New York Fashion

New York City and fashion have long been synonymous. When you think of New York, images of leggy, reed-thin eastern European models come to mind along with the designs of the world's most esteemed fashion legends like Tom Ford, Dolce and Gabbana, and Miuccia Prada. So why wouldn't any aspiring fashion design student want to attend fashion school in a city that's home to untold numbers of boutiques, models, designers, and trend setters?

New York: Center of the Fashion Universe

Besides being able to glean inspiration from hipsters serving coffee at your neighborhood cafe or fashion forward urbanites thumbing through used LPs at your local record shop or plucking up vintage finds at a nearby boutique, your experience as a fashion student in New York City comes with many advantages. Many opportunities avail themselves by happenstance--being in the right place at the right time. Such events may include attending an AIDS fund raiser sponsored by MAC, volunteering at the annual Bryant Park fashion show, or attending the opening of a fashion exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Events such as these are routinely held in New York City and offer fashion students a rare opportunity to move in circles that may overlap with those who define New York--and the world's--sense of fashion.

Golightly, New York, and Fashion

Such was the case of Holly Golightly, Truman Capote's flighty heroine immortalized by Audrey Hepburn in the film classic Breakfast at Tiffany's. While Golightly wasn't a fashion student, her proximity to glamour, taste, and wealth transformed her from Okie to a Givenchy-clad 5th Avenue icon. Her story was fictitious, but many real style icons began their rise to fame in New York. People like Madonna, Kate Moss, Gisele, Bill Blass, Donna Karan and legions of other style setters have gotten their start in New York or made it one of their primary bases of operation. Anyone with serious aspirations in the fashion industry will likely find a place in New York at some point in their careers--either assisting a legendary designer, introducing their own designs to a group of fashion enthusiasts and critics, working for a label like Tommy Hilfiger, or just attending fashion design school.

Types of Fashion Design Schools in New York

Numerous fashion design schools are based in the New York City metropolitan area. They offer various areas of focus from fashion marketing to haute couture design. Some might offer exchange programs that allow you to spend a semester studying in another fashion capital, such as Paris, Milan, or London. Others might have connections with people in the fashion industry who can help you learn of interesting internship opportunities with New York-based designers. New York fashion schools are located in areas of high fashion as well as sleek, gritty industrial zones teeming with hip urbanites, those forming the roots of the next trendy neighborhood.

Whether you seek to enter the fashion industry as a fashion critic, marketer, or designer, you'll find the institutions, people, and businesses in New York City that are doing what you aspire to do. Putting yourself in the center of such activity during your fashion design school career can only serve your creative ambitions, wherever they may lead you to.