Master in Fashion Management (MPS)

Parsons School of Design in New York City – recently named the Best School for Art and Design in the US and ranked 2nd in the world – has offered innovative approaches to design education since its founding in 1896. Today, Parsons is the only major American art and design school within a comprehensive university: The New School. At Parsons, you can master establish established creative practices and spark new ones while studying across all university disciplines.

The new Master’s in Fashion Management at Parsons School of Design prepares students to advance and transform their careers in the evolving fashion business landscape. Through the course of this one-year Master of Professional Studies (MPS) degree, students learn to challenge existing paradigms in the fashion world in order to create breakthrough ideas in fashion businesses, start-ups, and fashion-related services. Students graduate with in-depth knowledge and advanced skills in global and local manufacturing, ethical production, value chains, marketing, and merchandising.

Students in the program benefit from the academic leadership, resources, and industry networks that have placed Parsons at the forefront of fashion education.

Fashion Leadership for the 21st Century

The MPS in Fashion Management immerses students in the fashion industry as an interconnected system. The 12-month course of study addresses the rapidly changing fashion industry from a range of perspectives, including technology, innovation, leadership, entrepreneurship, consumer psychology, strategic management, and new business models. Students engage in conversations around the balance of creativity and commerce, how businesses and start-ups can reinvent existing systems, solutions for social media and e-commerce, and the crucial need for sustainability and social responsibility at all levels of the industry.

Designed for Makers and Managers

The program is designed to attract a dynamic cohort of working professionals with previous fashion industry experience as well as individuals with undergraduate degrees and backgrounds in other disciplines relevant to retail and consumer goods industries. Students combine creativity and commerce to develop insights and strategies that influence consumers’ perceptions, shopping habits, and interactions with brands and designers. Guided by expert faculty and experienced industry practitioners, students identify business opportunities, new ways to streamline processes for profitability and efficiency, and methods for rapid innovation that unlock emerging opportunities in retail.

Professional Relevance for Fashion Business

The curriculum consists of a series of intensive course modules. Throughout the program, students gain real-world experience with New York City fashion companies and ateliers through case studies, internships, and site visits, providing them with a portfolio of experiences that can be immediately applied to careers advancing innovation within the fashion industry.

About us

Discover a new kind of university in New York City, one where scholars, artists, and designers come together to challenge convention and create positive change. Our university takes full advantage of its location in one of the most vibrant and diverse cities in the world. Our colleges include Parsons School of Design, Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, the College of Performing Arts, The New School for Social Research, the Schools of Public Engagement, and Parsons Paris.

Since our founding in 1919, The New School has redrawn and redefined the boundaries of intellectual and creative thought as a preeminent academic center. Our rigorous, multidimensional approach to education dissolves walls between disciplines and helps nurture progressive minds. At our university, students have the academic freedom to shape their unique, individual paths for a complex and rapidly changing world.

With leading-edge faculty and world-renowned alumni, we are committed to developing students who will have an impact on the world and solve the most pressing social issues of our time.

Mission & Vision

The New School’s future will be shaped by the core values that have defined our past: academic freedom, tolerance, and experimentation.

Mission

The New School prepares students to understand, contribute to, and succeed in a rapidly changing society, thus making the world a better and juster place. We will ensure that our students develop both the skills that a sound education provides and the competencies essential for success and leadership in the emerging creative economy. We will also lead in generating practical and theoretical knowledge that enables people to better understand our world and improve conditions for local and global communities.

Vision

We are and will be a university where design and social research drive approaches to studying issues of our time, such as democracy, urbanization, technological change, economic empowerment, sustainability, migration, and globalization. We will be the preeminent intellectual and creative center for effective engagement in a world that increasingly demands better-designed objects, communication, systems, and organizations to meet social needs.

Our vision aligns with shifts in the global economy, society, and environment, which animates our mission and our values:

• Creativity, innovation, and a desire to challenge the status quo will affect what and how we teach and the intellectual ambitions of the university itself.
• Social engagement should orient students' academic experiences to help them become critically engaged citizens, dedicated to solving problems and contributing to the public good.
• The New School must embrace these principles and innovate to address shifts in the global economy, society, and environment that require individuals to grapple with complex problems, pursue more fluid and flexible career pathways, and collaboratively create change.

Educational Approach

We will fulfill our mission by extending The New School's legacy as a nontraditional university and community, nimble and responsive to change, that:

• Focuses on and engages with critical contemporary issues
• Prioritizes humanity and culture in designing systems and environments to improve the human condition, an approach that draws on design thinking and the liberal, creative, and performing arts
• Places collaborative, project-based learning at the center of the educational experience
• Takes full advantage of our New York City location and connectivity to global urban centers

University leadership

The future of The New School will be shaped by the core values that have defined our past: academic freedom, tolerance, and experimentation. Our leadership team brings this mission to life.

With a commitment to providing excellent service to students and advancing a rigorous academic environment, the leaders of our university ensure that we adapt and respond to contemporary issues, create a more inclusive community, and foster creativity and collaboration among students.