Faculty

Daniel Drak is Assistant Professor of Fashion Management and Director of the MPS Fashion Management program at Parsons School of Design. His work asks how fashion education can prepare students not simply to enter industry, but to understand, critique and reshape the systems that govern it. Daniel's research examines digital fashion, avatar systems, gaming and platform power, with particular attention to how queer, disabled and other marginalized communities use dress and technology to build identity, access and belonging. As an educator and academic leader, he develops curricula and program structures that connect business strategy with justice, responsible innovation and systems thinking. His project-based pedagogy draws on experience across fashion communication, design research, event production and academic leadership, helping students move from critical inquiry strategic and creative action.

Master of Science (MS), Strategic Design & Management, Parsons School of Design, The New School, 2016

Bachelor of Design (BDes), Fashion Communication, Toronto Metropolitan University, 2013

Drak, Daniel. “Mediatized Sustainability: Branded Digital Fashion Consumption.” In Creating Responsible and Inclusive Fashion Brand Narratives: Theory and Practice, edited by Emily Huggard, 53-70. Routledge, 2026. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003516750. Särmäkari, Natalia, Emily Huggard, and Daniel Drak. “Digital Avatars as Fashioned Bodies: Identity Making and Boundaries.” In Digital Fashion: Artificial Intelligence, Virtual, and Other Emerging Applications, edited by Abu Sadat Muhammad Sayem, 104-115. Routledge, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003594482-9.

Drak, Daniel, and Ben Barry. “Disability Dress in Video Games: Player Modding and Fashioning Disability Worlds in The Sims 4.” ZoneModa Journal 15, no. 2 (2025): 71-85. https://doi.org/10.60923/issn.2611-0563/23051. Smith-Glaviana, Dina, Alyssa Ridder, Daniel Drak, and Laura L. Camerlengo. “2025 Scholars’ Roundtable: From Zoom to Lectra: The Tools, Theories, and Technologies That Move Dress Forward.” Dress (2025): 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/03612112.2025.2561450. Drak, Daniel, and Ben Barry. “Modding Masculinities: Video Game Glitches and Transcending Gendered Dress.” Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion 10, no. 2 (2023): 197-215. https://doi.org/10.1386/csmf_00076_1.