Fashion Collection & Communication, MFA

Fashion is an expression of our identity. Be a part of the only program aimed at shaping culture while developing fashion industry leaders and agents of positive change.

multiple models, standing on a city sidewalk wearing designs from students

Type: Graduate, MFA
Department: Fashion Design
School: School of Design
Credits: 60
Duration: 2 years

Courses Plan of Study

Coming Fall 2024

Pratt will launch a unique Master of Fine Arts in Fashion Collection + Communication in Fall 2024!

If you are interested in being a member of the inaugural incoming class and would like to learn more about this exciting new program, please contact the Fashion Department at fashiondesign@pratt.edu.

The Master of Fine Arts in Fashion Collection + Communication will offer a dynamic trans-disciplinary pedagogical approach that spans design, theoretical analysis, and critical examination. The program will provide a holistic redefining of advanced fashion design education with the core making studios buttressed by non-studio courses in research practices, critical theory, and the study of global fashion systems and their impacts and implications.

The Fashion Department’s mission and learning outcomes speak the current global fashion inquiries, emphasizing experimentation and exploration as well as theoretical analyses framed by issues such as materiality, sustainability, social justice, gender, race, and others. With that in mind, a strong emphasis on conceptual development and making creates continuity between the BFA in Fashion Design and the MFA in Fashion Collection + Communication; this confluence is the hallmark of both undergraduate and graduate study programs in Pratt Fashion.

For application questions and information, please visit Graduate Admissions.

Mission/Purpose

The MFA Fashion Collection + Communication program shapes fashion as an impactful means of communicating with and about the world. The pedagogy strengthens and fortifies students’ creative visions and design languages, highlighting both traditional methods of making and emerging design techniques. The MFA inspires students to form a conceptually rigorous practice that is in meaningful dialogue with critical inquiry in fashion and through trans-disciplinary engagement across Pratt Institute. Graduates of the program will redefine fashion practice as both craft and social critique.

aerial shot, of a large hall, with seating configured as if in a fashion show — Dress rehearsal for 2023 Pratt Fashion Show “ASSEMBLAGE” held at Pioneer Works in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Culture & Community

The design studio is at the core of your educational experience at Pratt. We consider the design studio a mindful and creative space where we form a collaborative learning community. The two-year, 60-credit MFA program will critically examine the concept of the fashion collection and explore how fashion communicates ideas and drives the cultural narrative. This trans-disciplinary program is built around dynamic elective opportunities, an innovative new model that will empower participants to tailor their graduate education to their own areas of focus, through research, studio-based work, and self-directed study.

Dapper Dan standing at a podium, addressing pratt community, with rows of people seated on either side of him — Dapper Dan presents the annual Pratt Fashion Visionary Award at the 2019 Pratt Fashion Show.

The Studios + 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.

multiple mannequins, standing in a fashion presentation. in a gallery setting, mannequins in the background and foreground — Black Dress exhibit at Pratt Manhattan Gallery in New York City in February, 2014.

The 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 Design’s complexity, including Adrienne Jones (Black Dress), Byron Lars, Susan Cianciolo, Shane Gabier. Faculty connections have fostered partnerships with MAMA Farm (Isabella Rossellini), Downtown Brooklyn Alliance, and Navy Yard/Research Yard. See all Fashion Design faculty and administrators.

Professor

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Jane B Nord Professor of Fashion Design

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Assistant Professor – Fashion

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Visiting Professor

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Adjunct Assistant Professor

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Sample Courses

This seminar will run concurrently with thesis development and culminate in the production of a compilation of the cohort’s MFA work. Through the building of The Book, the course will offer opportunities to explore styling and editorial storytelling, curation, examination of fashion theory through research and writing, among other 2D and 3D expressions. The Book will serve as a platform for the collective voice of the MFA student body, a place to contextualize and document individual perspectives while defining the community ethos of the program. All components of The Book are student-led, directed and produced by the class with faculty and cross-disciplinary support, offering an opportunity for collaboration through a dynamic multi-media presentation.

This course is the third of a three-part series designed to engage students in critical and reflective thinking on the practice of fashion design and the workings of the global fashion industry. Unlike parts one and two of the series, part three is underpinned by a student-written syllabus. Here, each student directs one week of class discussion, choosing a class topic based on their own research interests and focuses. This course connects to students’ thesis work, as it serves as the critical and contextual foundation for their year-long, design-based thesis project.

Engaging the World investigates global fashion systems to understand diverse cultures and communities in an effort to support social enterprise and responsible design practices. The course encourages students to learn beyond the boundaries of a physical classroom environment through community engagement, collaborative practice and exploration of international possibilities. The experience enables graduate students the chance to research political, social and economic factors needed to develop long-term relationships, and possibly reimagine fashion to generate change within local and global fashion systems. This course is offered in both a travel and local format