• 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.

  • 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

Submit your application

Undergraduates

To apply to any of our undergraduate programs (except the Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs) complete and submit the Common App online.

Undergraduate Adult Learners

To apply to any of our Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.

Graduates

To apply to any of our Master's, Doctoral, Professional Studies Diploma, and Graduate Certificate programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.

Close