The School of Fashion: 30 Parsons Designers
Textbook Fashion Design Career Development Art & Design Coffee-Table Book Creative Education
Parsons School of Design is the launch-pad for American fashion royalty—from Marc Jacobs and Alexander Wang to Proenza Schouler—and this lush 2014 Assouline hardcover distills exactly why. Curated by former Parsons dean Simon Collins, The School of Fashion: 30 Parsons Designers spotlights three decades of graduates who rewrote the rules of ready-to-wear, couture, and sustainability. Each of the 144 oversized pages pairs razor-sharp photography with first-person career timelines, revealing how a single thesis collection evolved into global brands stocked at Bergdorf’s, Net-a-Porter, and the Met Costume Institute. The result is equal parts coffee-table art book and insider roadmap: you see original sketches, runway show invites, and backstage Polaroids that never made the glossies.
Collectors prize this edition for its gallery-quality production—heavy matte stock, edge-to-edge color, and a debossed cloth spine that stands out on any design shelf. Unlike mass-market retrospectives, every profile was personally approved by the featured designers, so the commentary is candid rather than PR-polished. You’ll read how Derek Lam pivoted from hand-loomed sweaters to a coveted Milan studio, or how Behnaz Sarafpour balanced Target collaborations with custom evening gowns for Michelle Obama. These stories make the volume a self-help mentor in disguise: emerging creatives can trace how each alum handled investors, factory minimums, and the pivotal CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund moment.
Because Assouline titles are printed in small runs and rarely re-pressed, clean first-edition copies already fetch a premium in the secondary market. This particular copy is in very-good condition—no ex-library markings, no inscription, just crisp, unmarked pages that preserve the saturated color fidelity Assouline is famous for. Whether you’re a fashion student building a reference library, a collector hunting iconic design monographs, or a gift-giver who wants something more substantial than another runway photo annual, The School of Fashion delivers both inspirational visuals and actionable career insight in one beautifully bound package.
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