Pratt Institute’s School of Design will launch a new MFA in Fashion Collection + Communication in the fall of 2024. It will welcome creative leaders in a diverse range of fashion practices, including designers, curators, performance artists, theorists, and educators.
This program will lead the way in a rapidly changing industry, setting the precedent for new ways of working, making, and thinking about fashion at a time when urgent demands for change require a redefinition of fashion practice as both craft and social critique. The two-year, 60-credit MFA program will interrogate the concept of fashion collection and explore how fashion communicates ideas and drives the cultural narrative. Through research and studio-based work, participants will engage in self-directed study, deepening their creative practices in collaboration with Pratt Fashion’s distinguished faculty and scholars from across Pratt Institute.
“This new MFA program invites creatives in the field to study in collaboration with expert faculty in a state-of-the-art studio environment, where we will generate new ideas, perspectives, and possibilities for a better future in fashion practice,” said Jennifer Minniti, chair of fashion design and Jane B. Nord professor of fashion design.
Truly trans-disciplinary, the program is built around dynamic elective pathways, an innovative new model that will empower participants to tailor their graduate education to their own areas of focus. A strong emphasis on conceptual development and making forms the backbone of the degree program, which includes both traditional craft and state-of-the-art technologies.
Participants will work alongside industry peers, developing relationships with experts in sustainability, human rights, and social justice, and forming partnerships with local and global organizations that are transforming fashion systems. The coursework will take students out into Pratt’s surrounding communities in Brooklyn and offer the opportunity for travel intensives that engage with the vast creative communities around the world. Alongside individual thesis development, each cohort will work collaboratively to create The Book, a collective manifesto and a call-to-action for change in fashion.
For further information about the program, email admissions@pratt.edu.