Thom Browne Shares Words of Wisdom For Fashion Students at Parsons Benefit

Parsons held its 75th annual Benefit on Tuesday night in New York City, honoring Thom Browne, model and documentarian Bethann Hardison and J.Crew CEO Libby Wadle.

Host Nicole Ari Parker was joined by by donors, professors, students and industry titans like Donna Karan, Andrew Bolton and Tory Burch. Held within Cipriani's glamorous Wall Street halls, the event raised funds for the school's scholarship offerings, technology and housing. It also celebrated The New School's just-announced President Joel Towers. Meanwhile, Parsons SENS-UAW members, students and others protested outside for a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment from Israel-backed companies.

But inside, honorees shared words of wisdom for graduating fashion students.

"I'm humbled by this award because it's coming from such an inspirational institution, a school that represents the purity and importance of creativity," Browne said on stage. "In my collections, business and as chairman of the CFDA, my mission has been to champion creativity and to keep fighting for its importance. You at Parsons have set the groundwork for our next generation of American fashion, and the future of American fashion is looking so strong."

"The next couple of years will be hard... really hard. It gets even harder with success. But you have to love doing what you," Browne continued. "Billie Jean King always says that pressure is a privilege, and it is a privilege to be in this world, to be able to inspire people by your work and to be able to see your work live on people."

He added, "you now have the responsibility to stay true to your own unique visions and stories. Don't let anyone take this away from you. You have to love what you do more than anyone else in the world. If you stay true to your story and executing it in the best way, you will find success. But success is relative. Success is never measured by fame or money. Success is measured by doing something you love and doing it really, really well."

Browne also gave gratitude to Bolton, his partner, as "the one person that inspires me everyday" and "proves to me that purity and thought and vision is the only thing that matters."

How should one find that creativity? According to Browne — who studied economics at the University of Notre Dame — it cannot be taught as much as it must come from a radical self-faith, similar to what he displayed in pushing his take on men's tailoring throughout his own career. Find it in yourself, he said. Of course, having a vision will only take you so far without the skills to support it.

"The importance of technically learning how to make a pattern and learning how to sew really well is the most valuable thing you can learn in a fashion school," Browne told Fashionista separately. "What I love seeing is true originality and someone who wants to work really hard."

Hardison dedicated her award speech to the memory of Margo Turnquest Lewis, who oversaw events in the '90s at Parsons' 40th Street and Seventh Avenue location. "Having knowledge of Margo gave me an opportunity and others to create something called 'Fashion Outreach.' We galvanized that space because Parsons allowed us to. We had wonderful panel discussions. We did so many great things there, and we were all people of color that had been successful in our industry. We weren't having any problems per se, but we wanted to gather."

Honoree Wadle and J.Crew's Head of Design Olympia Gayot told Fashionista about the importance of building pathways via internship and mentorship programs in order to support graduating talent and establish a place for them in the industry: "It's about teaching them about the different steps that it'll take them to rise in their career, not only being an inspired designer but also working in leadership programs. We do a lot internally for that to help people grow because I feel like that's missing from the industry a bit," Gayot said.

After the speeches, the lights dimmed and electronic music blasted through Cipriani's ornate halls as a student runway show finished the night, with 12 of the class of 275 BFA students presenting their thesis collections (making it a much shorter show than the full-scale BFA runway held Monday). Graduates like Xijia Cheng were abuzz with excitement (and some nerves) about showing their creations to a room filled with some of fashion's biggest names.

"My whole thesis collection is inspired by my Instagram-based anime fashion archive account that I established in 2020," Cheng, a student of Parsons' Collection pathway, told Fashionista, Her looks include repurposed broken anime figures, upcycled waterproof gallery posters and more in an ode to the animation style.

Keep scrolling to see runway images from graduating students' collections presented during the evening.

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/BFA/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/BFA/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/BFA/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/BFA/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/BFA/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/BFA/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/BFA/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/BFA/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/BFA/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

Photo: Theo Wargo and Roy Rochlin/Getty Images/Courtesy of Parsons

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