Simon Collins Stepping Down as Dean of Parsons Fashion School
Simon Collins is stepping down as dean of Parson's Fashion School after six years "to focus on my rapidly expanding professional practice," Collins announced in a formal memo forwarded to Fashionista. He will officially step down at the end of the fall semester in December.
"While I will miss every moment of what we have done here I feel the time is right for a new person to take this role and assume leadership of the School of Fashion," he wrote.
Collins has had a productive few years at Parsons, launching the school's MFA program in Fashion Design + Society and bringing it to New York Fashion Week as a runway show in fall 2012. He also brought LVMH and Kering in to host and sponsor design competitions for students. The annual Parsons Fashion Benefit brought in $2 million each year in scholarships during his tenure.
His passion for the school is clear in his letter:
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These past six years have been the most rewarding and enjoyable of my professional life and I cannot begin to describe how much I have loved and learned throughout. There have been so many highs (plus one or two tricky moments) that I shall never cease to be amazed at how much joy and learning can be crammed into such a short period. I have been amazed, amused, delighted, shocked, humbled, impressed, disappointed, bemused, bedazzled, perplexed, educated and above all inspired by so many people, by so many of you, and I will be forever in your debt.
Prior to Parsons, Collins was creative director of Nike’s Asia-Pacific division, working on collaborations with Comme des Garçons and Issey Miyake. We'll be watching to see what he does next.
