Redefining Luxury Kick-Off Conference

The Redefining Luxury initiative at Parsons School of Design, led by faculty and students in the School of Design Strategies and the School of Fashion, hosts a series of conferences, workshops, and events throughout the year that provocatively discuss and challenge the definition, relevancy, and future of luxury.

REDEFINING LUXURY CONFERENCE

October 5, 2018 (Friday)

Kellen Auditorium (N101)

66 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10003

Led by faculty and students in the School of Design Strategies and the School of Fashion, Redefining Luxury seeks to challenge current definitions of luxury, provoke new paradigms in the luxury industry, and imagine the future of luxury.

As an institution committed to creative strategies to solve the most pressing social issues, students and faculty at Parsons are examining the roles and responsibilities in the field of luxury and fostering sustainable practices, equity, and social justice.

This initiative celebrates a moment of change where advances in biotechnology may make material rarity obsolete; advances in digital technology and social media have created new expectations that remove authority from a single source; consumers are valuing experiences over physical product; and developments in AI and blockchain will change our decision-making processes.

CONFERENCE FORMAT:

Opening Remarks 10:00am -10:30am

Panel: Luxury Now x Future    10:45am – 12:00pm

Networking/Lunch 12:00pm – 1:00pm

Panel: Luxury as an Agent of Change    1:00pm – 2:30pm

Networking/ Coffee break    2:30pm – 3:00pm

Keynote: Mark Fina 3:00pm – 4:00pm

Networking/ Happy Hour    4:00pm – 5:00pm

SPEAKERS:

Open Remarks

Kay Unger (Opening Remarks) Parsons Board of Trustees Fashion and Luxury

Keynote (after Panel B – 3pm to 4pm)

Mark Fina (Keynote)Executive Creative Director, Air Paris

PANEL STRUCTURE

Each panel has four individuals from different disciplines (i.e. fashion, strategy, beauty, fragrance and experience (architecture, or spatial design), technology, innovation, etc.).

Panel A – Luxury Now x Future
Luxury has been an ever-evolving notion, however, the last few years have seemed to present a radical shift in how we define luxury. This panel asks professionals in diverse fields within the luxury industry to provide their definition of luxury now, and how they imagine the future of luxury.

Christopher Lacy
Director of Customer Experience, Learning, and Strategy, Barney’s New York

Lisle Richards
Chief Operating Officer, The Metric – Hospitality (Kola House)

Noa Raviv
Emerging Fashion Designer

Marie Driscoll
Fashion Tech Advisor, New York Fashion Tech Lab

Carly-Ann Fergus
Director, XRC Labs and moderator of panel: Now X Future

Panel B – Luxury as an Agent of Change?
Can Luxury be a force for good? Luxury has great power in the dissemination of aspirational and influential imagery. With this power comes responsibility. Many luxury brands have begun to take steps to use their platform to promote sustainability, diversity and inclusive practices. What more can luxury do to be a force for environmental and social justice?

Ben Prosky
Executive Director, Center for Architecture

Carol Chen
Founder and CEO, Covetella

Karin Raguin
VP of Global Talent, Christian Dior Couture

Preeti Gopinath
Director of the MFA Textile Program and Associate Professor of Textiles, Parsons School of Design

Gabriel Chavez
Student, BA Journalism + Design, Literary Studies, and moderator of Panel: Luxury as an Agent of Change

Closing Remarks:

by the Redefining Luxury Taskforce

Erin Cho, Associate Professor of Design & Management, School of Design Strategies

Emily Huggard, Assistant Professor of Fashion Communication, Parsons School of Fashion

Jessica Corr, Assistant Professor of Design, Parsons, The New School

Wendy W Fok, Assistant Professor of Integrated Design, School of Design Strategies (Faculty Lead)

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Eventbrite – https://www.eventbrite.com/e/redefining-luxury-tickets-50369918783

*Free lunch will be provided to the first 50 registered attendees.

Presented by Parsons School of Design Strategies and Parsons School of Fashion.

Made possible by the Parsons Cross-School Fund 2018/19.

Student Taskforce:

Logan Larkin, BFA Fine Art ’21
Erin Lee Carman, BFA Integrated Design ’20
Eugene Ong, BFA Communications Design ’19