Fashion Design MFA
FIT’s MFA in Fashion Design program students conduct rigorous research that culminates in creating eight-look collections, thesis papers and presentations, videos, lookbooks, brand business plans, and portfolios. Graduates leave the program prepared to make a positive impact as industry professionals by working within existing fashion companies or launching their own brands.
Information Sessions
No sessions are scheduled at this time, please check back.
Six graduates "Design the Look"
NBC’s TODAY with Hoda & Jenna partnered exclusively with FIT on a new, weeklong series: Hoda and Jenna’s “Design the Look.” Custom looks for the hosts were unveiled every day, created by six recent FIT Fashion Design MFA graduates.
Program
Fashion Design MFA
Our program’s unique four-semester thesis process will give you the freedom to experiment and create in a highly-structured environment supported by an experienced and dynamic faculty. Through your courses and guest lectures, you’ll learn about brand identity, legal issues, and the global supply chain to help focus your designs, develop prototypes, and define your market niche.
Our Work
With the time, resources, and support to innovate in silhouette, construction, fit, and materials, our students thrive.
Lilach Porges and Zining Ye, Fashion Design MFA '23, were winners in the 2023 Global Design Graduate Show in the category of Fashion, Accessories and Textiles.
Fashion Design MFA students, in consultation with renowned designer Bart Hess, designed a garment for his Unwearable Collection. The collection, a collaboration with pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, explores the devastating impact of a rare skin disease.
Titled The Sculptor’s Daughter, alumna Hee Jin Hwang’s capsule collection for the 2023 Supima Design Competition featured structural looks, abundant texture, and a great deal of surface manipulation and volume.
Fashion Design MFA student Bryan Barrientos was won of eight finalists in the 2022 Supima Design Competition during New York Fashion Week.
With access to the FIT DTech Lab, Fashion Design MFA students created adaptive accessories, including a messenger/tote bag, wallet, chest pack, and umbrella for the Cerebral Palsy Foundation.
Impact
Theory plus practice … Start with an idea. Focus the idea. Work on it. And see where it takes you.
Beyond Graduation
Graduates work in bustling, high-end design houses, leading fashion brands, intimate ateliers, and entrepreneurial ventures, including starting their own brands and consultancies. Others go on to teach in addition to their robust careers.
Learn From the Best
Cathleen Sheehan is a fashion industry veteran, multidisciplinary strategist, and an associate chair of FIT's Fashion Design MFA program. She has successfully advised hundreds of global brands, entrepreneurs, and nonprofits on design, product, and market strategies to leverage core strengths and opportunities within the dynamic fashion, beauty, tech, and retail landscapes.
Zoran Dobric is an award winning fashion designer whose work has been sold internationally and featured in exhibits and showrooms and on runways in London, Paris, New York, Toronto, and Kuwait, including features in Fashion Television, Elle, and Vogue UK. With more than two decades of international teaching experience, Dobric aims to inspire the next generations of fashion innovators.
Contact Us
Fashion Design MFA
Cathleen Sheehan
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