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2009 PARSONS FASHION BENEFIT HONORED
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| Tom Murry, Francisco Costa |
NEW YORK, April 30, 2009 – Last evening, Parsons The New School for Design honored Tom Murry, President & CEO of Calvin Klein, Inc., and Francisco Costa, the company's Women's Creative Director for Calvin Klein Collection at its 2009 Parsons Fashion Benefit at Cipriani Wall Street.
Each year the event celebrates visionaries who have significantly contributed to the field of fashion design, as well as presents the top student collections including Parsons Designers of the Year. Chairman, President & CEO of Macy’s Terry Lundgren presented Mr. Murry with his honorary award, while Vogue’s Editor-at-Large André Leon Talley bestowed Mr. Costa with his award.
This year, Parsons presented New York Times Fashion Critic Cathy Horyn with the first Student Icon Award, which is given by the graduating class to a powerful voice in the fashion community that inspires and influences their work. Additionally, Parsons Alumnus Peter Som presented a short film about Parsons.
"We are honored to celebrate the achievements of Francisco Costa and Tom Murry in fashion design and their success in branding and retail," said New School President Bob Kerrey. "Both Tom and Francisco have shown through their actions that they know that the design industry can only remain viable when it keeps evolving. They also recognize that nurturing and cultivating the future talent is essential to business success."
The Parsons Fashion Benefit raises funds for scholarships and academic programs at Parsons, a leader in design education in disciplines ranging from fashion design to communication design and technology, product design, interior design, architecture, photography, fine art and more. The event attracts an array of figures from the worlds of fashion, media and culture. This year's guests included Anna Wintour, Donna Karan, Eva Mendes, Marc Jacobs, Dree Hemingway, Russell Simmons, Tracy Reese, Phillip Lim, Linda Fargo, Julie Gilhart, Helena Christensen, Molly Sims, Parsons Board Chair Sheila Johnson and many more.
"Tom and I are thrilled to receive these prestigious awards from Parsons," said Mr. Costa, who hosted a reception for Parsons with a preview of the student collections earlier this month in the Calvin Klein Collection store on Madison Avenue. "Calvin Klein has a longstanding relationship with Parsons and we are always impressed with their students’ high level of talent."
A highlight of the annual event is the much-anticipated debut of the collections of the Designer of the Year candidates in womenswear, menswear, and childrenswear. This year's Designers of the Year were Julia Blum and Robert Fitzsimmons for womenswear; Edward Lorenz Tan for menswear; and Anika Gupta (boys) and Azumi Nishizawa (girls) for childrenswear. The Parsons Fashion Benefit has helped launch the careers of some of Parsons’ most talented alumni, including 2004 honoree Marc Jacobs '84; Jack McCollough ’02 and Lazaro Hernandez ’02 both of Proenza Schouler, winner of the CFDA 2007 Womenswear Designer of the Year; Doo-Ri Chung ’95, winner of the 2006 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and the CFDA 2006 Swarovski’s Perry Ellis Award for Emerging Talent; and 2008 Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund finalists Sophie Buhai '03 and Lisa Maycock '03 of Vena Cava.
“The benefit is an opportunity for an audience of highly respected fashion professionals to see the impressive work of our students—not only the thesis collections but also new collaborative projects with Cesare Paciotti, Swarovski, Henri Bendel and Ellen Tracy,” said Parsons Fashion Dean Simon Collins. “This year, in addition to showcasing student work, we debuted a short film that provides an insider's view of life in our fashion school. We also have drawn from the tremendous talent to be found across Parsons to help to produce an outstanding event, from lighting design to web design, filmmaking and more. One additional way that we have involved our students is in presenting the first Student Icon Award. We were thrilled to present the award this year to Cathy Horyn, whose incisive fashion reporting and criticism has provided much needed insight into contemporary fashion."
At the event, Mr. Collins announced the winners of the collaborative projects, including Henri Bendel Handbag Competition winner Nanae Takata; Cesare Paciotti Shoe Design Competition winner Kwame Brako; and Swarovski Costume Competition winner Ivy Kirk. The public will have an opportunity to view the top thesis collections at the Parsons BFA Fashion Static Show, on view May 12-14 at Parsons' David M. Schwartz Fashion Education Center, 560 Seventh Avenue (for more information, please visit www.newschool.edu/parsons/events). Continuing its tradition from the past several years, Saks Fifth Avenue also will present selections from the top collections in the windows of its flagship store, May 12-20. Lastly, for the second year running, Parsons will partner with the Nolita boutique, Debut, which supports emerging designers, for a presentation of select Parsons collections in its gallery-like retail space from June 16-21.
Editor's Note: for more information on the above-mentioned events and competitions, please contact Deborah Kirschner at 212.229.5667x4310 or [email protected].
About the Honorees
Tom Murry, President & CEO of Calvin Klein, Inc., directs the day-to-day operations of one of the world's largest and most successful design fashion companies, which has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation since 2003. Mr. Murry focuses on business strategy, marketing, and sales development for all Calvin Klein product lines under the Calvin Klein Collection, ck Calvin Klein, and Calvin Klein brands. Mr. Murry joined Calvin Klein, Inc. in 1996.
Francisco Costa is the Women's Creative Director of Calvin Klein Collection. Earlier in his career, he worked for a number of other top design houses, including Gucci, Balmain Couture, and Oscar de la Renta, and directly with Calvin Klein himself. Mr. Costa created his first collection for the house for the spring 2004 season and he was named Womenswear Designer of the Year by the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2006 and again in 2008.
Cathy Horyn has been the fashion critic of The New York Times since 1999. Prior to joining the Times, she was a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, where she covered fashion and Hollywood. From 1990 to 1994, she was the fashion reporter for The Washington Post. She began her career in 1980 at the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia. A native of Coshocton, Ohio, she graduated from Barnard College in New York City, and has a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University.
About Parsons The New School for Design
With the launch of the first fashion design program in America in 1906, Parsons is credited with giving birth to Seventh Avenue, the epicenter of American fashion. Parsons offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and Associate Degrees in Fashion Studies and Fashion Marketing, and in 2010 expects to launch a Master of Fine Arts Program in Fashion Design and Society that was initiated through an endowed professorship by Parsons alumna Donna Karan. Parsons has educated a who’s who list of the fashion industry, including design 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, Thakoon Paniguchal, Proenza Schouler, Behnaz Sarafpour, Peter Som, Vena Cava, Alexander Wang, and Jason Wu. For more information, visit www.newschool.edu/parsons.
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