When you picture the dean of a major postsecondary institution, you may think of a buttoned-up educator wearing some sort of stiff suit. But at the Parsons School of Design in New York City, Dr. Ben Barry is doing things a little differently—both in terms of personal style and the school’s new curriculum for students.
Having recently joined Parsosn as dean in July 2021, Barry is often found on campus wearing bold, vibrant looks that are designed by some of his emerging design students. He will sport a beaded Jontay Kahm top here, or a colorful Jacques Agbobly knit there. “I’ve always understood the power fashion has—it can make every day magical, just by what you put on your body,” says Barry of his statement style. “I have such deep appreciation for the craft and the work and that goes into it.”
Barry’s championing of creativity reflects his thoughtful approach to educating the next generation of talent at Parsons. Since beginning his post, Barry has introduced a slew of new programming shaped around themes of ramping up inclusivity and diversity in fashion, including new focuses on exploring contemporary Indigenous design, as well as fat fashion and disabled fashion, too. (This year, he won a 2024 CAFA Changemaker Award in Canada for his focus on those initiatives.)
Ben Barry wearing Parsons student Jontay KahmPhoto: Roy Rochlin / Getty Images
Barry began his career when he launched a modeling agency at 14-years-old (yes, really) that focused on representing a diverse group of models. “From there, I began thinking about the importance that fashion has in our lives, and how it makes us feel about our bodies and our identities,” says Barry. Later, Barry became an assistant professor at the Toronto Metropolitan University in Canada, where he quickly rose the ranks to become an associate professor of equity, diversity, and inclusion. “Over eight years, I started to incorporate [programming around] fat fashion, disability fashion, Indigenous fashion, Black fashion,” says Barry. When the dean position became a possibility at Parsons, then, he wanted to continue that same mission. “I want to help institutionalize this approach to inclusion,” he says.
Barry’s arrival at Parsons couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. Fresh off the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement, which highlighted racial injustices and racism in various industries, he saw an opportunity to rethink the school’s fashion programming. “A lot of what happened in 2020 illuminated the entire fashion industry’s issues of racism and oppression,” he says. “It made us reflect on how we’ve been complicit in perpetuating historical oppressions, and what our role its to star readdressing that.” The work began by hiring a more diverse faculty, as well as rethinking the curriculums entirely.
Parsons student Alexander Flores and Tracy Cox, who wears a design by Flores, Avalon Hester, Alexander Flores, Gigi Gibowicz, and Eleanor TraskPhoto: Leila Kelleher
Under his leadership, Parsons now currently offers three different courses exploring both traditional and contemporary Indigenous fashion practices. Barry says it’s important for the new wave of talent to learn about the original designers of this country. “You wouldn’t study fashion in Paris without learning about the histories, knowledges and practices of French fashion,” says Barry. “If they’re studying on Turtle Island, they should also learn about the ongoing histories, cultures, and practices of fashion on Turtle Island.” The approaches to sustainability and land-based values are teachings that are valuable to just about any student.
Barry has also made disabled and adaptive fashion courses a pivotal component of the yearly curriculum as well. Last year, he and Sinéad Burke of Tilting the Lens created the Parsons Disabled Fashion Student program, a recruitment scholarship and mentorship program for disabled students that want to work in fashion. “We also offer a course on fashion justice that specifically looks at starting with the disabled body, to create clothes for disabled and neurodivergent folks,” says Barry. “Exploring how new silhouettes, materials, and aesthetics can be developed to not only support disabled folks, but to also actually expand fashion’s creative potential. We also have a course on fat fashion, and designing for larger bodies.”
A design by Parsons student Sustilé BlankPhoto: Martin Seck
Ultimately, Barry sees the introduction of these concepts into the school’s foundational design programs as having a lasting impact. Not only can he encourage the new generation of designers and artists to think more critically about the industries that they will soon be working in, but their studies may also inspire designs and ideas that have never come to fruition before. “We want to create spaces for students that may not fully yet see themselves in the curriculum or in the industry yet,” says Barry. “A lot of students feel they’ve had to suppress [themselves] in order to work in this industry. It’s really important to creates a space where they can be valued and affirmed from the very beginning. It’s integral to design practices—it opens up creative and conceptual possibilities for experimental, alive, and exciting fashion.”
A design by Parsons 2023 alumni Natsumi AokiPhoto: Isaias Ayala and Aleksandr Karjaka
