College & Adult Summer Intensive Studies: Parsons Paris

Half-Day Course

SUMMER 1: June 4–26, 2021 (courses begin June 7 and end June 25)

3 U.S. credits recommended
Language of instruction: English

This course is an immersive introduction to fashion industries and their management strategies. Students explore the relationships between innovation, design, production, and marketing. The course also provides an overview of the Parisian high-end fashion market and its key actors, from designers to retailers. Through visits to Paris luxury stores and showrooms, students gain an overall understanding of today’s fashion business.

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Half-Day Course

SUMMER 2: July 1–24, 2021 (courses begin July 5 and end July 23)

3 U.S. credits recommended
Language of instruction: English

With the advent of the Internet, there has been a shift in the ways fashion, its objects, and its images are produced and consumed. Online fashion shows, live shopping events, fashion talks sponsored by luxury brands, fashion virtual games, and the increasing attention paid by brands to Big Data are transforming the fashion system and its hierarchies. This course explores this shift, focusing on contemporary fashion and its unique relation with the new media. Through workshops, visits, and discussions with guest speakers, the course opens up multiple perspectives on the fashion media industry, the emergence of new figures, and the industry's social and cultural dimensions. Particular attention will be given to the growing presence of fashion on media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter and the increasing popularization — through social media — of politics and discourse on the social role of fashion. The course will investigate key topics such as the shift from print to digital media, online consumption and identity formation, technological innovation and VR gaming, the emergence of IG fashion influencers in neoliberal economies, and the role of social media in fostering the emergence of discourses on inclusivity, equity and race.

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All-Day Studio Course

SUMMER 2: July 1–24, 2021 (courses begin July 5 and end July 23)

3 U.S. credits recommended
Language of instruction: English

This course introduces students to drawing as both a fundamental part of the design process and an integral tool for media arts of all kinds. Students approach drawing as a way of thinking, a critical tool, and a means for observation, storytelling, and representation. Traditional and nontraditional methods, media, and theories of drawing are all explored.

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All-Day Studio Course

SUMMER 2: July 1–24, 2021 (courses begin July 5 and end July 23)

3 U.S. credits recommended
Language of instruction: English

This course introduces students to painting as both a fundamental part of the design process and an integral tool for media arts of all kinds. Students learn basic concepts of painting such as color theory and composition and techniques for using water-based paints. Drawing is also taught as a means for observation and representation. Traditional and nontraditional methods, media, and theories of painting are all explored. Time will be set aside for students to develop a personal project.

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Half-Day Course

SUMMER 2: July 1–24, 2021 (courses begin July 5 and end July 23)

3 U.S. credits recommended
Language of instruction: English

This course is an immersive introduction to communication strategies in fashion and luxury companies. Students learn how to create and foster dialogue between a fashion brand and consumers. The seminars and workshops cover a range of topics such as semiotic resources for brand identity, advertising and event management, experiential marketing, digital and interactive marketing, fashion journalism, and fashion public relations in the digital age. In addition, the course offers a Parisian perspective of luxury company strategies and investigates heritage management strategies from a communication perspective.

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All-Day Studio Course

SUMMER 2: July 1–24, 2021 (courses begin July 5 and end July 23)

3 U.S. credits recommended
Language of instruction: English

This course introduces students to various approaches and techniques involved in the design process for fashion products. Students are encouraged to experiment as they research and find inspiration for a fashion collection and devise innovative 2D and 3D production methods for their fashion pieces. Working on projects individually and in groups, students develop fashion concepts for which they draw on the unique resources of Paris and explore how fabrication methods and color affect collections. Students are also introduced to branding and merchandising basics used to identify and create work for targeted markets and consumers.

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All-Day Studio Course

SUMMER 2: July 1–24, 2021 (courses begin July 5 and end July 23)

3 U.S. credits recommended
Language of instruction: English

Fashion Illustration is an intensive drawing course in which students explore fashion through drawing in the context of Paris. The course introduces students to fundamental drawing techniques for rendering body proportions through life model drawing sessions and studio assignments in conjunction with museum field trips and guest lectures. Students gain visual and perceptual literacy, mastering principles of textiles, volume, and garment translation and developing a personal visual vocabulary.

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All-Day Studio Course

SUMMER 2: July 1–24, 2021 (courses begin July 5 and end July 23)

3 U.S. credits recommended
Language of instruction: English

This course combines theoretical and practical approaches to guiding students in acquiring an understanding of fashion images and how to create them.

Students learn how to analyze fashion photography using interdisciplinary tools ranging from history to sociology to semiotics. In parallel, students experiment with practical photography techniques at a professional level in order to produce a fashion shoot from the preliminary research stage to the final realization in collaboration with a model. Workshops, field trips, and exhibitions are also part of the course.

The course explores photographic methods that enable students to see and interpret style. Paris is the historical capital of haute couture and luxury fashion, but students also learn to appreciate it as a city of fashion subcultures, in which appearance can express social and political claims.

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All-Day Studio Course

SUMMER 2: July 1–24, 2021 (courses begin July 5 and end July 23)

3 U.S. credits recommended
Language of instruction: English

Graphic design is everywhere around you — websites, advertising, clothing, packaging, and publications. It is a medium in which words and images merge to communicate powerful messages. In this hands-on course, students learn to expand their creative problem-solving techniques using dynamic layout, form, typography, and content. Through projects, students learn to employ narrative and storytelling methods and engage in design research, analysis, documentation, and implementation. Emphasis is placed on the relationship between creative and critical thinking skills and the designer’s role in the professional arena. Topics covered include creation of the elements of brand identity programs, such as logos, publications (including zines), advertisements, and websites.

This is an intermediate-level course open to college students. Basic knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator is required.

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All-Day Studio Course

SUMMER 1: June 4-26, 2021 (courses begin June 7 and end June 25) - ONLINE ONLY (40 hours)
SUMMER 2: July 1–24, 2021 (courses begin July 5 and end July 23)

3 U.S. credits recommended
Language of instruction: English

Students learn to approach management as a strategic process that combines design innovation and business knowledge. In collaborative projects, they develop problem-solving skills and familiarity with design strategies through the application of research methods, prototyping, and quantitative analysis. Emphasis is placed on understanding a European setting and perspective and the way entrepreneurs, business innovators, and designers operate at the intersection of design and management. Students engage in design thinking and business strategy exercises, applying these approaches in a broad range of enterprises and real-world business contexts.

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All-Day Studio Course

SUMMER 2: July 1–24, 2021 (courses begin July 5 and end July 23)

3 U.S. credits recommended
Language of instruction: English

How do you tell a story through images, or accompany a written text visually? In this course, students explore many forms of visual storytelling using mixed media: drawing, painting, collage, digital renderings, and more. Paris serves as the backdrop for exploration of French artists, illustrators, and cartoonists through history. Field trips to various Parisian neighborhoods provide points of departure for individual exploration. Visits to exhibitions and museum collections cover different stylistic, conceptual, and material approaches.

This course is open to students with varying levels of experience and skills.

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Half-Day Course

SUMMER 2: July 1–24, 2021 (courses begin July 5 and end July 23)

3 U.S. credits recommended
Language of instruction: English

Today discourse about cultural heritage and local patrimony is at the center of a variety of public and private activities involving design and fashion. Fashion houses and ateliers are playing a role in organizing events like Le Journées Européenne du Patrimoine. But the concept of heritage has been recently employed in new and sometimes controversial ways by private and public institutions. In this course, we look at the intersections between heritage, patrimony, and memory in current discourse — with particular attention to their relationship to design and fashion. Through visits to major Parisian fashion archives and talks by experts from private and public museums, the class looks at fashion heritage in Paris and its multiple forms. Starting with UNESCO’s definition of and activities involving cultural heritage, students investigate the tensions between the idea of heritage and patrimony, hierarchies and power in the identification of heritage, and the use of national, regional, and city identity in the construction of personal and collective memory.

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