To mark the launch of a new MFA program in Fashion Design and Society this fall, Parsons The New School for Design presents an evening with alumna Donna Karan on February 4, at The New School's historic Tishman Auditorium.
The MFA in Fashion Design and Society is an advanced degree for talented, emerging fashion designers who are poised to become the next industry leaders. A studio-based program fostering experimentation, the program was initiated through the support of Karan, whose own career has embraced a broad view of fashion and helped define a new chapter in American fashion design.
The evening conversation, moderated by Valerie Steele, the director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, is part of “Workwear,” a new Parsons programming series that reflects the types of themes that will be explored in the new MFA program. Throughout the spring, the series will celebrate the legacy of work wear in American fashion and how this has influenced contemporary constructions of New York as a fashion capital.
As part of this series, Karan will discuss her work and career, including the phenomenal success of her signature label stemming from her desire to "design modern clothes for modern people," founded on a basic bodysuit that became an instant fashion classic, and her iconic Seven Easy Pieces, a modern system of dressing for women where a handful of interchangeable items together create an entire wardrobe.
“Workwear” will also include an exhibition and symposium at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons. The exhibition (08 February - 05 March, 2010) will feature both iconic and cutting-edge work, including Donna Karan's Seven Easy Pieces; Boilersuit by Savile Row tailors Norton & Sons in collaboration with Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller; a newly commissioned film by the fashion label Boudicca; Paul Fejos' silent-film masterpiece “Lonesome” (1928); and installations by Shelley Fox, an experimental designer, Donna Karan Professor of Fashion Design at Parsons, and director of the new MFA program.
A symposium on February 13 will explore the themes of work wear from historical, cultural and sociological perspectives. ‘Workwear” is presented in collaboration with University of the Arts, London.
The MFA in Fashion Design and Society is one of two new graduate programs in the field of fashion that Parsons is launching this fall, which also includes an MA in Fashion Studies. Both are the first of their kind in the United States and are interdisciplinary in nature, placing fashion in a contemporary, global context that recognizes its significance as a cultural, social and economic force.
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