At Pratt, we define fashion as cultural messaging through clothes. As a student here, you’ll contextualize fashion within a social framework, forming a strong point of view on the issues we face today and challenging them through your craft.
Elie Romero, winner of the Christopher Hunte "On Point" Award, at the Pratt Fashion Show, 2019
The Fashion Design curriculum fosters development of individual identity within a collaborative environment, informed by self-reflection and engaged critique. Students are expected to apply an informed understanding of materiality, fashion history, theory and contemporary culture to their design decisions, producing collections that engage with issues of sustainability and social responsibility.
Student Work
Watch our annual fashion show and imagine what you might do here at Pratt Fashion! Through rigorous attention to production, technique, and contemporary aesthetics, you’ll develop your design practice and with it, agency to create change.
The design studio is at the core of your educational experience at Pratt. We consider the design studio a creative space and a community. The culture of the design studio is one of creativity, experimentation, and exploration. Students are encouraged to take risks and push the boundaries of what is possible. The studio is a community to find support, encouragement, and inspiration.
Maker Spaces and Labs
Sustainability and material exploration drive our passion for making. To prepare students to become leaders within the creative community, Pratt Fashion offers a wide variety of resources including access to Shima Seiki 3D knitting machines and Framis NOSO technology, as well as a dedicated Textile Research Library within the department and a Textile Dye Garden on campus. Explore facilities.
Fashion Internships
Students have the opportunity to explore different aspects of the New York fashion design industry through their choice of internships at top design companies including Thom Browne, Zero Maria Cornejo, The Row, Altuzarra, Maryam Nassir Zadeh, Oscar de la Renta, and Creatures of the Wind. The internship provides them with hands-on experience and professional networking skills, as well as practice in how to write a resume and present their portfolio. Pratt students are required to complete three credits of internship during their course of study. A Pratt faculty adviser guides each student throughout the experience, making sure the students’ learning objectives are met.
Fashion Competitions
All Pratt Fashion students participate in annual design competitions including the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s Design Scholar Awards, the Gucci Changemakers Scholars Program, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Student Fashion Design Competition. Integrated into the curriculum, these competitions provide avenues for scholarship support and exposure within the fashion community.
Study Abroad
Immersing yourself in another culture is an incredible experience that can extend the boundaries of creativity. Study abroad programs are an integral part of the college experience, and Pratt has deep connections with university partners around the world.
Learning Resources
We develop disciplinary fluency in our program of study and we celebrate the interdisciplinary nature of design critical to address the plurality and complexity of the environments in which we operate. Learn about resources.
Our Faculty
Pratt’s distinguished faculty of outstanding creative professionals and scholars share a common desire to fully develop each student’s individual potential and creativity. The faculty come from diverse educational and professional backgrounds representing the breadth of fashion complexity. This multiplicity of views and experiences provide for a tailored education that is as unique as each of the students. See all Fashion Design faculty and administrators.
Pratt’s distinguished alums are leading thriving careers, addressing critical challenges and creating innovative work that reimagines our world, at a diverse selection of companies and institutions. They also go on to become entrepreneurs and principals leading their own studios and businesses.
Thinking seriously about Pratt? Learn more about admissions requirements, plan your visit, talk to a counselor, and start your application. Take the next step.
Building your portfolio can be daunting. We’ll answer your questions and help you feel confident about the portfolio you submit with your application. Start building your portfolio, now.
Find yourself at home at Pratt: our residence halls, student organizations, athletics, exhibitions, events, the amazing City of New York and our Brooklyn neighbors. Check us out.
💜 Mallorie Dunn, a Visiting Faculty member in Fashion Design, and the owner/designer of SmartGlamour (@smart_glamour) to discuss the importance of size inclusion in design. 💜
“Size Inclusion: a Design Imperative
A Look at the Reality of Consumer Sizing and How our Biases Shape Our Views and Practices”
Friday, March 7, 2025, 1:00 - 3:00 PM
ARC Building, ARC E-02, TEC Lecture Hall
This event is part of the Critical Conversations: creating space for and educating one another about our multiple cultural contexts, activism, civil discourse, and academic engagement.
#Fashion #Pratt #FashionForChange #FashionDesign #CriticalFashion #SizeInclusion
🎉Siena Art Institute 2025 Faculty Residency Award🎉
Congratulations to Adjunct Associate Prof. Kerry Ryan (@kerry.ryan.nyc), who has been selected for the Fine Arts Department's @sienaart residency award! Kerry, along with faculty from @prattfinearts and @prattfilm_video, will spend the month of June in Siena!
Kerry Ryan has worked in all facets of the Fashion Business since graduating from the Limerick School of Art and Design with a BA in Fashion Design (@ba_fashion_lsad). With expertise in design and technology, she has worked in women’s, men’s, and children’s businesses as a designer of luxury brands and created her own brands. Her work has been featured in @womenswear.daily, @TMagazine, and @vanityfair. She continues to work on her sustainable brand and consults for many startup brands on working through barriers of production and design.
Included in this post are two garments from her most recent collection.
#Fashion #Pratt #SustainableFashion #PrattFaculty
🌟 We are excited to share the work of our Textile Minor students who recently embarked on a self-guided art museum visit as part of an assignment in Prof. Gina Gregorio’s (@ginaginaginaginagina) Color Lab class.
Each student selected a painting to analyze using Swiss Expressionist painter Johannes Itten's seven color contrast principles. After identifying a specific color contrast within their chosen artwork, they matched these colors using paint chips. The students then recreated these exact colors using fiber-reactive dyes, applying them to sections of deadstock fabric. The project culminated in creating improvisational quilts, which allowed students to examine how their selected color contrasts manifested in the final textile pieces.
The completed assignments are on display in the Fashion Design department.
Featured students: Shweta Rajesh, Wayne Joyce, Heidi Du, Yolanda Zhang, and Katie Tolliver
#Fashion #Pratt #StudentWork #Color #FashionDesign #FashionStudents
Student nominations are underway for Pratt Institute’s 2025 Distinguished Teacher Award via emails with a unique link for each student. Voting closes on Friday, February 21st.
✨We are excited to share the work of our MFA students, who recently participated in a Zombie Workshop led by British artist Jeremy Hutchison. The students learned to identify specific details from research, develop that research into a theme, and manifest it as a visual spectacle: “a dazzling textile zombie.”
The workshop, based on Hutchison’s work Dead White Man, aims to subvert the ideology of fast fashion by hijacking its aesthetics. Students concluded the workshop by packaging their zombies as toxic commodities, creating lookbooks, styling, video, and photography.
A huge thanks to Jeremy Hutchison (@jeremyhutchison) for generously sharing his time and work with our students and photographing their work!
#StudentWork #FashionDesign #Pratt #CriticalFashion #MFAStudents #Fashion
✨We are excited to share the work of our BFA students, who recently participated in an Effigies Workshop led by British artist Jeremy Hutchison. The workshop blended theory with practice and industry analysis with performance art, offering students immediate visual output as they created an effigy of the Dead White Man: a miniature figure fabricated from textile waste.
These effigies function as surrogates for the consumer, allowing the students to engage creatively with the second-hand clothing industry. The core purpose of the workshop was to give students a creative vehicle to process and materialize their responses to the fashion industry, using the skills they are developing as fashion designers.
Thanks to Jeremy Hutchison (@jeremyhutchison) for generously sharing his time and work with our students and photographing their work!
#StudentWork #FashionDesign #Pratt #Fashion
✨“Black Dress II: Homage” Celebrates A History Of Black Fashion In America✨
An extraordinary exhibition at Pratt Manhattan Gallery is shining a spotlight on Black excellence in American fashion! 'Black Dress II: Homage' celebrates the pioneering Black designers and creatives who have shaped the industry, showcasing works from legendary names like Jeffrey Banks (@jefferybanksdesign), Patrick Kelly (@patrickkellylovelist), and Telfar Clemens (@telfarclemens) —including a piece from the 2024 Olympics! 🏅
This powerful show, curated by Pratt professor Adrienne Jones and Pratt Fashion Design alumnae Rachelle Etienne-Robinson, marks the 10th anniversary of the original 'Black Dress' exhibit. It goes beyond fashion to include beauty, styling, and celebrity culture, featuring sections like Black Book (fashion journalism), Black Gold (jewelry), and Black Face (models).
Among the treasures on display are costumes from The Temptations by two-time Oscar nominee Paul Tazewell (@paultazewell), pieces from Byron Lars (@byronlarsbm) and Sammy B (@sammybdesignsny), and a historic ironing board honoring Sarah Boone, a formerly enslaved woman who revolutionized the modern ironing board design.
Currently on view at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery until March 22, 2025.
For more details, read the full Vogue article — link in our bio.
#BlackDressIIHomage #BlackDressExhibit #BlackDressII #PrattFashion #PrattFaculty #PrattAlumni #PrattExhibitions #BlackDress #Fashion
Photo credit: Dahlia Dandashi, pratt.edu/pcomm
New Graduate Program Takes a Critical Approach to Fashion
✨ Fashion Collection + Communication program, launched this fall at Pratt Institute, challenges students to rethink the fashion industry with a critical eye.
According to Lisa Z. Morgan, Chair of the Fashion Department, the program encourages students to take a "radical" approach to fashion—one that not only embraces creativity but also addresses urgent issues like climate change, social justice, and ethical supply chains. 🌍✨
Students will learn traditional fashion-making skills—like draping, fabric manipulation, and research—while also specializing in areas such as knitwear, textile creation, dyeing, and reinventing vintage garments
For more details, read the full New York Times article in the link in our bio
#FashionWithPurpose #CriticalFashion #SustainableFashion #PrattInstitute #FashionInnovation #FashionEducation #RadicalDesign #SocialJustice #ClimateAction
To prepare students to become leaders within the creative community, Pratt Fashion offers a wide variety of resources including access to Shima Seiki 3D knitting machines and Framis NOSO technology, as well as a dedicated Textile Research Library within the department and a Textile Dye Garden on campus. Advanced courses and electives, as well as study abroad opportunities, offer students pathways to explore critical topics including gender, race, size inclusivity and activism through the lens of fashion.
INTERNSHIPS
Pratt students are required to complete three credits of internship during their course of study. Students have the opportunity to explore different aspects of the New York fashion design industry through their choice of internships at top design companies including Thom Browne, Zero Maria Cornejo, The Row, Altuzarra, Maryam Nassir Zadeh, Oscar de la Renta, and Creatures of the Wind. The internship provides them with hands-on experience and professional networking skills, as well as practice in how to write a resume and present their portfolio. A Pratt faculty adviser guides each student throughout the experience, making sure the students’ learning objectives are met.
COMPETITIONS
All Pratt Fashion students participate in annual design competitions including the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s Design Scholar Awards, the Gucci Changemakers Scholars Program, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Student Fashion Design Competition. Integrated into the curriculum, these competitions provide avenues for scholarship support and exposure within the fashion community.
Upon completion of their studies, students:
Students will exhibit fluency in 2D and 3D construction processes that are innovative in cut, shape and silhouette using diverse embodied approaches.
Students will analyze and use properties and principles of materiality to make design decisions informed by sustainable practices.
Students will communicate design philosophy with evidence of fashion history, theoretical underpinnings, and contemporary culture that addresses issues of justice, equity and social responsibility.
Students will design, produce and present cohesive, contemporary and authentic collections that demonstrate their active engagement as collaborative leaders of the creative community.
