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PARSONS PRESENTS AN EVENING WITH DONNA KARAN

Karan in Conversation with Valerie Steele: February 4 at The New School
Event Marks Launch of MFA in Fashion Design and Society at Parsons

Donna Karan

NEW YORK, January 19, 2010 – 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 Thursday, 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.

To place a reservation for this free event, please visit www.donnakaranatparsons.eventbrite.com.

Workwear will also include an exhibition and symposium at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons. The exhibition, on view February 8 through March 5, 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. For more information, please visit www.newschool.edu/workwear.

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. For more information, please visit www.newschool.edu/thinkparsons.

About Donna Karan
"Everything I do is a matter of heart, body and soul," says Donna Karan, chief designer of the international company that bears her name. Karan credits her feminine instincts for the success of the company she founded in 1984, which went on to become a publicly traded enterprise in 1996. Five years later, in 2001, it was acquired by its present owner, the French luxury conglomerate LVMH.

Karan’s quest for the perfect jeans resulted in the 1989 birth of DKNY. Fast fashion with an urban mindset, DKNY is what Karan calls "the pizza to Collection’s caviar." DKNY grew so popular and diverse that other brands and labels spun from it, including, DKNY Men, DKNY Jeans, DKNY Active, DKNY Kids, and PureDKNY. Completing the lifestyle approach to design, in 1992 Karan also took on the world of beauty, a division that has gone onto to introduce some of the world’s best-selling fragrances. Other successful licensees for Collection and DKNY include hosiery, intimate apparel, eyewear, and accessories. In 2001, Karan introduced a Donna Karan Home collection "all about touch and feel," and DKNY Home, with its fashion-forward bedding and accessories.

Donna Karan International has in excess of 100 company-owned and licensed freestanding Donna Karan Collection, DKNY and DKNY JEANS stores worldwide. The first flagships opened in London—DKNY in 1994, and Collection two years later. There are now two DKNY stores in New York City—one on the Upper East Side on Madison Avenue, the other in SoHo on West Broadway—embracing Karan's uptown/downtown concept of the DKNY brand. Bringing it back to where it all began, in 2001 Karan opened the Donna Karan New York flagship store, the premiere Collection environment, at 819 Madison Avenue. Designed as “a serene escape from the city’s chaos,” a dramatic indoor/outdoor river-rock garden runs through the townhouse’s ground floor. Together, the Collection and the two DKNY Manhattan stores embody Karan’s celebrated and unparalleled vision of authentic New York style.

Using her company's visibility and resources for social causes is a heartfelt priority to Karan, and her Urban Zen Initiative, founded in 2007, is the culmination of her philanthropic efforts. "I have founded the Urban Zen Initiative to create a working structure for advancing wellness, preserving culture and empowering children. These are causes that mean the world to me."

About Valerie Steele
Valerie Steele (PhD, Yale University) is Director and Chief Curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She has curated more than 20 exhibitions in the past ten years, including Gothic: Dark Glamour; Love & War: The Weaponized Woman; The Corset: Fashioning the Body; London Fashion; and Femme Fatale: Fashion in Fin-de-Siècle Paris.

Editor-in-chief of Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture (Berg Publishers), Dr. Steele is also the author of numerous books, including Gothic: Dark Glamour; The Corset: A Cultural History; Paris Fashion; Fifty Years of Fashion: New Look to Now; Fetish: Fashion, Sex and Power; and Women of Fashion: 20th-Century Designers. She was editor-in-chief of the three-volume Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion. Her latest book was Isabel Toledo: Fashion from the Inside Out, which she co-authored with Patricia Mears, in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name. She is currently working on a book and exhibition, Japan Fashion Now.

About Parsons The New School for Design
Parsons The New School for Design is one of the most prestigious and comprehensive schools of art and design in the world. It is an integral part of The New School, a research university with a strong legacy in the social sciences. Based in New York, but active around the world, Parsons is committed to creatively and critically addressing the complexities of life in the 21st century. With the establishment of the first fashion design program in America in 1906, Parsons is credited with giving birth to Seventh Avenue, the epicenter of American fashion. In addition to Donna Karan, notable Parsons-trained fashion designers include legends Adrian, Claire McCardell and Norman Norell; industry leaders Tom Ford, Marc Jacobs, Isaac Mizrahi, Narciso Rodriguez and Anna Sui; and rising talents Chris Benz, Doo-Ri Chung, Derek Lam, Proenza Schouler, Peter Som, Vena Cava, Ohne Titel, Alexander Wang and Jason Wu. For more information, please visit www.newschool.edu/parsons.

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