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This special evening honors the transformative power of creativity, design and the arts as we join four renowned schools – Parsons, Mannes, Jazz, and Drama to create one unified college.
Once known as The Parsons Benefit, this year’s celebration marks a new era in creativity, bringing together excellence in art and design with music, performance, and technology. This magnificent NYC night supports a generation of creators who will lead the world towards new frontiers of collaboration.
The Benefit raises critical scholarship funds for current and future students of Parsons School of Design and the College of Performing Arts who would be unable to work, learn, and study without the generosity of our donors.
For event information, contact specialevents@newschool.edu.
Stuart Vevers is the Creative Director of Coach, leading all creative aspects for the house, including women’s and men’s design, brand imagery and store environments. Since joining Coach in 2013, Vevers has successfully led a process of transformation for the more than 80-year-old American fashion house, re-contextualizing its identity for a new generation.
In 2017, Vevers was awarded the Accessory Designer of the Year award by the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) and the Designer of the Year award by the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) for his work at Coach. In 2021, he was awarded Hall of Fame Design Excellence Award by the Accessories Council for Coach’s Rogue bag. In 2024, Stuart was honored by King Charles III and appointed an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to Fashion and UK/US Creative Relations. Vevers is the first creative director at an American house to receive honors as an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Before joining Coach, Vevers was Creative Director of Loewe, where he radically transformed the brand, revitalizing its men’s, women’s and accessories businesses. Prior to this, he was Creative Director of Mulberry, where in 2006 he was named “Accessory Designer of the Year” at the British Fashion Awards for his work for the house.
A graduate of London’s University of Westminster where he studied Fashion Design, Vevers began his career in New York at Calvin Klein before returning to Europe to lead accessories design roles at Bottega Veneta, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton.
About Olivier Rousteing
For over a decade, Olivier Rousteing has been the Creative Director of the house of Balmain. During those ten years, Rousteing has been carefully building upon the legacy of the house’s founder, Pierre Balmain, who famously introduced a fresh, feminine and surprising “New French Style” to post-war couture. Beginning with inspirations directly pulled from the house’s rich archives and fully utilizing the Balmain atelier’s impressive mastery of intricate traditional couture techniques, Rousteing has been able to skillfully graft his own distinctive style upon the historic house. He is, in fact, creating a modern and inclusive new New French Style—one which melds together an immediately recognizable singular silhouette, a contemporary outlook reflecting Rousteing’s own extraordinary personal journey and a spirit pulled directly from the avenues and boulevards of a transformed-yet-eternal Paris, the dynamic and diverse fashion capital that has influenced every Balmain collection for over 75 years.
Early Years, Education and Italy
Born in 1985, Rousteing was adopted from a French orphanage at a young age and raised in Bordeaux. He studied fashion at Paris’ Ecole Supérieure des Arts et Techniques de la Mode (ESMOD). At 18, he moved to Italy, where he worked at Roberto Cavalli for five years, beginning as an intern and rising swiftly and steadily through the ranks to the position of Designer for the men’s and women’s ready-to- wear collections. When the opportunity arose for him to return to Paris to work at Balmain, Rousteing seized it, forming a part of the house’s design team for two years before being named Creative Director in 2011.
Far From Typical
When Olivier Rousteing, then 25, was selected to head Balmain’s design team in 2011, he became one of the youngest talents ever named to lead an historic Parisian fashion house. Rousteing is very conscious of his unique background and position—as well as the exciting opportunities for change that this moment presents. “I'm definitely not the typical Creative Director of a major Parisian house,” he explains. “And, as an outsider who somehow made it into a position of power, I am determined to use this occasion to shake things up a little and push for needed changes. There’s a rapidly changing world that’s just outside our design studios—and I am constantly inspired by the new powerful state of mind and beautiful diversity of today's streets. That’s why I will always push for honesty, direct communication, true inclusion and democratization within fashion. I’m determined that my collections will always reflect how today’s generation wishes to live and dress. I also can’t stop weaving in influences from all types of music into my designs—because that’s how we grew up. For us, music and fashion are seamlessly joined together, and It’s impossible to separate one of those arts from the other.”
Los Angeles native and New York based visual artist, Kehinde Wiley has firmly situated himself within art history’s portrait painting tradition. As a contemporary descendent of a long line of portraitists, including Reynolds, Gainsborough, Titian, Ingres, among others, Wiley, engages the signs and visual rhetoric of the heroic, powerful, majestic and the sublime in his representation of urban, black and brown men found throughout the world.
By applying the visual vocabulary and conventions of glorification, history, wealth and prestige to the subject matter drawn from the urban fabric, the subjects and stylistic references for his paintings are juxtaposed inversions of each other, forcing ambiguity and provocative perplexity to pervade his imagery.
Wiley’s larger than life figures disturb and interrupt tropes of portrait painting, often blurring the boundaries between traditional and contemporary modes of representation and the critical portrayal of masculinity and physicality as it pertains to the view of black and brown young men.
Initially, Wiley’s portraits were based on photographs taken of young men found on the streets of Harlem. As his practice grew, his eye led him toward an international view, including models found in urban landscapes throughout the world – such as Mumbai, Senegal, Dakar and Rio de Janeiro, among others – accumulating to a vast body of work called, “The World Stage.”
The models, dressed in their everyday clothing most of which are based on the notion of far-reaching Western ideals of style, are asked to assume poses found in paintings or sculptures representative of the history of their surroundings. This juxtaposition of the “old” inherited by the “new” – who often have no visual inheritance of which to speak – immediately provides a discourse that is at once visceral and cerebral in scope.
Without shying away from the complicated socio-political histories relevant to the world, Wiley’s figurative paintings and sculptures “quote historical sources and position young black men within the field of power.” His heroic paintings evoke a modern style instilling a unique and contemporary manner, awakening complex issues that many would prefer remain mute..
Brad’s love affair with fashion began at age 12 when he picked up his first Vogue magazine and became mesmerized by its pages. During summer breaks while attending the University of Southern California, Brad interned in the New York offices of Vogue and W magazines. After graduating with a B.A. in Art History, he landed a position as the Vogue West Coast assistant. In 2008, he began working for Rachel Zoe, and was eventually featured in the popular series The Rachel Zoe Project.
Currently serving as Exclusive Brand Stylist for Kate Spade New York, Brad has traveled around the world styling print and online ad campaigns, as well as all fashion presentations at New York Fashion Week.
Additionally, Brad’s A-list clients are a fixture on “Best Dressed” lists for every occasion. His past clients include Jessica Alba, Christina Ricci, Stacy Keibler, Demi Moore, Minka Kelly, and Rashida Jones, among others. Brad and his work have been featured in a number of publications, some of which include InStyle, Details, OUT, BlackBook and LA Confidential. Additionally, he has appeared on Good Morning America several times.
Brad’s knack for being an on-air personality has served him well, as he was host of the American Music Awards red carpet in 2012, as well as a judge for the Miss Universe pageant that same year.
In 2012, Brad’s memoir, Born to Be Brad: My Life and Style, So Far, was released, which chronicles life stories and his favorite fashion tips. MrBradGoreski.com is Brad’s one-stop style destination, offering fashion advice and exclusive behind-the-scenes videos and photos from his work and life.
Born and raised in the town of Port Perry, Ontario, Canada, he has made his home in Los Angeles for the past 12 years, where he lives with longtime boyfriend, Gary and their dog, Penelope.