TOMODACHI-UNIQLO Fellowship: Parsons The New School for Design

The TOMODACHI-UNIQLO Fellowship provides financial support for Japanese graduate students in the two-year Master in Fine Arts (MFA) Fashion Design and Society program at Parsons The New School for Design.  This highly selective program, which graduated its first class in 2012, is unique in the United States. Interdisciplinary and international in scope, this academy for advanced studies in fashion design trains a small, exclusive cadre of world-class designers to have a global understanding of fashion.  Innovative and progressive, the MFA in Fashion Design and Society offers students the opportunity to make substantive contributions — both professional and conceptual — to the field of fashion design.

Aiming to bridge the gap between industry and education, the program reframes fashion design education within the context of global political economy.  Students learn to consider design, production, and distribution cycles as well as social, critical, and ecological dimensions of fashion in self-directed projects supported by the fashion industry.  The MFA is a thoroughly international program, reflecting the global impact and influence of Parsons.  MFA students have already achieved considerable recognition and success, taking the top prizes in a number of national and international competitions and exhibitions. Their thesis collections were presented at New York Fashion Week, which received coverage by leading media outlets and garnered the attention of industry leaders.

This fellowship includes an opportunity to participate in a summer internship at UNIQLO Co., Ltd. during the summer after the first academic year in the program.

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