Initiated with the support of Parsons alumna Donna Karan, the MFA Fashion Design and Society at Parsons The New School for Design is the first graduate program of its kind in the US. This interdisciplinary and international academy trains world-class designers to have a global understanding of fashion. As part of New York’s MADE Fashion Week at Milk Studios in September 2012, Parsons hosted its first catwalk show. It was called the First Eighteen in honor of the program’s 18 graduate designers. The tradition continues as Round 3 is held during New York Fashion Week 2014. The program features collections from the designers handpicked by the school which cultivated Tom Ford, Jenna Lyons, Jason Wu and Alexander Wang. This year’s 11 designers hail from international locations as diverse as Belarus, South Korea, Pakistan, China, Georgia, the United Kingdom, Taiwan and Germany, as well as North America. Their design philosophies are inspired by human relationships, neuropsychology, material weights and international relations.
Raised in Boston, Geneva and Lahore, Pakistan, Ammar Belal is the first student from the Middle Eastern region to be offered placement in Parson’s Fashion and Design MFA program. His global upbringing influences his design philosophy, which is motivated by international current affairs. Titled 1432, Belal’s collection is inspired by the Afghan war. Belal gathered narratives and images from onthe-ground contacts to inform his line, which is full of multidimensional textiles which depict stories from the conflict zone.