Notable Alumni

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 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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.