product Design.

Medium category. MFA Interior Design

of architecture, and Jonsara Ruth, associate

Thomas Szolwinski, MA Design History and

'24 graduates Cheng Chen and Joyce Lai

professor of interior design, were both

Curatorial Studies ’21, was appointed curator

exhibited work at the NYCxDESIGN student

included on the Design Observer Twenty list

of architecture and design at the Museum

showcase, and Madina Masimova, MFA

of remarkable people, projects, and big ideas

of Wisconsin Art (MOWA). AMT assistant

Interior Design/MFA Lighting Design ’24, and

addressing urgent social needs. AMT part-time

professor of fine arts Jonah Groeneboer

Sanjana Gopalakrishnan, MFA Interior Design

lecturer Golnar Adili earned a NYSCA/NYFA

was awarded a grant from Creative Capital

’24, were cited in Metropolis magazine’s 2024

Artist Fellowship in Printmaking/Drawing/

for his multichannel sound installation The

Future100 Schools Showcase list. Cherisha

Book Arts. Isaiah Winters, MFA Photography

Sound We Make Together. BFA Product Design

Surana, MPS Fashion Management ’24, was

’22, an assistant professor of photography

program director Barent Roth and School

chosen to represent The New School in the

at Parsons, was among the 20 artists who

of Constructed Environments (SCE) faculty

Women@Dior and UNESCO Mentorship

received grants from Aperture and Google.

member Tucker Viemeister, along with alums

and Education Program. Yasmine Anlan

This year’s Core77 Design awards included

Marc Thorpe, MArch ’04; Elise McMahon, MFA

Huang, MFA Photography ’20, was included

Tower of Faces by AMT part-time assistant

Industrial Design ’20; and Hjalti Karlsson, BFA

in the 2024 Whitney Biennial. Carolina

professor Aya Karpinska and projects by

Communication Design ’92, created objects for

Trinker, MFA Textiles ’23, took the Fashion

MFA Industrial Design '23 graduates Mara

the NYCxDESIGNxSOUVENIR exhibition. SCE

Communication prize in the 2024 Gucci

Zimmerman (SEAD) and Blanca Codina

associate dean and professor Daniel Michalik

Global Design Graduate Show. BFA Integrated

Bernat (BigSteps). MS Strategic Design and

showed cork furniture in the Crossroads

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COMMUNITY ACHIEVEMENTS

4 Parsons re:D

10 9

exhibition presented by Rockwell Group at

10 INCORPORATED INK

Lab’s new book, Material Health: Design

the International Contemporary Furniture

Each year, our students, alumni, and faculty

Frontiers (Lund Humphries), promotes the

Fair and glassblowing tools in Paraphernalia

share creative research in digital and print

integration of recent findings and Indigenous

at the gallery of Eliza Axelson-Chidsey, BA

outlets. Recent publications include Fashion

knowledge to address the climate crisis and

Liberal Arts/BFA Product Design ’06. In Interior

Education: The Systemic Revolution (Intellect

foster public health; it was one of ten books

Design magazine’s NYCxDESIGN competition,

Ltd.), a blueprint for justice-driven, inclusive

recommended by Metropolis magazine. Peter

Ko Asuka, MFA Industrial Design ’24, won

fashion pedagogy co-edited by SoF dean Ben

de Sève, BFA Illustration ’80, published Local

an award in the Student category for a lamp

Barry. Marie Geneviève Cyr, director of the

Fauna: The Art of Peter de Sève (Cernunnos),

made in Barent Roth’s class; MFA Industrial

BFA Fashion Design program and associate

a survey of four decades of award-winning

Design student Madhmitha Palanivel Rajan

professor of fashion design, published

illustration and animation work, from New

won in the same category for her bentwood

FASHION+ (Academic & Scientific Publishers),

Yorker covers to Ice Age movies. For Dark

side table, made in Mark Bechtel’s course.

an analysis of the significance of inclusive

Data—a course taught by associate professor

MFA Textiles ’24 graduating students recently

fashion. Contributors include faculty members

of media design David Carroll—MFA Design

used ECONYL® nylon and craft techniques to

Lucia Cuba, Otto Von Busch, Jennifer Whitty,

and Technology students Juwon Lee, Anne-

create innovative recyclable lighting designs,

and Ben Barry. Emeritus professor Steven

Isabelle (Leo) de Bokay, and MJ Gomez-

which were presented at Chicago’s NeoCon

Guarnaccia’s pasta cookbook—The Story of

Saavedra, along with MPS Communication

trade fair by Julieta Gaitan Rubio, Shao-chi

Pasta and How to Cook It! (Phaidon)—received

Design student Dayna Brislane and MFA

Lin, and Mehak Surana, along with program

a glowing review in the Washington Post. Rory

Transdisciplinary Design student Max Emrich,

director Preeti Gopinath.

O’Dea, dean of Parsons’ School of Art and

produced the digital zine Dark Data 2023.

Design History and Theory (ADHT), published

Contributors explored the intersection of

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ALUMNI SCHOOLERS

Robert Smithson, Land Art, and Speculative

design and democracy and included MFA

The Joseph and Gail Gromek Institute for

Realities (Routledge), which frames the

Design and Technology students Juliana

Fashion Business, led by Abrima Erwiah,

artist’s work as proposing alternate realities.

Serna Mesa, Sidsel Ostbjerg, Marshall Wang

has invited two BFA Fashion Design alums—

ADHT assistant professor Petya Andreeva

Meixuan, Haoxin Tao, Joseph Wang, and

Lazaro Hernandez ’02 and Jack McCollough

published Fantastic Fauna from China to

Guanhao Zhu, along with Rishi Shankar, MS

’02, founders of the fashion brand Proenza

Crimea (Edinburgh University Press), which

Strategic Design and Management; Shravani

Schouler—to campus to share business

explores the zoomorphic imagination and

Bagawde, BFA Communication Design; Gracia

insights through a new fellowship. The 16

image making of Eurasian nomads. Parsons

Goh, MS Design and Urban Ecologies; Rebecca

students in the Proenza Schouler cohort

DEED Lab–affiliated researcher Carmen

Hart, MPS Communication Design; and

represent programs across Parsons and will

Malvar released Collaborative Social Design

Johann Yamin, MA Media Studies. Celebrated

receive mentoring on topics ranging from

with Mexican Indigenous Communities: Critical

art director Ezra Petronio, BFA Communication

design and sales to merchandising and human

Craft and Transformative Practices (Taylor &

Design ’99, released a monograph titled

resources to résumés and job interviews. The

Francis), a work examining colonization and

Ezra Petronio: Visual Thinking & Image

Gromek Institute draws on Parsons’ offerings

Indigenous experience. In Design Theory,

Making (Phaidon).

to advance the interdisciplinary study of

Language and Architectural Space in Lewis

newschool.edu/red/books

fashion business and design with the aim of

Carroll (Routledge), ADHT assistant professor

convening, educating, training, and supporting

Caroline Dionne dissects Carroll’s texts as

a more diverse fashion business community.

a means of highlighting the role of language

newschool.edu/red/gromek-fellows

in place making. Parsons Healthy Materials

News 5

Best of Bot Taking Fashion into New Terrain with Tory Burch

Together Tory Burch and Parsons are dissolving the walls between classroom and company in a multistage partnership aimed at taking fashion into the future

By Sarah Fensom

I

n mid-March, about halfway through the spring 2024 semester, third-year BFA Fashion Design student

Silin Gu presented her design for a luxury accessory to the New York–based fashion designer Tory Burch and her team. Gu had created a wearable wine bottle carrier emblazoned with Burch’s iconic double-T logo. The carrier featured an adjustable braided orange strap, a cylindrical body reinforced with waterproof rubber, heavy silver hardware, and an ovoid cutout designed to show off the wine bottle’s label. But the accessory’s most surprising feature may have been what it was made from: a pastseason Tory Burch rain boot, some surplus trimmings, and the box and dustbag the shoe came in.

Gu created the bottle holder for a partnership between the BFA Fashion Design program and Burch, which took the form of a sweeping Project Runway–like design competition. All 268 students in

On this and the facing pages are images from Silin Gu’s presentation to Tory Burch, showing her source object (a boot) and the wine tote she created from it.

the program’s junior class participated in the challenge at the beginning of the spring semester. Each received a mystery package of production samples, material, and trimmings or packaging donated by Burch’s label, along with the

garments out of discards from our studio—prototypes, deadstock fabric,

challenge of upcycling them. Students had three weeks to conceptualize

even shoelaces. They only had a few weeks, so we knew the project

and construct a piece and to sketch or digitally render an accompanying

would be a lot, but the students were more than up for the challenge,”

capsule collection of eight looks. Their creations had to embody the design

says Somphone Sikhounmuong, the design director at Tory Burch. For

language of the Tory Burch brand—a timeless, relaxed East Coast glamour.

the Parsons leadership, the strict parameters of the project were a means

After the projects were completed, the Parsons faculty leads chose eight

of sparking innovation and providing students with practical, real-world

finalists to present their designs to Burch. The finalists were competing

experience. “It was a quick project,” says professor Mariana Vidal-Escabi,

for three paid summer internships at Burch’s New York headquarters—a

who serves as the BFA program’s associate director of Partnerships

highly covetable prize for an ambitious young designer.

and Culture and developed the Tory Burch collaboration. “The materials

The BFA Fashion Design program developed the upcycling project

provided limits, and time was a limitation as well, but when you have

and asked Tory Burch to join as a partner, lending materials, a strong

constraints, you are more creative—and that’s what we wanted for

brand vision, and a creative eye. “We tasked students with creating new

the students.”

6 Parsons re:D

th Worlds “ We knew the project would be a lot, but the students were more than up for the challenge.”

— Somphone Sikhounmuong, design director at Tory Burch

The concept Gu settled on resulted from a discussion with her boyfriend about wine bottle holders they had seen couples bringing to BYOB restaurants. “I realized that the boot was the perfect size to hold a bottle and then started looking at how I could work with its shape, material, and texture to create an accessory, even though I was more used to making garments,” she says. It was also important that her final product fit in with her own work and the items displayed in Tory Burch’s showrooms. “Ultimately, my direction involved merging my style with the brand style, because that was the main goal in this project,” says Gu. “In a way, it’s what every designer for a brand has to do.”

Gu was one of the eight finalists who presented their upcycled creations and capsule collection concepts to the Burch team, which includes a number of Parsons alumni. At the conclusion of the presentations, Burch pulled her team aside for a brief consultation as students awaited the announcement of the three internship winners. To the surprise of the Parsons teams—students and faculty alike—Burch announced that her team were so impressed by the finalists’ concepts and designs that they decided to award internships to all eight.

“Tory brought a lot of her team from different The project’s many variables introduced students to new making methods. Many of the participants, like Gu, found themselves constructing garments, accessories, or textiles in unfamiliar formats and materials.

“I had never worked with rubber

RIGHT: For Silin Gu and other students competing for internships, presenting to the Burch team their concepts, creative processes, and approaches to blending their creative vision with Burch’s brand voice was an invaluable learning experience.

before,” says Gu, whose materials package included a rain boot. “At first I was blindsided—I had to think for a week to figure out what to do.”

Gu engaged in intensive research in the vast image holdings of the New School Library and the New York Public Library; consulted videos, runway photographs, and press archives provided by Burch; and even Googled “how to remake rain boots” in the process of developing a strong on-brand idea and construction technique.

departments, so they all got excited and started discussing how one student could be in the handbag

Tory Burch (in gray) is surrounded by students who participated in the upcycling challenge and were shortlisted for internships.

At far left and far right are faculty leads Marie Geneviève Cyr and Mariana Vidal-Escabi.

department or another in the womenswear department, and so on,” says Vidal-Escabi. She notes that the range of products showcased in the students’ work for Burch reflected the different areas of focus in the BFA Fashion Design program.

“ T he students’ ingenuity was on another level; the solutions and work-arounds they came up with kept surprising us.”

— Somphone Sikhounmuong, design director at Tory Burch

Vidal-Escabi explains that the students choose a pathway, a sequence of courses focused on a facet of fashion design. Those in the Collections pathway concentrate on lines of apparel. Students in the Fashion Products pathway focus on accessories. The Materiality pathway challenges students to explore the materials and techniques driving innovation. And the Systems & Society pathway familiarizes students with sustainability, circularity, and social impact in relation to the fashion system. Students working on the upcycling project received materials relevant to their pathway, from which they created a range of items aligned with Burch’s

8 Parsons re:D

Students used recent Burch promotional materials to research the company’s brand voice and develop concepts that took Burch collections in new directions.

Olive Eng-Canty documented her process in this image from her presentation deck.

multifaceted product line and goals.

Seeing innovation emerge from the brand’s discards energized

Burch’s team. “It was inspiring for us to see our familiar materials and garments in a new light. And the students’ ingenuity was on another level; the solutions and work-arounds they came up with kept surprising us,” Sikhounmuong says. “One student wove shoelaces into a full look; a shopping bag became jewelry; a cocktail dress became tennis gear.” The students’

“ Students placed in the Tory Burch atelier participated in ongoing in-house creative projects as well, learning how the business operates.”

“out-of-the-box thinking” generated considerable excitement about what they might create over the summer as company interns.

— Preeti Gopinath, director of the MFA Textiles program

Burch founded her eponymous label in 2004. Now a global brand with more than 370 stores worldwide, the label offers collections including ready-to-wear, handbags, footwear, accessories, jewelry, housewares, and beauty products. But much like Parsons, the company has roots in New York City, maintaining a presence at New York Fashion Week, a flagship store in Nolita, and a design studio and headquarters on Fifth Avenue. When the firm was launched, Burch served as both designer and CEO, but in 2019 she stepped down as the business lead. Her husband, Pierre-Yves Roussel, a former LVMH executive, took over as CEO,

Tory Burch and Marie Geneviève Cyr, director of the BFA Fashion Design program. Burch’s association with Parsons’ School of Fashion led to a collaboration with students, which familiarized them with her brand and allowed her to observe their work with materials and technique.

freeing Burch to focus on her role as creative director.

This decision proved pivotal. “Tory told our students that the easiest thing she ever did was give away the title of CEO—she really wanted to give her energy to the design part of the business,” says Marie Geneviève Cyr, director of the BFA Fashion Design program and a major force behind the partnership with Burch. In recent years, the fashion press has praised the brand’s creative direction, dubbing this era “the Toryssance.” “The moment

partnership to feel organic and natural, knowing it would evolve along the

she became creative director, everything about the design got elevated,

way,” says Sikhounmuong.

and I think that’s why for her, creativity is a priority.”

It’s no coincidence, then, that Burch decided to invest in creativity and

In 2020, even before an official relationship was established, Burch’s studio started discussing a joint initiative with Parsons’ MFA Textiles

establish a long-term partnership with Parsons. The idea, which emerged

program. Then in early 2021, the studio set up a partnership with MFA

in fall 2021, Sikhounmuong says, was to develop a range of programs

Textiles through its innovative externship program, called Ateliers. “The

in conjunction with the institution, including courses, mentorship

Atelier courses are unique to Parsons; there’s nowhere else in the world

opportunities, and projects like the design competition. “We wanted the

where you can do this course,” explains Preeti Gopinath, director of the Textiles program and an associate professor. “Unlike conventional internships, where students may have to fetch coffee and pick up

For her MFA Textiles studies, Aradhita Parasrampuria continued her experiments with biomaterials-based beads in an Atelier internship at Tory Burch, where she created garments like this dress.

drycleaning or cut fabric swatches for slack racks, our students take their own textile project to a design or art world atelier and develop their work under the guidance of professionals. Students placed in the Tory Burch atelier were mentored by the creative director and designer, and the students participated in ongoing in-house creative projects as well, learning how the business operates.

After enduring pandemic lockdowns and isolation, MFA Textiles student Shradha Kochhar came to work in the Tory Burch studio in summer 2021. The studio, with its hard-to-come-by materials, fabrication tools, and support, was “truly a gift I’m so grateful for,” she says. “I got to think as expansively as I wanted to—the world truly was my oyster.”

Kochhar describes the creative inspiration and encouragement she got from the brand’s team; its former creative director, Alistair Carr; Burch herself; and Gopinath as critical to her development. During the internship, Kochhar continued exploring khadi knit, a handspun and handknit textile she produces from Kala cotton, a highly sustainable cotton indigenous to India with a long and rich history. Her work with the brand led to a number of opportunities, including a placement as a knitwear development consultant with John McGrath, a creative director in the label’s footwear department. Aradhita Parasrampuria and Lelia Bacchi Levy followed Kochhar at Tory Burch in fall 2021. Parasrampuria, who has invented methods of making beads and sequins out of algae dyed with bacteria, cellulose, and jellyfish protein (see pages 22–23), continued to develop her biomaterial beadwork and use it to create garments in the atelier.

In fall 2022, the BFA Fashion Design program asked Tory Burch to partner on a course that drew inspiration from the designer’s Spring/

9

Summer 2022 collection, an homage to the groundbreaking midcentury

Forging environmentally sustainable models is the bedrock of all Parsons

American sportswear designer and Parsons graduate Claire McCardell,

programs, including those in the School of Fashion, and a central

and The Met Costume Institute’s exhibition In America: An Anthology

concern of students. For Tory Burch, Sikhounmuong explains, sustainability

of Fashion. Vidal-Escabi and Julian Guthrie, the BFA Fashion Technology

measures entail creating timeless, long-wearing garments with low-

coordinator and an associate professor at Parsons, developed the

impact materials and production methods in partnership with suppliers

research and design course for third-year students, and Burch got on

and factories who share the brand’s goal of environmental preservation.

board, donating fabrics, materials, and other resources. “Our first initiative

Says Sikhounmuong, “Reducing waste has always been a priority; we use

was a course about lesser-known American women designers, in which

what we have, and we carry over fabrics from season to season. When we

students researched women like Elizabeth Hawes and Ann Lowe and

do have overage, we usually donate it to New York design schools.”

designed capsule collections inspired by their contributions to fashion,”

Olive Eng-Canty, a BFA fashion student who won a Tory Burch

Sikhounmuong explains. Students visited the brand’s headquarters, where

internship, was already addressing the challenge of reusing garments and

Burch’s team walked them through the development process used to

samples. “A lot of my work is centered on sustainability, so I had previous

create the McCardell collection. “They showed us all their mood boards,

upcycling experience,” she says. Eng-Canty turned a silk polka-dot dress

all their material development, all their samples, everything,” says Vidal-

into a garment featuring chains of fabric spheres that cascade down

Escabi, an instructor for the course. Burch visited the Parsons classroom as

the body from a bra top. The garment, which was paired with hot pants,

well. “She told her story, and the students asked a lot of detailed questions.

dazzled the judges and reinforced Eng-Canty’s belief in the path she has

It was very intimate, and the students really connected to Tory and the

chosen. “I’ve always focused on sustainability and textiles, but the positive

brand,” says Vidal-Escabi.

reception of my piece proved that I am doing the right thing with my work,”

Like most BFA classes, the class was small, consisting of only 16

she says. Eng-Canty’s internship is in the company’s knitwear department.

students. “Tory wanted to have a bigger engagement,” Cyr says. “And we

“I’ve been focused on fiber arts for the past year, so I will be taking all I

said, ‘Well, if you want bigger engagement, Tory, let’s go much bigger.

learn into my thesis during my senior year at Parsons,” she says.

Let’s build a project for all 268 of the year-three students in the first three weeks of their spring semester.’” The BFA Fashion program, with VidalEscabi as the partnership lead, developed the idea of the upcycling challenge, and Burch was more than happy to get involved with a project of its scope. In fact, Cyr says that the Burch partnership touched a greater number of students in a program than any other that she knew of from her 14 years at the university. The project kicked off with another campus visit by Burch in January 2024, in which she introduced the contest. Parsons faculty members leading the program’s pathways gave students in the classes their packages of materials and explained the deliverables for their pathway tracks.

Limiting waste and upcycling were major focuses of the partnership, especially when it came to the spring 2024 design sprint for third-year BFA students, which were titled Transformative Futures: Responsibility, Refresh, Remake, Reboot, Repair.

RIGHT: Olive Eng-Canty applied her experience in upcycling to the task of deconstructing a silk productionsample dress and fashioning fabriccovered balls from it for her new garment, shown in a sketch. BELOW: Eng-Canty presents her concept and finished dress to Burch and her team.

“ I’ve always focused on sustainability and textiles, but how well my piece was received has proved that I am doing the right thing with my work.”

— Olive Eng-Canty, BFA Fashion Design student

10 Parsons re:D

Alicia Corradini designed a fitted jacket inspired by Tory Burch’s equestrian interests.

The jacket is detailed with ribbon discards from Burch’s company. Shown above are Corradini’s sketches and presentation collages and below is her finished garment.

Alicia Corradini, another BFA student who received an internship, was inspired

by Burch’s story and the messaging of the brand. “I focused on the more recent Tory Burch collections—her prints, her colors, and

“ It was important to maintain the energy that Tory Burch’s company has while bringing in something new with my own design perspective.”

— Alicia Corradini, BFA Fashion Design student

their energy, but then also her equestrian background,” Corradini says. “I found a pattern for vintage riding breeches, and then developed my own new pattern.” She ended up turning a piece of knitwear and some trimmings into a suit inspired by traditional jockey uniforms, with a capsule collection to match. In her designs, Corradini sought to promote women’s empowerment, a cause she sees as essential to Burch’s brand and her own work. “My conception of female empowerment is about subverting gender stereotypes. So my design philosophy centers on taking something that is typically masculine and making it more feminine.” By adapting a traditionally masculine uniform into a women’s garment, she was able to combine her aesthetic with that of the brand—one of the goals of the project. “It was important to maintain the energy that Tory Burch’s company has while bringing in something new with my own design perspective,” she says.

Working within the parameters of a major fashion brand gave Corradini a new vantage point from which to view her future as a designer.

“During this experience, I asked myself how I could adapt to fit into a company’s vision while staying true to myself,” she says. “Learning to find the balance felt instructive as I go into my thesis and then, beyond that, potentially work for a brand.” Cyr agrees that working with a major fashion label was a powerful experience for the students—one that familiarized them with the demands of the mainstream fashion industry.

“It was incredible practice for students to present professionally to a design team,” she says.

The work that the students produced was so impressive that Burch asked to see more portfolios at the conclusion of the presentations, says Vidal-Escabi. “Tory said, ‘I’m just so curious. I want to see how other students interpreted the project; we have a lot of internships to fill,’” Vidal-Escabi says. “She was already asking if we could do it again.”

Sarah Fensom is a writer based in Los Angeles.

11

A new course challenges students to move across disciplines and toward climate equity

By Julia Lynn Rubin The Decolonized & Decarbonized (D&D) Dinner Party—begun as a Parsons-led multidisciplinary learning workshop aimed at building community, sharing regenerative practices, and promoting a broader range of sources in design—has become a university course that is sending innovative ideas out into the world.

S

ometimes what begins as a one-time extracurricular learning experience evolves

into something bigger. But rarely does such an event succeed in bringing makers together to both build community and advance pressing goals such as promoting regenerative and restorative practices while expanding the design canon. It is still more unusual for an extracurricular project to become a university course, inviting students to apply their own experience and approaches in experimenting and problem solving. But the Decolonized & Decarbonized (D&D) Dinner Party—which began as a series of workshops and events for Parsons

12 Parsons re:D

LEFT: MFA Textiles student Rachel Dana lays out the materials used in the sumac-based ink she shared at the Decolonized and Decarbonized Dinner Party course’s Earth Day public event. OPPOSITE: Each dinner party is documented in a book that explains how projects were created.

undergraduate and master’s students—evolved

equip young designers with the tools they need

emerging from pandemic lockdowns. The first

in exactly that way, to become a full-fledged

to foster climate justice through their work.

iteration involved three weeks of extracurricular

course that was offered this year for the

The trio also wanted to create a communal,

workshops that culminated in an Earth Day

first time.

cooperative learning experience for students just

dinner party at which students informally

The endeavor began in 2020 with conversations between program directors Michele Gorman (MFA Interior Design), Yvette Chaparro (MFA Industrial Design), and Preeti Gopinath (MFA Textiles). The group discussed ways to help students address two issues of increasing concern to contemporary designers—decolonization and carbon capture in production—using creative approaches that draw on non-Western, and often more regenerative, traditions. A major goal was to

shared their design research.

“ The success of the dinner party event is in its interdisciplinary approach, with each offering on the table representing a new design framework to address our climate crisis.”

— Michele Gorman, director of the MFA Interior Design program

Gopinath describes the aim of the original workshops as critical. “Our role is to nurture students’ passion for developing work that is layered with meaning and consequence.”

“The Decolonized & Decarbonized Dinner Party started out as workshops and grew to include a symposium,” explains Chaparro. “In the first two iterations, we developed themes connected to regenerative materials and processes and socially just practice—food

13

“ What drew me to this class was the freedom to explore.”

waste and water—that students could use as research prompts.”

The prompts involved exploring ways to

— Jonah Goodman, MFA Industrial Design student

simultaneously decarbonize and decolonize the design canon and extended projects from courses such as MFA Interior Design’s Studio

he says. “Everyone is doing something unique—

2 (Interior Food Ecologies), MFA Industrial

from making dishes to preparing kombucha to

Design’s Studio 2 (Local Production) and 4 (thesis

baking cricket crackers.”

projects), and MFA Textiles’ Major Studio 2 and

The students soon began examining one

Anthropology of Textiles. Students brought

another’s projects with interest. We tasted

research conducted for those classes and for

biscuits made from crickets—a high-protein,

their theses to the workshops, sparking ideas for

sustainable food source—that first-year MFA

artifacts for a carbon-free dinner party.

Industrial Design student Leonardo Possati

“The dinner party allowed us to explore

created with ingredients from Bologna, his

new ways to approach problems caused by

native city, such as seasoned salt, blended

the climate crisis that disproportionately affect marginalized bodies and that design has had a hand in creating—and is increasingly helping to address through co-design practices,” says Gorman. “Our Interior Food Ecologies course came directly out of Decolonized & Decarbonized Dinner Party work, and Interior Design students brought their food systems learning to the workshops and back to their own projects.”

“The faculty were inspired to develop a special elective course designed to broadly share the aims and spirit of the original extracurricular workshops,” says Chaparro. “The new class gave us time to develop the intersections between decolonization and decarbonization as a group through additional readings and discussions.”

Chaparro co-taught the first iteration of the course with fellow faculty member Barent Roth, director of the BFA Product Design program. Both sought to maintain in the classroom the openness that was important to past participants. They created a syllabus that allowed students to incorporate their disciplinary and personal research interests, such as natural dyeing, and knowledge drawn from their own backgrounds, including research about Indigenous materials and methods.

Grades are now given at the end of the semester instead of on an assignment-by-assignment basis. In Gorman’s words, “Grades shouldn’t drive the work.”

“ Students are passionate about creating solutions aimed at the thornier realities of historical colonization and climate change while staying hopeful.”

— Barent Roth, director of the BFA Product Design program "Having hosted last year’s Earth Day Dinner Party workshop at Circular Economy Manufacturing, our waste plastics upcycling microfactory, I’ve seen firsthand that students are passionate about creating solutions aimed at the thornier realities of historical colonization and climate change while staying hopeful,” says Roth.

On the day I visited the class, 18 students in a range of design disciplines were gathered around two tables arranged as if for a banquet.

14 Parsons re:D

Veronica Speyer’s dinner party place setting featured linens dyed in cow’s blood to draw attention to the ethics of meat consumption.

They were setting up projects to be explored, touched, and even tasted by the public.

This was not a traditional course but rather an interactive experience as organic as the materials being used.

“This is the most experimental class I’ve

with cricket flour, an ingredient eaten daily in countries such as China and Thailand. We touched kitchen tiles that fourth-year MArch students Rebecca Bran and Nick Cuervo-Torello created from oyster shells bound together in a natural matrix and drank first-year MFA Industrial Design student Jonah Goodman’s home-fermented kombucha varieties, tailored to individual gut health needs.

ever taken,” says Veronica Speyer, a third-year BFA Product Design. At first glance, her project appeared to involve an ordinary place setting, complete with a glass of red wine, on a rosered patterned tablecloth. Speyer informed us, though, that her goblet held cow’s blood—the pigment used to dye her hand-painted table linen. Through her subversive project, Dying to Dye, Speyer drew us into a tableau of domestic normalcy only to challenge us to rethink the ethics of meat consumption and our inhumane and unsustainable food system. Speyer reported that a class field trip to the Woodstock Farm Sanctuary helped students better understand the ethical significance of the animal-derived materials they often work with; visits to the National Museum of the American Indian and the Climate Museum provided further context. And the Dinner Party on Governors Island enabled them to present their innovative projects to a wider audience.

Litian Li, a first-year MFA Industrial Design student, agrees with Speyer. “Our class is different because of the experimental element,”

Leonardo Possati shares his cricket protein crackers with peers in a D&D Dinner Party class meeting.

The workshops and course culminated in the publication of a recipe book designed to introduce decarbonization and decolonization to readers in accessible and experiential terms and provide detailed instructions for replicating the students’ projects.

“You can follow other people’s ‘recipes,’ re-create their projects, and share in everyone’s learning,” explains Jimena Bedoya, a first-year MFA Textiles student. Bedoya’s project, BioAmend, was inspired by kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken objects. She created swatches of biomaterials from flowers, wool yarn, and natural dyes and stitched them together to form a vessel. First-year MFA Textiles student Rachel Dana encouraged me to touch and examine the furry fruit of a staghorn sumac plant, explaining that she used it to produce the ink used for writing on the parchment pages displayed beside it. “Anyone with access to New York–native sumacs can make this natural ink without expending much energy,” she says of her affordable, eco-friendly recipe.

“What drew me to this class was the freedom to explore,” says Goodman. “We’re Jonah Goodman’s project—kombucha shots tailored to individual gut health needs—arose from his interests in and experience with fermentation and natural healthcare.

BELOW: The public D&D Dinner Party Earth Day event enabled students to share their work with peers from other classes and the public.

2022 workshop. “I wish I had had access to the information from the workshop before I finished my thesis; the experience inspired me to expand upon my design for a communal kitchen.”

“Students have the opportunity to explore materials and projects without the pressure of it being their thesis,” agrees Thies, who was encouraged by Chaparro to take part in the initiative. “We think about the ingredients in

ABOVE: At the 2023 D&D Dinner Party, MFA Interior Design student Tatiana Konstantinidi shared work created for her MFA Interior Design Studio 2 Interior Food Ecologies class. Shown here are serving pieces made from brewery waste, agar agar, glycerol, water, and calcium propionate.

food, but not necessarily about the ingredients in the materials we’re creating when building.”

My final D&D 2024 course visit followed a ferry ride to Governors Island for the Earth Day Dinner Party. I found Gorman, Chaparro, and Roth helping students arrange their work on a also the first time I was in a room eating and sharing—that was really special.”

Sydney Moss, a former MFA Interior Design student, valued the 2023 workshop's crossprogram collaboration. “The dinner party gave us an opportunity to talk to one another outside of our majors and programs,” she says. “We all have different studios, so it was good to just be in the room with students from other

D&D Dinner Party faculty leads and program directors Barent Roth (BFA Product Design), Michele Gorman (MFA Interior Design), and Yvette Chaparro (MFA Industrial Design) at the 2024 Earth Day public event on Governors Island.

departments, to ask them what their classes

long table in neat rows that resembled place settings. Students from MFA Interior Design classes contributed their own research on food rituals and biomaterials to the table and examined the creations of their fellow students with interest. Others joined Earth Day visitors at Roth’s Microfactory, where he explained how his solar-powered facility converts city plastic waste into planters, lamps, children's furniture, and traffic cones.

are like and about their work.” Gorman concurs, adding that “the success of the dinner party event is in its interdisciplinary approach, with each offering on the table representing a new design framework to address our climate crisis.”

turning speculative design into reality. I’ve

Lina Celis Rengifo, MFA Textiles ’23, signed

always wanted a class like this, where art, design,

up for the 2022 workshop in part because it

science, the future of food, and social benefits

offered a space free from hierarchy among

are combined.”

students and faculty. Her thesis involved

“For the university course, we had to add the rigor of deliverables, grades, evident progress, and participation. This process is an example

creatively repurposing bags used to transport coffee from Colombia to the United States.

“Not having set expectations about what

of how we approach interdisciplinary learning

I was going to get out of the experience

and teaching at Parsons,” says Chaparro. Like

was great,” says Celis. “I enjoyed the process

the workshops, the new class features lectures

of questioning and the option to move

by outside experts and creative practitioners.

between practices.”

Over the years, these have included Mike Renzy, assistant director of GrowNYC’s Green Space project; Peruvian design scholar Maria Linares Trelles; Christopher Schlottmann, co-author of a book used in the class; and Jessica Thies, MFA Industrial Design ’23, who took part in the 2022 and 2023 workshops and today works as a biomaterials researcher at Parsons’ Healthy Materials Lab.

“ The dinner party gave us an opportunity to talk to one another outside of our majors and programs.”

Gorman emphasizes that it was also important to create a place where students could draw on their own cultures, regenerative practices, and rituals around decolonization.

“My thesis involved looking at food as a tool for preserving immigrant identity, resisting colonialities of power, and encouraging exchanges within a diverse economy,” says Sam (Jia Wei Samantha) Tong ’22, an MFA Interior Design alum who participated in the

Students labeled the materials used in their projects to draw attention to their efforts to decolonize and decarbonize design work.

Like the class itself, the event sparked lively conversations. Passersby stopped to engage with students and discuss their work. Chaparro told me that it was just what the Parsons faculty team had hoped for. “We try to create communal learning experiences that build transformative human connections,” she says.

I thought about what Celis described as the most important outcome of the D&D learning experience: “We built a community that, like a tree branch, starts to expand and grow, adding new disciplines that make the community stronger, both emotionally and academically.”

Julia Lynn Rubin is a graduate of the MFA Creative Writing program at The New School. She is the author of three young adult novels and currently serves as a copywriter for The New School’s Marketing and Communication team.

—Sydney Moss, MFA Interior Design alum To better understand the evolution of this immersion in integrated learning, I contacted past participants to get their insights. I first spoke to Thies, who is now a postgraduate research fellow at Parsons’ Healthy Materials Lab (HML).

"For me, the original workshop series was really powerful,” says Thies. After years of school with masks and being unable to be with people in person and collaborate, it was

The dinner party event offered attendees a banquet of natural foods to sample—such as honey-sweetened kombucha and crackers flavored with spices—and new ideas to sustain their creative design work.

15

field notes Students throughout Parsons’ schools and at the Paris campus are tackling real-world challenges facing a range of design fields. Their work is demonstrating the many benefits of collaboration—for Parsons students and external partners alike

By David Sokol

16 Parsons re:D

Chitra Ramalingam

LEFT: Students in Parsons’ BFA Integrated Design program recently partnered with the Guggenheim Museum on a kite-making workshop for young museumgoers. In a lively procession that BFA program director Marisa Morán Jahn (seen in white) led down the museum’s spiral ramp, youngsters proudly showed off their creations, animating the space in a new way. OPPOSITE: Images of the people and partnered projects discussed in this article.

O

usual Thursday closing time, the doors to the Frank Lloyd Wright–

scholarship and career preparation by organizing outside collaborations

designed building were reopened to a crowd not normally associated with

for students. This effort is evidenced by a 1952 New York Times article

the Manhattan gallery circuit. Parsons students led adults and children in

applauding E. Camill Solari, an interior design student, for winning a

a creative workshop on the museum’s third floor. Together they sketched,

competition sponsored by Baker Furniture. Twenty years later, the

prototyped, and built miniature kites, to be whisked down the rotunda’s

Times reported that S. Klein Department Stores had invited Parsons

iconic spiraling ramp at the evening’s close.

students to conceive a new facade, signage, and lighting for its flagship

ne day this past March, half an hour after the Guggenheim Museum’s

As the workshop participants made kites, other attendees interacted

Since then, Parsons has sought to deepen the relationship between

on Union Square.

with anthropomorphic sculptures in an installation titled Picos in the

Now that in-person partnerships have returned to pre-COVID-19

museum’s lobby. Made from kitchen trash bags affixed to oscillating

levels, Parsons faculty are once again creating opportunities for students

table fans, the figures sported what looked like beaks (picos in Spanish)

to work in the field. And they are setting their sights even higher,

and swayed in the air. One pair seemed to be nuzzling each other;

developing a broad array of ambitiously conceived collaborations with

another did battle with their beaks. A third group tipped their beaks when

external partners. Tuomas Laitinen has long seen the value of such

museumgoers approached and seemed to kneel reverentially before them.

collaborations. Laitinen, a Finnish-born fashion designer who taught for

The sculptures called to mind interactions typical of art-world settings, where cozy alliances, competition, and assertions of authority abound.

The Picos installation and the interactive workshops were part of Float, a public event representing the culmination of the Parsons course Kite City taught in fall 2023 by professors Neva Kocic, a product designer, and Marisa Morán Jahn, an artist who is also the director of the BFA Integrated Design program in Parsons’ School of Design Strategies. Chitra Ramalingam, the Guggenheim’s director of Academic Engagement, had initiated Kite City by inviting Jahn to partner with the museum through

“ We’re looking to make the museum a platform for student creativity but also to produce feedback for ourselves about our museum’s work.”

—C hitra Ramalingam, director of Academic Engagement, Guggenheim Museum

its Innovation Lab program, designed to create collaborations for New York–based college students. Ramalingam says that this was the

a number of years at Aalto University, joined Parsons Paris to prepare

first time her department worked with transdisciplinary designers. “The

the 2021 launch of the Master of Fine Arts in Fashion Design and the

way Parsons’ Integrated Design program gives students cross-disciplinary

Arts program. His focus on external partnerships is the result of years of

experience—and Parsons’ emphasis on developing external partnerships

experience bringing scholarship and industry together in his own career.

and design processes with institutions—made the project an especially

“You have to be in industry to understand whether an idea is relevant,”

good fit.”

he says.

Bridging academic study and real-world experience is in Parsons’

Laitinen now heads the MFA program at Parsons Paris and serves

DNA. Frank Alvah Parsons, hired by William Merritt Chase in 1904 to

as the BFA Fashion Design program’s creative director. In the three years

teach at the New York School of Art (Parsons School of Design’s precursor),

since the MFA program’s inception, he has kicked off each fall semester

launched curricula aimed at facilitating young people’s professional

with “collaborations that should be a fashion student’s dream,” as he

development in fashion, graphic, and interior design. Previously entry

puts it. Initially Laitinen and MA Fashion Studies program director Marco

into these industries had taken place largely through informal

Pecorari brought first-year students into the world of Versace, where

apprenticeship networks.

they conducted archival research and incorporated the celebrated fashion

17

“Understanding how to express their ideas in a visual and textual way will be developed further when they work on their thesis collections.”

For years, Parsons students have benefited from engagements with fashion luminaries in both Paris and New York. Figures ranging from Christian Dior to alums Norman Norell, Donna Karan, and Jack McCullough and Lázaro Hernández of Proenza Schouler have critiqued student work on Parsons' two campuses. But the Mugler x Parsons Paris project stands out as an example of the kind of intensive, wide-ranging creative collaborations that working designers must now undertake to bring their ideas to the runway—and the global public's awareness.

The Mugler project and other ambitious collaborations underway at Parsons are serving as a blueprint for future partnerships with prominent companies and organizations seeking to foster innovation while promoting sustainability and inclusiveness. These exercises will serve students as they work toward their thesis collections and in the industry after graduation. house’s long-standing “design codes” into looks of their own creation.

According to Ramalingam, successful collaborations require open-

A similar and equally successful partnership with MM6 Maison Margiela

mindedness from both partners. For Kite City, that flexibility was reflected

followed. “It’s a trial in combining your creativity with the heritage of a

in a project brief that was surprisingly general, allowing the participants to

house,” says Laitinen of these matchups.

explore ideas freely. “Even though the Guggenheim is an art museum, it’s

This year, 20 MFA students from Parsons Paris immersed themselves

also a unique building with a potential for a kind of radical public space,”

in the legacy of Mugler, the fashion house established by Thierry Mugler

Ramalingam explains. “We’re looking to make the museum a platform

and overseen by Casey Cadwallader since 2018. “Students are working on

for student creativity but also to produce feedback for ourselves about

the same challenge that Casey and all house designers face every season,

our museum’s work.” In Parsons’ fall 2023 course catalog, Kite City was

which is, How do you go into this incredible archive and make modern,

described simply as an exploration of flight.

desirable garments that don’t just repeat the past?” says Laitinen.

The students applied a modern sensibility in reinterpreting Mugler’s sculptural approach to construction. MFA candidate Wendy Kuo used 3D printing to create attachable forms designed to exaggerate the features of the female silhouette.

Kuo’s classmate Araz Yaghoub Nakhjavan Tapeh wedded the Mugler codes of anatomical seaming, lingerie, and corsetry to the power dressing of the Reagan-era office. Taking a cue from the way Mugler himself conceived themes for collections, Tapeh drew inspiration from the famous 1980s bodybuilder Lisa Lyon.

“ You have to be in industry to understand whether an idea is relevant.”

— Tuomas Laitinen, director of the MFA Fashion Design and the Arts program

She explains, “I wanted to delve into a specific universe and let it inform my design choices.”

The MFA students also worked with professor Chris Vidal Tenomaa

The evening in which Float took over the Guggenheim rotunda materialized organically from Kite City’s spirit of unfettered inquiry and

to style and photograph classmates’ garments as if they were producing

engagement. “Walking down the ramp, people have this impulse to throw

a campaign. “This visual representation is a way for students to

things off the balconies or to roll or skate down the ramp,” Jahn says of

demonstrate how their visual and creative worlds look,” Tenomaa says.

the origins of the course. In developing Kite City, the faculty members were guided by the idea of “embracing this desire and quickly prototyping different things that caught our attention.”

But a fluid project brief does not spell limitless possibilities. “It’s critical that students have design constraints and guidelines and audiences to work with,” Jahn says. After specialists told the class that flying a giant kite inside the museum rotunda wasn’t technically feasible, the group turned their sights to other activities that could be set up with ease.

Their exploration of the functional and expressive possibilities of fan technology resulted in Picos, while their interest in sharing with young

Wendy Kuo

museumgoers the creative processes they employed in their course led them to develop workshops.

The results were revelatory. Noting that Float “gave people the chance to do things that seem to go against the rules of the museum, like flying a kite,” Ramalingam promises that the evening will guide future programming at the Guggenheim. “Seeing how participants found their own choreographies within that installation was not unexpected, but the intensity of the experience really surprised me.”

Araz Yaghoub Nakhjavan Tapeh

“Surprise us” could very well have been the project brief from Brompton, a British inventor and manufacturer of folding bicycles. While the collaboration between the BFA Integrated Design team and the Guggenheim was taking place, School of Constructed Environments (SCE) associate dean Daniel Michalik and MFA Industrial Design program

Parsons Paris MFA Fashion Design and the Arts student Araz Yaghoub Nakhjavan Tapeh interpreted Thierry Mugler’s signature design features—intricate seams, corsets, boning—and exaggerated feminine silhouette in this look created for the Mugler brand partnership.

18 Parsons re:D

Opposite Page: Open back neoprene wool bodysuit with metallic corset accessory on the back and wool leggings. This Page Top: Wool flannel jacke Model: Antonean.

Students participating in the Mugler partnership created publications designed to communicate their creative vision and document their projects. Shown here is a work featuring 3D molded hip accents by MFA Fashion Design and the Arts student Wendy Kuo.

surface that problem,” says Dizdar. “Brompton wanted to learn more about what makes us question things.” Both Dizdar and Wei recently graduated, not long after their designs won first prize among master’s students in the competition.

The studio’s undergraduate winners, 2024 BFA Product Design graduates Rachel Joo and Kyleigh Mogilewski, also developed several prototypes side by side, with an eye to making the bicycles accessible for Disabled and older people. After working on a raincoat that snaps together founder and professor Rama Chorpash were spearheading the Metro Cycling Studio, a partnership between the company and master’s and undergraduate students at SCE. The Parsons x Brompton partnership challenged students to “explore the intersection of design, urban movement, public space, and cycling culture,” according to the company’s North America president, Juliet Scott‑Croxford.

“ Brompton was impressed by the level of rigor that Parsons brought to the project.”

— Daniel Michalik, associate dean of the School of Constructed Environments

MFA student Craig Wei, a project participant, explains, “We weren’t asked to redesign the bicycle” to better integrate it

with magnets and developing several carrier devices, they opted to create

into city living. “Instead, the brief made us think about how bikers would

a portable repair station and app that match cyclists requiring service with

use Brompton for the next 50 years.”

a network of Brompton-certified mobile mechanics.

“Brompton is not a company looking for an exercise,” Chorpash says

“If I need to solder an electronic piece for my prototype, there’s

of the student–manufacturer relationship that unfolded from the loose

a workshop at Parsons for that. If I need to get help dyeing textiles,

directive. “Neither Brompton nor the Parsons students have the answers,

I can go to the Fashion Design department. Parsons uniquely allows

and although the project involved a student competition, the ensuing

multidisciplinary work for partnered problem solving,” Mogilewski says of

search was an authentic, more equal endeavor.”

the project’s development. “Brompton was impressed by the level of rigor

Wei teamed up with MFA student Melis Dizdar on three concepts.

In the weeks leading up to their final presentation, they focused on a

that Parsons brought to the project,” Michalik says.

Chorpash attributes the success of the Brompton partnership in

bike-mounted storage case that expands and contracts by means of an

part to the company’s heritage of progressive innovation paired with

accordion-pleated textile. “Whether we faced a problem of urban bicycling

the public’s increasing embrace of design that promotes social and

or identified a problem that someone else is facing, it was our decision to

environmental good. “I think it’s less that Parsons has changed in the last decade or two than it is that the level of consciousness in the world has changed,” Chorpash says. He notes that the collaboration with Parsons helped Brompton amplify its social impact while benefiting financially.

“This is a moment not of critique, but of imagining another future.”

Chorpash points out that “the role of the university is not just professional training. It’s to help shape the world we live in. That’s the scholarship our

Rachel Joo

Kyleigh Mogilewski

ABOVE: MFA Industrial Design students Melis Dizdar and Craig Wei created a collapsible carrier that can be attached to a folding bicycle frame. BOT TOM RIGHT: BFA Product Design students Rachel Joo and Kyleigh Mogilewski drew on Parsons’ wide array of making tools to design mobile bike repair stations and an app with which to locate them.

Melis Dizdar

Craig Wei 19

ABOVE: A-wa(y)ste is a data-driven interface designed by Irmak Senyurt and Lucia Jaramillo to encourage resource conservation and bio-based solutions.

faculty is working on.” The goal of re-shaping the world—whether by supporting an industry partner with a progressive mindset or introducing a whole industry to new principles and best practices—is central to the new

MS Strategic Design and Management students Irmak Senyurt and Lucia Jaramillo present their project, A-wa(y)ste, at the 2024 Biodesign Challenge conference hosted at Parsons.

generation of Parsons partnerships.

There is evidence of this ambition in recently minted collaborations,

chemicals and carbon-intensive materials and to address other challenges

such as the Lens of Impact initiative just established between the Swiss

through biotechnology. The competition was conceived by the team

government–supported cultural research consultancy Swissnex and

running the independent Brooklyn biology lab Genspace, one member of which, Alison Irvine, a 2014 graduate of both the BA Interdisciplinary Science and the BA Theater programs at Eugene Lang College, now

“ Parsons’ reputation, global networks, and expertise at fostering understanding and reflection make the school an ideal partner.”

— Marc Streit, head of Arts and Creative Industries, Swissnex

serves as treasurer of the BDC executive board. Irvine shared the idea with her contacts at Lang and Parsons, among them AMT faculty member Jane Pirone.

As Pirone recalls, “Because Alison had an interdisciplinary science background, the original question that we discussed was, What if it weren’t just engineers WQusing and asking questions about biotechnology? How would that change the way these things get developed and deployed in the world?”

Parsons’ involvement in the BDC’s development is reflected in

Parsons’ School of Art and Design History and Theory (ADHT).

the program’s attention to questions of ethics and social justice.

An ongoing discussion series organized by professor Caroline Dionne

This focus is evident in a project developed by Elana Farrell and

and staff in Swissnex’s Boston and New York offices, Lens of Impact

Leah Hughes, both BA Interdisciplinary Science '22, which was overseen

examines emerging concerns in the art and design disciplines, such as

by Pirone and AMT colleague Harpreet Sareen. Farrell and Hughes

human–animal relationships and queer identity. A recent public talk

brought the public into the project, in which they developed a culture of

brought together ADHT professor Radhika Subramaniam and Swiss-

bacteria and yeast genetically modified to detect environmental toxins.

based performance artist Daniel Hellman to discuss creative ways to

Farrell has gone on to work at the National Institutes of Health, where

challenge dominant anthropocentric worldviews. According to Marc

she has analyzed lung cancer risks. Hughes has completed grant-funded

Streit, Swissnex’s head of Arts and Creative Industries, such endeavors are

study at Parsons’ Healthy Materials Lab and, through the Cambridge,

essential for his organization, as they “give us critical tools for examining

Massachusetts–based nonprofit Innovators for Purpose, has taught a

the ways local political, social, and cultural landscapes shape design

pilot course on bias in AI and machine learning to Boston-area youth.

practice. Design is a shared collaboration language and lever for societal

She currently serves as an educator at the MIT Museum.

progress toward better futures for all. Parsons’ reputation, global networks, and expertise at fostering understanding and reflection make the school

“A lot of successful work comes directly out of the BDC,” Sareen says, pointing to TômTex as a notable example. TômTex is a bio-based fabric

an ideal partner in cultural exchanges.”

These recent efforts are modeled on long-standing partnerships.

Among these is the Biodesign Challenge (BDC), which Parsons’ School of Art, Media, and Technology (AMT) has co-hosted and competed in since the competition’s inception in 2016. The BDC invites high school and college teams from around the world to create alternatives to toxic

20 Parsons re:D

ABOVE: Parsons’ School of Art and Design History and Theory offers curricula designed to develop students’ analytical capacities. The Lens of Impact events, created with the cultural organization Swissnex, carries forward this aim through conversations between scholars and practitioners on timely topics including sustainability and identity. LEFT: Faculty members Carolina Obregon, Harpreet Sareen, Jane Pirone, and Katayoun Chamany meet with Senyurt and Jaramillo after the two students presented A-wa(y)ste at this year’s Biodesign Challenge.

LEFT: Caity Briare will join the fall 2024 cohort of the MFA Fashion Design and Society program as an inaugural participant in the Parsons Disabled Fashion Student Program. RIGHT: Disability advocate and founder of Tilting the Lens Sinéad Burke and dean of Parsons’ School of Fashion Ben Barry in the University Center.

developed by MFA Textiles graduate Uyen Tran ’21, who received acclaim

Tilting the Lens CEO Sinéad Burke explains that PDFSP students

for the concept at the 2020 BDC and launched a namesake company the

should not feel confined to designing clothing for Disabled people.

same year, while still in school. Whether competition alumni pursue jobs

Nor should they assume responsibility for singlehandedly creating a

or develop enterprises focusing on biotechnology, Pirone says, “they have

more equitable fashion industry. “We cannot place the expectation of

formed professional relationships and a community of practice. And our

radical change on three people,” Burke says. The work of PDFSP thus

longtime relationship with the BDC allows us to stay closely connected

involves several external partners. The program is underpinned by a Ford

to this community and engages us in ongoing education and capacity

Foundation–supported study of Disabled fashion students’ experiences at

building, so that everybody can continue to thrive.” Professor Katayoun

ten schools. The grant has been renewed to fund a partnership with the

Chamany, a geneticist and cell biologist who leads Eugene Lang College’s

Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) for a study of potential

Interdisciplinary Science program and works with AMT to support its BDC

accommodations for Disabled designers and other employees of American

partnership, has even created curriculum modules that BDC organizers

fashion companies.

make available to participants.

“Given that around 11 percent of working-age Americans have

“When you think of the word biodesign, medicine, engineering, and

disabilities, our commitment to enhancing visibility and advocating for

behavioral science may come to mind, but there is no one definition for it,”

a more inclusive, accessible industry is crucial,” says CFDA CEO Steven

Sareen says. “We are helping to crystallize its meaning, with an emphasis

Kolb, speaking of the upcoming research and the forging of professional

on design and criticality.”

pathways for young Disabled people. “Together with Parsons and the

A similarly robust community of practice is emerging at the School of

wider fashion community, we aim to foster a fashion ecosystem that is

Fashion. In December, university leadership announced the founding of the

inclusive and empowering for all abilities and to make a significant move

Parsons Disabled Fashion Student Program (PDFSP) in partnership with

toward a more equitable and dynamic fashion future.”

the accessibility consultancy Tilting the Lens. Over four years, the pilot program will focus on recruitment, instruction, and mentorship of Disabled

According to Barry, “The PDFSP is not just a scholarship program, but a cultural change.” “I can only imagine how much more vibrant the fashion

students, with the aim of promoting equitable access to careers in fashion. “Typically in fashion education and in industry, design teams have invited Disabled folks into a design process as users, as testers,” says the school dean, Ben Barry. “When that’s the primary vehicle for Disabled folks to engage with design, it devalues our knowledge as designers and reasserts a hierarchy in which non-Disabled folks are the ones who hold design knowledge. Part of this program is recognizing that disability experience is also design experience.”

Shifting from consumption to production is one of incoming

“ The Parsons Disabled Fashion Student Program is not just a scholarship program but a cultural change.”

—Ben Barry, dean of Parsons’ School of Fashion

MFA Fashion Design and Society program student Caity Briare’s goals.

industry will become,” says Briare. Burke adds, “This feels different from

“Growing up, it was especially difficult

how we have historically perceived partnerships between schools and

for me to find clothing that fit me, and I

companies and institutions. What is really powerful about this work is that

felt confined to certain clothing options

we’re able to improve their systems as well.”

because I had to think about how it

The approach of the PDFSP, like that of Parsons’ other programs, points

would need significant alteration to

to a future in which partnerships serve as opportunities for professions to

fit me. In 2020, the first time I made

transform themselves. Thanks to the leadership of Parsons professors and

something that fit my body, I was filled

their students, this vision is bound to become reality.

with immense joy and determination,” she recalls. Speaking of being a member of the PDFSP’s inaugural

David Sokol is a New York–based writer specializing in design.

cohort, Briare says, “I have never wanted to be a part of something so deeply.”

21

profiles

Meet our changemaking alumni, students, and faculty and discover work that is making the world more beautiful, just, and sustainable

Having grown up in Gujarat, India—a textile production region—Aradhita Parasrampuria, BFA Fashion Design ’20, MFA Textiles ’22, was familiar with the apparel industry. But upon returning to the area as a Parsons student to work in a textiles plant years later, she learned that the industry was heavily dependent on the use of toxic chemicals and began to see it in a new light.

The experience spurred Parasrampuria to think about safer alternatives.

“Dye production stood out as an area ripe for innovation,” she says.

“Vegetable dyes, which sound eco-friendly, are not as sustainable as they appear, and their range of color is limited.” During the junior year of her BFA program, Parasrampuria was introduced to Genspace, the world’s first community biology lab, where she explored the use of bacteria in fabric dyeing. After months of research and development, she succeeded

Alumni

Aradhita Parasrampuria Biodesigner cellsense.bio

in engineering bacteria that produced vibrant pigments. It was a novel and natural approach to creating dyes with minimal resources.

Parasrampuria also devised a unique polymer using cellulose fibers from textile waste and algae—extremely fast-growing antimicrobial and carbonsequestering organisms—to create natural embellishments such as beads that could replace the petroleum-based plastic varieties typically used in clothing, cosmetics, and other products. In 2022, Parasrampuria founded the start-up Cellsense, which aims to manufacture these sustainable bioembellishments at scale. Cellsense recently won the Earthshot Innovation Challenge and the Ikea Foundation's Redesign Everything Challenge; it also received a Swarovski Foundation Creatives for Our Future grant and an ACCEL fellowship, sponsored by Microsoft and Greentown Labs. Cellsense’s work was also featured at the United Nations Water Conference and was mentioned in connection with Forbes’ 2023 30 Under 30 list of innovators.

Parasrampuria’s career defies labels, bringing together the roles of designer, entrepreneur, inventor, environmentalist, teacher, and researcher.

She credits Parsons with nurturing the interdisciplinary approach she employs in her work. “Parsons encourages systems thinking, which is the foundation of my work now,” says Parasrampuria. “My professors always asked, ‘What’s next?’ This led me to think outside the box.”

Her professors also emphasized the importance of understanding the practical applications of her work. “They encouraged me to make things that people want,” explains Parasrampuria. “It’s not just about sustainability; if it’s not beautiful, then people aren’t going to want it.”

Parasrampuria’s work and new business are already benefiting industry workers and the environment while contributing to the broader effort to transform the fashion system as a whole.

Cellsense’s innovative manufacturing process enables Parasrampuria to create panels of beaded textiles in one step, eliminating the need for the laborious task of sewing beads together. The beads are made from an algae-cellulose polymer; jellyfish protein makes them bioluminescent.

22 Parsons re:D

Microbial pigments are used to dye beads in a spectrum of colors and help make the nontoxic beads compostable at home.

Bead strands and panels can be connected to create garments such as the one shown here.

ABOVE: Parasrampuria creates garments like this one by applying the knowledge she acquired in the BFA Fashion Design program and from her MFA Textiles program experiments in dyeing fabric using bacteria.

“ Parsons encourages systems thinking, which is the foundation of my work now.”

ABOVE: Drops of Cellsense’s biopolymer can be deposited in customized arrays, allowing for elaborate patterns that would otherwise require hours of handwork.

profiles 23

Alumni

Arley Torsone Letterer and Illustrator ladyfingersletterpress.com

For Arley Torsone, BFA Integrated Design ’04, lettering and printmaking are more than crafts—they're a means of amplifying voices and making connections. Torsone and his wife, Morgan Calderini, started Ladyfingers Letterpress in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 2010 after their own handlettered wedding invitation went viral. They began designing custom wedding invitations for others and later expanded to a line of greeting cards infused with wit, personality, and purpose. “We thought about the type of cards we would want, and saw there was a void in the market for cards that were truly inclusive and created connections with different communities,” says Torsone. The beauty and authenticity of their work struck a chord. Their greeting cards and other products are now sold in more than 1,000 stores worldwide.

Torsone and Calderini also create hand-lettered posters with messages promoting inclusivity and social justice, which often appear at protests and marches. For Torsone, the posters are meant to spark dialogue around important issues. “We’re using creative tools at our

Ladyfingers Letterpress creates affordable justice-promoting posters in Torsone’s signature hand lettering.

disposal to create a space where people can be seen and hear one another,” he explains.

In 2014, Torsone and Calderini relocated to Colorado Springs, where they opened a storefront that serves as both a retail shop and their studio. It soon became a center for the community. “We wanted to make sure our business was inclusive—not leaving anyone out or making anyone feel like they didn’t belong,” says Torsone. “As a queer couple, we

“ The program helped solidify my desire to effect change and make a difference.”

knew what that felt like.” Their store attracts people struggling to find their voice and connections with others.

Torsone’s time at Parsons was a formative influence on his practice.

“The students and faculty reflect New York City’s culture and diversity, and their unique perspectives helped me see things in new ways,” says Torsone. Parsons also helped Torsone view design as a multifaceted approach to problem solving. “I got so much out of the Integrated Design program,” he says. “The program helped solidify my desire to effect change and make a difference.”

ABOVE: Witty greeting cards carry messages relevant to communities often overlooked in the marketplace. LEFT: Hand lettering, which Torsone first employed in the invitations he created for his and Calderini's wedding, has become a distinctive feature of the couple’s product line.

24 Parsons re:D

Alumni

M. Florine Démosthène Creative Voyager florinedemosthene.com Sometimes an artist needs to travel far from home to discover what makes them unique. For M. Florine Démosthène, BFA Fine Arts ’98, a move from New York City to Ghana in 2015 revealed what had been missing from her art practice.

“In Ghana, I was truly solo,” says Démosthène. “There was this sense of discovery.” At the time of her arrival, the country was experiencing an art renaissance. Démosthène was inspired by the artists there, who were less careerist and competitive than those she knew in New York.

In Ghana, Démosthène began taking self-portraiture in radically new directions. “I was able to be more vulnerable in my art and explore personal themes like wounds or rejection in pictorial ways,” she says.

She used herself as a model in figurative collages, creating dramatic silhouettes from hand-painted polyester film. She also experimented with

ABOVE: The Weight of Rejection, Part 2 (38” x 50”), a collage on paper from Démosthène’s exhibition Master the Dream, presented at the SCAD Museum of Art.

new materials and hired West African artisans to fabricate items to be incorporated into her work. “At Parsons, I learned the value of constant cross-pollination,” she says. Broadening her perspective in a new location enabled Démosthène to find her voice.

Démosthène returned to New York in 2019 and experienced new success. Her paintings, prints, and sculptures have been exhibited widely, and she was awarded a prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant and a New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Fellowship.

For the next step in her art journey, Démosthène is spearheading the Oracle Project, an interactive interface aimed at preserving Indigenous African languages in diaspora and in danger of dying out. Démosthène will create a shrine-like sculptural installation with a digital interface that visitors can use to submit questions. Creative technologists will program the interface to respond in an Indigenous language as a means of evoking the past and underscoring the need to preserve aspects of African culture threatened by AI biases. The project will draw on Démosthène’s eclectic art-making practice and promises to take her into new creative terrain.

“ At Parsons, I learned the value of constant cross-pollination.”

LEFT: Démosthène’s show Master the Dream presented collages and sculptures representing women and groups of people.

These works were inspired by her time in Ghana. ABOVE RIGHT: A collage on wood panel titled The Dream Master 3 (24” x 36”), part of Master the Dream.

profiles 25

Aviva Shulem, BFA Product Design ’02, loves teaching design at Parsons— especially to first-year students. “The first year at Parsons is like a tasting menu,” she explains. “The first year is when students decide what will be their main course—that is, their major.”

Shulem teaches core classes such as Space and Materiality and Integrative Studio 2. These classes cover essentials of the design process and skills with broad application to majors such as architecture, photography, and fashion, product, and interior design as well as other fields. Shulem notes that the mix of students fosters cross-disciplinary learning and collaboration, even if the students are interested in different creative practices.

No matter what Shulem’s students are creating, they are encouraged to understand that “designers must learn to ask the right questions. This helps them develop the empathy needed to design for

Faculty

Aviva Shulem

the end user.” Primary research and direct observation are critical to

Empathic Educator

the process. “I am a demanding teacher and have high expectations of

avivamayadesign.com

students; therefore, I push them,” she says. “But I tell students I’ll be there to catch you if you fall.”

Shulem’s teaching approach is honed by years of experience in multidisciplinary product and furniture design for companies such as Donghia and Swarovski. She is also passionate about preserving traditional crafts and has worked with artisans in Kashmir, Mali, and Haiti to modernize and market their wares.

When Shulem, the daughter of tailors, was herself a first-year student at Parsons, she thought she would major in fashion. But her Foundation classes exposed her to new 3D making techniques, and the use of different materials set her on a new path. Encouraging first-year students to engage with new forms of creativity and the possibilities they open up connects Shulem to the next generation of designers in their journey through Parsons.

New marketing materials—including this image, created in collaboration with Shulem—promote craft goods and enable makers worldwide to reach new audiences.

Shulem worked with Indian artisans to update their designs for papier-mâché home decor items, aiming to broaden the market for their work.

“ Designers must learn to develop the empathy needed to design for the end user.”

Shulem’s Athena Bassa table lamp of hand-blown Murano glass, created for Donghia.

26 Parsons re:D

Student

Demir Ramazanov Multidisciplinary Designer demirramazanov.com Born in Germany, raised in Kazakhstan, and now living in Paris, fourthyear BFA Art, Media, and Technology student Demir Ramazanov draws inspiration from a range of sources. “Having a multicultural background has definitely shaped my creative approach,” he says of his work, which explores time, place, and media.

Ramazanov’s thesis project—I saw flowers growing from a chair— encompasses furniture design, film, set design, and CGI in a reflection

A still from Ramazanov’s thesis, I saw flowers growing from a chair, created using Blender, Unreal Engine 5, and Quixel Bridge software.

on the complexity of our relationship with nature. Ramazanov digitally designed furniture pieces and then placed them in different environments using game software that gives the tableaux a cinematic feel. He is producing some of the furniture for a gallery setting.

“I’m really interested in our relationship with nature and human influence on the environment,” says Ramazanov. His large-scale mural

“ Parsons Paris offers so many opportunities.”

Syn-Vios, which depicts a human body as part of the natural landscape, was selected for display at LA CASERNE, a multipurpose sustainable fashion hub in Paris.

During an internship at L’AiR Arts, an international artist-in-residence nonprofit organization, Ramazanov participated in creating Ukrainian artist Vasyl Grubliak’s installation Russian Kiss. The work is a site-specific piece consisting of bomb fragments collected from towns and villages across Ukraine and suspended from the gallery ceiling—a poignant reminder of the effects of war. Ramazanov helped design the exhibition materials and produced a video documenting the installation process.

Ramazanov’s work with artists in various media has allowed him to develop a sophisticated aesthetic and approach to art direction. For a recent collaboration with accessory designer Oihana Lasa Pérez, a Parsons Paris graduate, Ramazanov created At the Lake, a photographic series featuring Pérez’s jewelry modeled in idyllic natural settings. “Oihana and I have similar artistic interests,” says Ramazanov, “and we’re both intrigued by representations of water and people’s relationship with water.”

For Ramazanov, being at the center of one of the world’s art and fashion centers has been an important part of his success. “I’m so grateful,” says Ramazanov. “Parsons Paris offers so many opportunities.”

ABOVE: An image from Ramazanov’s creative campaign for designer Oihana Lasa Pérez, a friend from Parsons Paris. LEFT: A still from Industrial Ecology 3, featuring shiny metallic shoes in a dystopian setting.

profiles 27

RIGHT: Selim oversaw the refresh of the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields’ Design Gallery, updated to make it more visitor-friendly.

The entryway features a design timeline, images of period interiors, and masterworks by midcentury designers from the collection.

BELOW: A 1959 illustration for an electric car, from the Detroit Institute of Arts, where Selim recently began working as a curator.

Alumni

Shelley Selim Inclusive Curator @shelleyselim

“ I had such a magical time at Parsons, being surrounded by people with various areas of expertise.”

A curator must wear many hats, according to Shelley Selim, MA History of Design and Curatorial Studies ’13. In Selim’s case, that entails not just scholarly research but also close collaboration with colleagues responsible for the many behind-the-scenes tasks it takes to create exhibitions: “It's a team effort that involves caring for and displaying objects, creating signage, shipping pieces, handling image rights, registering objects, and overseeing exhibition products.”

Selim puts her skills to work daily in her newly created position as the Mort Harris Curator of Automotive, Industrial, and Decorative Design at the Detroit Institute of Arts, covering American and European art and design. She is especially excited by the opportunity to build the museum's collection of automotive design renderings and showcase its connection to Detroit, home to GM, Ford, and Chrysler.

Selim, who claims she is not a “gearhead,” has discovered a new fascination with midcentury automotive design through an exploration of renderings from the time. “The 1930s to the 1970s was a period of robust design experimentation, especially in America,” says Selim, citing the “great tailfins” and bold use of color and textiles characteristic of the era. She plans to reveal to museum visitors the many parallels between automotive design and other forms of industrial design and fine art of the period.

Selim honed her curatorial skills at Parsons, which offered her the opportunity to study at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. “I had such a magical time at Parsons, being surrounded by people with diverse perspectives and areas of expertise,” she says. A curatorial fellowship

Highlights from Selim’s design survey exhibition at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields include historical and contemporary chair designs, Tejo Remy’s You Can’t Lay Down Your Memories chest of drawers, works by Memphis, and a piece

by Midwestern ceramicist Claude Conover.

at Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, situated her in “the hotbed of midcentury design and crafts” and prepared her for her subsequent role as curator of Design and Decorative Arts at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Scholarship and design knowledge are crucial, but Selim believes “what’s most important is how a curator treats people”—from colleagues to artists to philanthropic organizations to visitors, including schoolchildren. “I want to be part of a museum that operates like a town square,” she says, “where you’re welcome and free to roam.”

28 Parsons re:D

Faculty

Mark Randall Creative Connector blineicecream.com worldstudioinc.com

“Design is a way that you view and interact with the world,” says Mark Randall, associate dean of and assistant professor in Parsons’ School of Design Strategies. “As a designer, you’re a lifelong learner.” It’s a belief reflected in his wide-ranging design practice.

Randall came to Parsons as a consultant to the BBA Strategic Design and Management program, a position in which he helped develop external partnerships for the senior capstone class and taught its first cohort. The course connects students with businesses and helps prepare them for their professional lives. “Students love working with external partners because it enables them to see how the abstract concepts they’re learning in the classroom can be applied in the real world,” says Randall. Later, in his role as associate director of the BBA program, he cultivated a diverse group of program partners ranging from start-ups and nonprofits to Fortune 500 companies.

A cup of Randall’s B-Line ice cream, sweetened with local honey from his bees and accompanied by information about environmentalism and sustainability.

In Randall’s own career, he has embraced exploration and bridged disciplines. One of his many interests is honeybees. He has kept bees for more than 20 years and in 2017 started B-Line Ice Cream, a small business in upstate New York that produces ice cream using wildflower honey from his own hives. For Randall, the business is about much more than selling ice cream. “My ice cream company is a platform for raising people’s awareness of issues related to sustainability, climate change, and the importance of pollinators,” he explains.

“ A design education is not about learning a specific skill; it is a process, a way to engage with the world to have a positive impact.”

Randall has brought his passion for bees to the classroom in the form of Honeybee Colonies: Art, Design, Science, and Culture, an interdisciplinary course he created and teaches. A perennially popular class, it attracts students from across Parsons and the rest of The New School, who learn lessons from the world of honeybees and apply them in exploring their own interests and fields of study.

Earlier in his career, Randall co-founded Worldstudio, a design and communications firm that employs creativity to advance social change, along with the nonprofit Worldstudio Foundation and its college scholarship program, which promote diversity in the creative professions.

The foundation has awarded nearly $1.5 million in scholarships, and two recipients have gone on to become Parsons faculty members.

Randall champions the use of an interdisciplinary approach to design as a way to explore ideas and solve problems: “I want my students to come away with an understanding that a design education is not about learning a specific skill; it is a process, a way to engage with the world to have a positive impact.”

ABOVE: Randall and two B-Line Ice Cream associates outside their shop in Narrowsburg, New York.

LEFT: In his role as a faculty member and the associate dean of Parsons’ School of Design Strategies, Randall has developed creative business courses and a group of external partners students can work with.

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Tewari's interpretation of LG’s “Life’s Good” slogan, an animation created with Blender, is titled Peace Is Within.

Tewari’s winning short animation, created for LG’s Wonderbox Showcase contest, played on the company’s Times Square billboard.

Student

Arav Tewari Polymathic Prodigy @arav_colliderscope

“ If there’s one major that’s constantly changing, it’s Design and Technology.”

Making ideas come to life seems to be in Arav Tewari’s DNA. Arriving from India to begin his first year, Tewari was already well-versed in coding and animation; he had also begun exploring AI. “You have to leave your comfort zone,“ he says in explaining why he crossed the globe, his sights set on Parsons’ BFA Design and Technology program and its unique curriculum.

As if freshman year weren’t busy enough, Tewari took on an additional challenge: entering LG Electronics’ Wonderbox Showcase, a competition for U.S. art and design college students. Contestants were asked to create an original animation interpreting the company’s slogan, “Life’s Good.”

“For me, what makes life good is experiences—being outdoors and in nature,” says Tewari. His submission, titled Peace Is Within, features a pair of animated characters surfing and relaxing in a verdant landscape. He and the two other finalists were invited to appear on The Drew Barrymore Show, on which his first-place win was announced. Tewari took home a $25,000 cash prize from the competition, and his 3D animation was featured on LG’s billboard in New York City’s Times Square.

Tewari is excited by the creative potential of the metaverse and immersive experiences, even as he remains wary of the ways “the algorithm” can rule our lives. He is now planning to engage in a design exploration of the opportunities and pitfalls presented by today’s technology. “I would like to take my existential thoughts and bring people into them,” he says.

Parsons seems to be the perfect environment for Tewari to explore his passions. His Design and Technology program classes push him to delve into new worlds and learn new skills while remaining mindful of the bigger picture.

Peace Is Within debuted on The Drew Barrymore Show and was then screened in Times Square, familiarizing the public with Tewari’s name, his winning design, and his school.

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“The world is changing faster than anyone can anticipate,” he says, “and if there’s one major that’s constantly changing and helping us keep pace, it’s the BFA in Design and Technology.”

Alumni

Hanadi Almarzouq Design Documentarian @hanadialmarzouq “My art is conceptual and my role as a product designer is educational, to provide critique,” says Hanadi Almarzouq, MFA Industrial Design ’20.

Almarzouq’s upbringing in Kuwait provides much of the impetus for her conceptual approach. She saw how the oil industry brought immense wealth to her country but was also “a destructive force,” connected with catastrophic oil spills and pollution, the disappearance of traditional crafts, and the demolition of historic buildings.

When Almarzouq began her master’s program at Parsons, she had been running her own retail shop in Kuwait, selling designer goods and gifts. “I felt like slow design was my destiny instead, but I didn’t know how to do it,” she says. She wanted to learn about more sustainable ways of designing and manufacturing. “At Parsons, I visited recycling facilities and learned about responsible processes,” says Almarzouq. “The MFA program opened my eyes to what it means for an industrial

ABOVE: Almarzouq’s Traces of Nostalgia includes this piece in which a tire—a product made with petroleum, a resource whose discovery has profoundly shaped Kuwait’s identity—is patterned with traditional Kuwaiti textile designs. The tire tracks are meant to remind viewers of the impact the petroleum industry has had on Kuwait’s physical, economic, and cultural landscape. BELOW: A collage juxtaposes items reflecting Kuwait’s cultural heritage with artifacts of the petroleum industry.

designer to have a moral compass.”

After graduation, Almarzouq was offered an artist’s residency with the Sadu House, a Kuwaiti cultural organization promoting textiles and other traditional artisanal work. She used the opportunity to create Traces of Nostalgia, a multimedia exhibition built on her master’s thesis at Parsons. Drawing on the fact that Kuwait has the largest “tire graveyard” in the world, Almarzouq used tires and their tracks as a powerful visual motif to symbolize the destruction caused by the oil and automobile industries. Tire imagery also figures in her short film Anthropocene, which focuses on a Bedouin girl who has lost her “weaving memory.”

“The exhibition functions like a story about place and environmental threats,” says Almarzouq. Her hope is for this and future stories to build awareness and promote change. “I think of everyone viewing the exhibition as a designer,” she says. “My message of change is activated through viewers.”

“ At Parsons, I visited recycling facilities and learned about responsible processes.”

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Alumni

Petra Fagerstrom Fashion Innovator petrafagerstrom.com While choosing a fashion design program, Petra Fagerstrom, BFA Fashion Design ’22, came across conceptually rich work created by Parsons Paris students and knew that the school would be the right fit for her. “I didn't even consider other options for my undergraduate study, which was quite bold,” she says.

Inspired to create similarly forward-looking work, Fagerstrom moved to New York from Sweden. Today, as she reflects on her time at Parsons, she points to the fashion education she received at Parsons Paris as the foundation for the innovative work that now brings her acclaim. “I had never really learned the creative process before,” she says. Fagerstrom says she also benefited from a curriculum that honed her skills in Fagerstom created this smocked and pleated dress from a military surplus parachute.

collaborating, meeting deadlines, and critiquing work.

After graduating, Fagerstrom won two awards at the 38th Festival de Hyères in France for pieces created from upcycled surplus parachutes, which were also featured in Vogue Italia. In creating the collection, Fagerstrom engaged in a kind of fashion storytelling, drawing inspiration from her grandmother’s military attire. The collection also reflected the expertise in sustainability that she developed at Parsons Paris and applied in her undergraduate thesis work.

Fagerstrom cites Tuomas Laitinen as her most valuable faculty mentor.

“He’s constantly in contact with designers and people in the industry and is aware of how the field is changing,” she says. Collaborating with experienced faculty contributed significantly to her success, leading to prestigious internships at Acne Studios and Balenciaga Paris. “A designer from Acne noticed my work at a school event, which led to my interview,” Fagerstrom recalls. The Balenciaga internship arose from a school posting, and she received faculty assistance in preparing for interviews and refining her portfolio.

Fagerstrom is currently enrolled in a master’s degree program and is working with the Swedish Fashion Council to launch her own brand. She aspires to direct a womenswear brand. “It’s my dream to make something that goes beyond fashion and build community around my work,” says Fagerstrom.

This “para-puffer” jacket, made from down-filled surplus parachute nylon, and the dress shown above are from Fagerstrom’s SS24 collection. Lugged Mary Jane shoes feature industrial chains on their soles, much like the ones attached to car tires for added traction in the snow.

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“ It’s my dream to make something that goes beyond fashion and build community around my work.”

Alumni

Tanya Taylor Artful Entrepreneur tanyataylor.com

With her team of 45, Tanya Taylor, AAS Fashion Design ’09, has built a beloved line of women’s apparel praised for its lush colors and wearable silhouettes. Ten years after she started her brand, the collection is sold in retailers such as Neiman Marcus and Saks; Taylor has also opened her own brick-and-mortar store on Madison Avenue. She can often be found there, helping customers style looks and holding events at which she talks to customers about their needs.

Taylor’s long-standing passion for art is reflected in the hand-painted patterns she creates for looks such as the Bellflower print for these versatile dresses, offered in a range of sizes, from her SS 2024 collection.

“ At Parsons, I was never made to feel I was doing something right or wrong as long as I could clearly explain my creative concepts.”

Taylor graduated from McGill with a finance degree but realized she wanted a more creative path. She moved to New York to pursue a fashion degree at Parsons. “From the very first day, Parsons underscored the importance of curiosity. Teachers push you to explore your ideas, to fall in love with the city and see it as a playground for creativity.” She remains close to faculty members who helped her find her voice.

The school’s focus on empathetic design allowed Taylor to achieve what many fashion designers fail to do: make size inclusivity a priority.

She works with models of all body types and has developed a unique core collection of elevated essentials that offers women a sustainable wardrobe—and gives her business a solid foundation.

While at Parsons, Taylor interned with The Row’s Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and worked with them for several years after graduation.

Inspired to create a place in the market for what she calls a “feminine voice and an authentic new point of view on prints and color,” she left the company to launch her own brand, for which she serves as CEO and creative director. Seeking a press-worthy place to debut her line, Taylor found a Museum of Modern Art sponsor who donated a time slot in the museum’s lobby. The event won the attention of prominent fashion media.

“It’s how Michelle Obama saw the collection and how retailers discovered it,” says Taylor. She still keeps Obama’s dress form in the studio, “so we can react quickly and create what she wants.”

Today she dresses First Lady Jill Biden with her usual attention to fit and color and is working on an evening line with Maisonette that shows “there’s something between super-sweet and hyper-sexy.” If anyone can thread that needle, it’s Tanya Taylor.

ABOVE: Moodboards reveal Taylor’s love of color and patterns such as polka dots, featured on her Joy Dress, a popular strapless dress with an oversized bow that debuted at her company’s tenth-anniversary party. RIGHT: Taylor’s Madison Avenue store offers her apparel and handcrafted home decor items.

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We’re Parsons— and we’re designing a world you want to live in

WHAT CAN YOU STUDY HERE? Degree Programs Architectural Design (BFA) Architecture (MArch) Architecture and Lighting Design Dual Degree (MArch/MFA) Art, Media, and Technology (BFA) Parsons Paris only Communication Design (BFA, MPS, AAS) Data Visualization (MS) Design and Technology (BFA, MFA)

Parsons School of Design—consistently top-ranked among

Design and Urban Ecologies (MS)

art and design schools in the United States and around the

Design History and Practice (BFA)

globe—has sent changemaking artists and designers out into the world since its founding more than 120 years ago. Today we’re part of The New School, a major university in New York

Fashion Design (BFA, AAS) Fashion Design and Society (MFA) Fashion Design and the Arts (MFA) Parsons Paris only Fashion Management (MPS) on campus or online Fashion Marketing and Communication (AAS)

City offering programs in subjects ranging from the liberal arts

Fashion Studies (MA)

and humanities to the performing arts to media, management,

Fine Arts (BFA, MFA)

and more. Here and at our Parsons Paris campus, a diverse

History of Design and Curatorial Studies (MA) Illustration (BFA)

community channels its creative and critical capacities into

Industrial Design (MFA)

fostering a more equitable, sustainable, and beautiful world

Integrated Design (BFA)

through innovative art, design, and architecture.

Interior Design (BFA, MFA, AAS) Interior Design and Lighting Design Double Major (MFA) Lighting Design (MFA) Photography (BFA, MFA) Product Design (BFA) Strategic Design and Management (BBA, MS) Strategic Design for Global Leadership (MS) Textiles (MFA) Transdisciplinary Design (MFA) newschool.edu/parsons/academics

Continuing and Professional Education Parsons also offers courses that help you prepare a portfolio, explore art and design, or fast-track your career or entrepreneurial ambitions. newschool.edu/parsons/continuing-education

facts at a Glance #1 art and design school in the U.S.1 5,600+ students at Parsons (10,000+ at The New School as a whole) 2 47% international students at Parsons 45,000+ Parsons alumni worldwide 1

Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings, 2024.

2

Fall 2023.

CONTACT US Admission Offices Parsons Undergraduate thinkparsons@newschool.edu

34 Parsons re:D

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ABOVE: A watercolor-and-ink sketch by Raymond Waldron of a period room in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.

RIGHT: Another Waldron sketch, dated 1948, of the Basilica di Santa Maria Della Salute in Venice.

Iconic work from Parsons’ archives (1940s)

Drawing Inspiration from Paris and Beyond Students’ travel diaries from the midcentury In the 1940s, Parsons offered summer immersions in classical European art, design, and culture through its Paris campus.

Several students documented their travels in journals that are now part of The New School Archives. These records offer a rare glimpse of their experiences and testify to Parsons’ position on the leading edge of art and design education.

The program traces its roots to 1921, when Parsons (then called the New York School of Fine and Applied Art) opened the Paris Ateliers, becoming the first school in the United States to establish an international outpost. It was at this location that the iconic Parsons Table was designed, in a 1930s drafting class taught by Jean-Michel Frank.

The Ateliers closed during World War II, but Paris became an important hub for Parsons once again with the start of the summer program after the war. Students took courses on art history and architecture and embarked on extensive tours through Italy and France, visiting some of Europe’s most notable palaces, gardens, and museums, such as Versailles’ Grand Trianon, Rome’s Villa Borghese and Palazzo Colonna, and Genoa’s Palazzo Reale.

Journals capture in vivid detail the impressions of Americans seeing historic European sites and important artworks firsthand. They also record itineraries, purchases like meals and souvenirs, and details of travel, giving readers today a sense of the early days of study abroad.

The students’ journals reflect Parsons’ emphasis on hand skills: Journals abound with sketches and watercolors of art and architecture. They also provide a window on postwar life in European artistic and intellectual circles. Students write about attending lectures by Van Day Truex (then president of Parsons and later the creative director of Tiffany’s), receiving a house tour

by Elsie de Wolfe, and mingling with the likes of Truman Capote and Peggy Guggenheim at parties and on outings.

The journals bear witness to students’ creative growth and document the start of lifelong friendships. They also reflect Parsons’ embrace of cross-cultural exchange, a tradition that continues today.

newschool.edu/parsons