Brendan McCarthy

Brendan C. McCarthy is the Director of the undergraduate Fashion Design Program for Systems and Materiality at Parsons School of Design in New York. He is Assistant Professor of Fashion and teaches courses in Parsons' Systems and Society Pathway, which reimagine new possibilities for fashion design by examining critical issues in diverse social systems. His curricular innovation work explores how the integration of interdisciplinary, human-centric, collaborative and systems-based methodologies into the fashion design process have the potential to enable fashion to be more inclusive, serve a wider range of communities and generate new types of outcomes and models that positively impact our world.

McCarthy received his BA in mathematics from Columbia University and MFA in Fine Art from Parsons School of Design. His academic training also includes studying architecture at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. Prior to his transition to art, design and education, McCarthy worked in finance for Morgan Stanley as a research analyst.

At Parsons, McCarthy has led important new partnerships with many different organizations including: Parsons x United Nations Population Fund x Hela Clothing Women's Lifecycle Garment & Safe Birth Project; Parsons x Oceanic Ibiza Project; Parsons x KERING EP&L (environmental profit and loss) Program; LVMH Global Human Resources Future of Work Workshop; Parsons x AARP Disrupt Aging in Fashion Project; and the Care+Wear Hospital Gown Re-Design Project.

McCarthy is extremely passionate about the transformative power education to affect positive social change. He is deeply committed to the craft of teaching and loves working with students.

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