Fashion Design
Our faculty members help you develop your artistic voice and connect you with fashion-related internships and roles that complement your values and aspirations. You’ll have the unique opportunity to work alongside experts in carbon-negative fibers, circular systems, sustainability, and other emergent fields.
Imagining potential futures
From traditional fashion design to shoe design, jewelry design, and costume design for films, our faculty’s areas of expertise are cross-disciplinary and future-focused.
Annie Gullingsrud, for example, teaches a course on the ecology of clothing, drawing inspiration from her work as Design for AllKind’s founder. She has consulted for Stella McCartney, H&M, and Marks & Spencer on creating materials for circular fashion.
Rebecca Burgess, who teaches a course on the connections between local fiber systems, global carbon cycles, and creative making, is revolutionizing the lifecycle of a garment with her company Fibershed. Burgess works with producers to establish regenerative fiber systems that can last for generations.
Pushing the boundaries of art and design
Our faculty also exhibit, win awards, and constantly expand the boundaries of art and design. Melissa Leventon, an authority in the archival and curation of costumes and textiles, consults for individuals and museums across the country. Ghazaleh Khalifeh, whose collection was recently shown at New York Fashion Week, has exhibited in Paris, Milan, New York, and at the de Young Museum in San Francisco.
Lynda Grose, Chair of Fashion Design
Meet the program chair
Chair Lynda Grose was the co-founder of ESPRIT’s ecollection, the first ecologically responsible clothing line developed by a major corporation. Their ecollection popularized an approach to supply chains that focused on understanding the impact of a particular garment, which is now an industry-wide standard.
For almost 30 years, Grose has worked in a variety of capacities—with companies, nonprofits, government organizations, artisans, and farmers—to further sustainability in fashion. Her work with Sustainable Cotton Project, for example, inspired a generation of companies to develop organic and Cleaner Cotton™ product lines, and her designs with artisans in Armenia and Central Asia helped establish cooperatives that are still operating today.
Grose’s ongoing client list includes Patagonia, Greenpeace, Levi Strauss & Co., Sustainable Cotton Project, Fashion For Good, Gap, Inc., Aid to Artisans, Georgian Arts & Culture Center, and 13-Mile Farm.
