Daily Front Row

2010 February 1

Donna Karan’s School Days

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Donna Karan
© Patrick McMullan View Gallery

(NEW YORK) Parsons is an educational hot spot, offering one of the United States' most coveted undergraduate degrees in fashion design. Now, the Manhattan institutuion is preparing to offer even more. This fall, the art school (a part of The New School University) will launch two new MFA programs in Fashion Design and Society and Fashion Studies. These graduate programs, the first of their kind in the United States, are meant to put fashion “in a contemporary, global context that recognizes its significance as a cultural, social and economic force,” according to a release from the school.

The studio-based course has some high-fashion backing. Parsons alum Donna Karan is a supporter and will help launch the program with an evening at the school this Thursday. The conversation will be moderated by Valerie Steele, the director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and will reflect on Karan’s career and legacy as part of Workwear, a new Parsons programming series that reflects the types of themes that will be explored in the new MFA program. For reservations, visit www.donnakaranatparsons.eventbrite.com.