Best fashion school, worst merchandise?

What The New School’s apparel lacks, and what can we do to make it better.

As you walk around Washington Square Park, or down Fifth Avenue or 12th Street, it isn’t hard to spot New York University students dripping from head to toe in purple, walking with pride in their college gear. Why can’t we spot New Schoolers as easily? It’s rare to see New School students walking around Greenwich Village with their university’s merchandise. 

We can maybe lend this to the idea that New Schoolers enjoy embracing personal styles and their individuality; therefore they care less about school apparel. And yet, the most common and consistent opinion students expressed regarding the school merchandise was a desire for better apparel. In a New School Free Press survey through an Instagram poll of 50 students, an overwhelming 80% of New Schoolers said they disliked the merch. As much as New School students like to be unique and go against the grain, they still want quality merchandise in order to partake in college traditions like school pride. For a university containing one of the best fashion and art schools in the world, the consistent poor design of our merchandise is surprising. Currently, the apparel that is offered at The New School includes basic crewnecks and hoodies with either the school logo, the words “NYC,” or the narwhal mascot, Gnarls. These themes are reiterated on tank tops and T-shirts with the same repetitive colors of white, black, gray and red.

Fashion experts, both inside and outside of the university gave their two cents on the relationship between students and the merchandise. 

Mumin Ibrahim, a professional fashion stylist and creative director based in New York City, explained how the apparel should exude the same amount of pride that students have.

“As a school well known for its fashion, the school’s merch should be a prime example to represent what it means,” Ibrahim said. “As a school that many wish to get into, the merch should allow students to … show for their accomplishments that make them proud that they’ve gotten this far in whichever field they want to study.”

Mumin explained that, for New School students to buy and wear the merch, there needs to be value added to it, to make people question it, referencing the late Virgil Abloh’s mantra “Question Everything.”

For a school that encourages individuality, creativity and innovation, the school’s merch selection doesn’t do those values justice. The New School has many resources at its disposal, including extremely talented students and alumni. I certainly would appreciate it if alumni such as Tom Ford, Donna Karen or Anna Sui paid homage to their alma maters and created lines of The New School merch, or if the merch noted some of our most world-renowned alumni. A few alumni have collabed with The New School to create products — such as Julia Pinzur and AJ Jamani. They have come up with cool and unique items and this certainly should be encouraged more. 

Gregory Angel, a Parsons School of Design fashion design professor and professional technical designer, said that the many talented students here should have a say in the merchandise, whether that be through submitting design ideas or collaborative projects.

“It would be nice to have merchandise that really did speak to the student body and to ourselves as one of the top art schools in the nation,” Angel said.

He explained that having classic merchandise is important as well, for instance to send back home. His cousin back in Denver wears Parsons apparel proudly and boasts about knowing someone who teaches at the school. However, in terms of the merchandise representing students, Angel said that we as a school can “probably try a little harder.” He noted each college in the school brings a different personality, and so it is important to have a unified front for students.

When telling outsiders that I attend The New School, a lot of times I am met with “Where is that?” I don’t believe that would be the case if we had a more united student body. After all, what better way to unite the university than connecting students through unique and distinct designs? When incoming students get accepted, they are excited to finally show off their school and what it meant for them to get accepted. Exciting university attire would allow them to do this and it would be a way for alumni to represent that they are proud of where they came from.

Bea Atkins, a third-year fashion design student at Parsons, has acquired more than 50,000 followers on her fashion Instagram account “BeaProjectNyc.” Atkins said she decided to design her own Parsons sweatshirt. After she visited the university in high school, she said she was left unsatisfied with the options available. Her design includes a classic gray crewneck with the Parsons logo in varsity lettering, with an added edgy, modern flair of inconsistent coloring on the font, and “NYC” written underneath to remind everyone where we have the privilege of living. She intentionally colored only some of the letters so that those filled in  spell “SOS.” This can bee seen on her Tik Tok account @BeaProjet. 

“I think there should be a course where you get to design the merchandise,” Atkins said.

This would be a great way of teaching students and giving them a platform to explore what this school means to them.

I paid a visit to The New School Store located in the University Center many different days at different times during the week to find it closed — lights off and unattended. I asked the security guards working at the front desk when the hours of operation were and they vaguely responded that “it depends.” I found this telling of how little students are interacting with the store, and questioned if it is even for the students.

New Schoolers want to see themselves, and all their hard work that they put in to get into the university, on display. It should be the students who have a strong voice in the school’s attire, especially considering this merch is supposed to represent their experiences and accomplishments. It’s time to stop explaining what “The New School” or “Parsons” is to people, and start showing them.