In Pictures: Parsons Festival celebrates student thesis collections

Parsons Festival is a 3-day annual event open to the public which showcases the graduating fashion students––all 500 of them this year, their work curated by theme over 3 floors of the school. Portfolios sit next to samples of textile development or custom made shoes, jewelry, sunglasses, handbags. The sheer magnitude of the student creativity on display is daunting. Garments hang from the rafters and graphic posters documenting society’s pressing issues of our time, which students regularly seek to address in their thesis collections, swing from walls and even lie across the floor.

The display provides an opportunity to view the year’s talent in its entirety, and is a preview of the smaller group of students who have been selected to show their BFA collections on the runway during Monday’s Benefit gala before an elite audience of industry insiders, as well as this year’s honorees, Solange Knowles and CEOs of both Gucci and Farfetch. The School of Fashion Exhibition Exhibition runs until 6pm on May 18.

Fashion editor Jackie Mallon is also an educator and author of Silk for the Feed Dogs, a novel set in the international fashion industry.

Photos by FashionUnited