Parsons School of Design is notorious for its fashion design program, which is focused on “access, inclusion, sustainability, and equity,” according to the Fashion Design BFA program page. Yet the curriculum for the Fashion Design BFA program has virtually no emphasis on community building.

The New School says that community is integral to their mission. As much as the idea of community is stressed at Parsons, it often requires students to create it for themselves. 

Anna Roth, Lorena Pipenco, and Becca Flood are New York fashion designers and Parsons alumni, who showed at New York Fashion Week this September. Eager to create an impact, all of these designers incorporated aspects of community in their collections, whether they wanted to address a specific group or create a collaborative space. 

“Never compromise giving to artists”

Becca Flood

Becca Flood, who graduated in 2022 from the Parsons Fashion Design BFA program, is a designer raised in Hudson Valley whose work challenges outdated stereotypes of women in modern rural America. When reminiscing about her years at Parsons, Flood emphasized that one of her most transformative moments during her education was discovering herself as a designer during her thesis year, examining her roots to discover what she wanted to say.

Becca grew up in a tough environment that taught her to be a strong woman with the courage to care. She wants to create spaces for people to express their beauty and honesty. After graduation, Becca decided to meet a classmate at a cafe to share a relaxing afternoon, but the meeting turned into something bigger. 

Becca laughs and says, “Everything can change over a cup of coffee.” On that day, Flood and her friend decided to create a swimwear collection together. Becca designed and created the tech packs- a document explaining a garment’s construction to a manufacturer- while her classmate translated Becca’s documents and then sent them to factories she had connections with. 

“Our design aesthetics are very different but we both share inspiration from our origin. My friend from Peru knew factories back home, and the sharing of resources strengthened our connection”. 

“Collaboration is all about seeing different perspectives”

Anna Roth

Anna Roth, Parsons Fashion Design MFA ‘23 graduate is an artist who collaborates often in her practice and solves problems concerning sustainability and social justice through local community solutions. 

Luckily, for a fashion industry that is working on inclusion, Roth’s work is all about finding community. When Roth moved from Portland, Oregon to New York City, she didn’t know anyone on the East Coast. Roth was forced to build her support system from scratch. “I’m an extremely community-based person, that’s where I find my meaning. Starting off without a community at Parsons was rough, and my mental health worsened as a result,” Roth said.

The creation of Roth’s collection “Fitting In” takes a major step towards building her community. The garments debuted at New York Fashion Week were designed with the goal of eliminating loneliness through communal dancing and being vulnerable in expressing taboo emotions. “I explored dance as a way to heal. Moving your body allows emotions to be expressed in a healthy manner, rather than the toxicity being bottled in,” Roth said.

“The right people naturally gravitate towards you when you are authentic”

 Lorena Pipenco

Lorena Pipenco, a graduate of the Parsons MFA Fashion Design program in 2023, is a fashion designer who visually narrates her connection to her family’s experiences in post-USSR Romania. She brings life to their forgotten hopes as she navigates the complicated relationship between heritage and memory. 

Advocacy for artists is an essential skill that allows you to find the people who will respect and care about your creative vision. For effective advocacy, designers have to prioritize being honest about their visions to others. “I sometimes struggle with the conflicting needs of my audience and being authentic,” Pipenco said. “As a rapidly growing brand, I feel the immense pressure to sell.” 

Pipenco combats this tension by connecting with those she loves. “When I am in a place of self-doubt, I call my family and ask them to tell me a story,” Pipenco said. Community to Pipenco is rooted in her design process by the people who make up the intricacies of her personal life.  

“I often take inspiration, and even use the work of my family. In one of the garments I created for the MFA show, I asked for my family to send me tablecloths they macramed. I then upcycled the tablecloths to create a patchwork bodysuit,” Pipenco said. The designer describes her process of reworking materials as distortion. She plays with the idea of the right and wrong uses of materials by incorporating unconventional fabrics with history into my garments. For Pipenco, upcycling materials means to also upcycle its memories; to bring up the past and remake it into the future.

Hopes for a Future Community

Lorena Pipenco hopes to be part of unique retailers that support artisans. “I hope to see my designs at retailers like Dover Street Market; they do a great job of giving designers a space to breathe,” Pipenco said. She currently sells at Apocene, a marketplace with the goal of spreading awareness for emerging creatives.

Becca Flood is developing the foundations of her brand. “I hope to expand my customer base and reach my target audience: strong women in their 30 to 40s, looking for garments that compliment their independence,” Flood said. Currently, the people who make the most of her audience are fellow Parsons alumni, family, and friends. 

Anna Roth has an intriguing take on what fashion can be outside of the industry. “I am working towards creating an open studio that is funded by community support, specifically through donations and volunteering. I want to experiment with ways to create value that isn’t monetary in a community setting,” Roth said.

Through these series of interviews, I realized that there are many designers in the industry who want to build strong foundations for their community. Pipenco, Roth, and Flood are building communities that challenge the fashion industry’s exclusive and unjust practices toward artisans. What they don’t teach you at Parsons is that the key to building community stems from learning who you are to convey your essence to others: whether to a stranger through social media, having casual chats with other artists, or intimate conversations with those you hold closest.