Parsons - Layout Settings

Notable Alumni

Anna Sui

Fashion Designer

Anna Sui is a world-renowned American fashion designer and an alumna of Parsons. In her successful career, she has designed award-winning garments for her own label and sportswear companies and created products for Google, Anthropologie, and Samsung. In 2009, she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) and in 2018, her retrospective exhibition opened at NYC's Museum of Arts and Design.

Rich Silverstein

Creative Director

Rich Silverstein is a creative director, Parsons alumnus, and one half of the award-winning advertising team Goodby and Silverstein. Over the past four decades, G&S have created timeless advertising campaigns, like “Got Milk” and “Sega!,” that reflect our culture and live on in our hearts and minds while bearing witness to the power of creative communication.

Donna Karan

Fashion Designer & Philanthropist

BFA Fashion Design alumna Donna Karan is a household name in fashion and entrepreneurship. While a Parsons student, Karan interned at Anne Klein, learning the fashion business as an associate designer. With her husband, Stephan Weiss, Karan launched her eponymous company in 1984, and quickly carved her niche, designing for working women, notably through her Seven Easy Pieces collection of mix-and-match separates. Today, she focuses on global wellness through her Urban Zen Foundation.

Tracy Reese

Fashion Designer

Reese set new standards in women's ready-to-wear fashion after studying at Parsons. She worked under French designer Martine Sitbon and eventually became head of the Women's Portfolio for Perry Ellis. She went on to launch a resort wear line and flagship stores in NYC and Tokyo, and she recently started two sustainable fashion lines. Reese has served on the board of the Council of Fashion Designers of America and her celebrity clients include former First Lady Michelle Obama.

Marc Jacobs

Fashion Designer

Jacobs became a legend by famously having pieces plucked for production straight from his Parsons senior show. His career and acclaim blossomed after, with positions at Perry Ellis and a 17-year post at Louis Vuitton — all while cultivating his own line and a global following. Today he exerts remarkable industry and cultural influence. Jacobs' success reflects his embrace of change: “Design is an evolutionary process,” he says. “I can never tell what the end will be without going through it.”

Ai Weiwei

Fine Artist & Activist

Artist and activist Ai Weiwei is known for creatively speaking truth to power. While a Parsons student, he learned to meld art practices and bold political dissent to challenge worldwide misuse of power. Exiled for creating art critical of the Chinese government, he relocated to Berlin, where he came to empathize with those affected by global migration and made a film to raise awareness of the issue. Weiwei recently took part virtually in our Vera List Center's “Fear of Art” campus symposium.

Robert Wong

CCO of Google Creative Lab

Over the past two decades, Wong, a BFA Communication Design graduate, has invented innovative Web tools that have revolutionized contemporary life. As chief creative officer of Google Creative Lab, Wong and his team create campaigns that illustrate the ways technology can be woven into everyday experience to positive effect. His Super Bowl Web short Parisian Love — in which Google searches wordlessly chronicle an intercontinental romance — has been viewed more than eight million times.

Sheila Bridges

Interior Designer

Industry leader and AAS Interior Design alumna Sheila Bridges has innovated her field through the tailor-made spaces she has created for clients with diverse backgrounds, from Sean “P. Diddy” Combs to President Bill Clinton. Distinctive products like her Harlem Toile de Jouy wallpaper and textile line, which depict African American subjects at leisure, are culturally affirming and infuse equity and representation into a market growing in diversity.

Manuel Lima

Information Designer

Portuguese-born designer, author, and Parsons Design and Technology MFA alumnus Manuel Lima is a leading voice in the field of information visualization, a discipline he pioneered to depict and contextualize data, making new insights possible. Working for a range of companies like Nokia, Microsoft, and Google and lecturing for colleges and in TED Talks, Lima is a global advocate for transforming information into action for clients ranging from creatives to CEOs.

A Century of Creative Groundbreakers

Fashion

  • Tom Ford, designer and filmmaker
  • Maria Cornejo, sustainable designer
  • Narciso Rodriguez, designer
  • Mara Hoffman, designer
  • Gilbert Adrian, costume designer for The Wizard of Oz
  • Yeohlee Teng, zero-waste designer
  • Willi Smith, designer
  • Bill Blass, designer
  • Joel Schumacher, filmmaker and costume designer
  • Lela Rose, designer
  • Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez (Proenza Schouler), designers
  • Jeffrey Banks, designer and author
  • Derek Lam, designer 
  • Aimee Kestenberg, accessories designer
  • Chris Benz, designer and SVP Design, Womens & crewcuts (J.Crew)
  • Mark Badgley and James Mischka, designers
  • Lauren Rodriguez, ethical/sustainable designer
  • Sophie Buhai, jewelry designer
  • Patrick Kelly, designer
  • Donald Brooks, designer
  • Kay Unger, designer and philanthropist
  • Peter Som, designer
  • Isabel Toledo, designer
  • Prabal Gurung, designer
  • Alexander Wang, designer
  • Claire McCardell, designer
  • Michaele Vollbracht, designer and illustrator
  • Carly Cushnie, designer
  • Reed Krakoff, designer and artistic director of Tiffany & Co. 
  • Carmen Marc Valvo, designer
  • Isaac Mizrahi, designer and television host
  • Emily Adams Bode, sustainable designer
  • Adri, designer

Graphic Design, Branding & Advertising

  • Paul Rand, creative director and designer 
  • Bea Feitler, art director and designer
  • Van Day Truex, advertising designer and former head of Tiffany & Co.
  • Nancye Green and Michael Donovan, designers and founders of Donovan/Green 
  • Product Design
  • Bob Williams, co-founder of Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams
  • Alina Roytberg, co-founder of beauty brand Fresh
  • Hlynur Atlason, designer
  • Alex Lee, designer and former president of OXO 
  • Emily Sugihara, founder of Baggu bags
  • Hinda Miller, designer and co-founder of Jogbra
  • Christiane Lemieux, founder of DwellStudio

Interior Design

  • Victoria Hagan, designer
  • Jamie Drake, designer
  • Albert Hadley, designer
  • Betty Stevens Sherrill, designer and chair of McMillen, Inc.
  • Mario Buatta, designer
  • Angelo Donghia, entrepreneur and designer
  • Juan Montoya, designer

Fine Art

  • Edward Hopper, painter and printmaker
  • Jasper Johns, painter, sculptor, and printmaker 
  • Norman Rockwell, painter, author, and illustrator
  • Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, painter and sculptor
  • Nina Chanel Abney, painter

Digital & UX/UI Design

  • Alex Levin, interaction designer
  • Zach Lieberman, interaction design and co-creator of OpenFrameworks software
  • Ryan Germick, designer and Google Doodle lead
  • David Carroll, digital designer and privacy activist

Photography

  • Richard Avedon, photographer
  • Steven Meisel, fashion photographer
  • Erik Madigan Heck, fashion photographer
  • Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich Asians

Architecture

  • Rose Connor, architect
  • Marc Thorpe, architect and industrial designer

Illustration

  • Sun-Min Kim and David Horvath, illustrators and creators of Ugly Dolls
  • Peter de Sève, illustrator and filmmaker
  • Duncan Tonatiuh Smith, author and illustrator
  • Leo and Diane Dillon, illustrators and authors 

Management & Consulting

  • Ariel Kennan, integrated service designer
  • Sara Little Turnbull, design consultant and strategist
  • Shawn David Nelson, founder of Lovesac

Take The Next Step

Notice of Nondiscriminatory Policy

The New School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.