BBA Strategic Design and Management program director Anna Krutiy brought to the Parsons Paris community years of experience working at the center of Paris’ luxury fashion industry.

After completing a luxury management program at Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales du Nord, Krutiy began a creative path that exposed her to a broad range of fashion settings and roles: For Chanel, she served as a ready-to-wear production analyst; at Swarovski, she worked in product and collection planning; and at The Woolmark Company, she played a variety of roles for the Australian wool industry leader. There, she initiated strategic partnerships with French brands and designers, including a collaboration with Parsons Paris BFA Fashion Design and BBA Strategic Design and Management (SDM) students that ultimately brought her into the SDM program. Her tenure in the business of fashion has given her a unique insight into what students need to succeed in the job market: “They need to understand the language of design and design thinking,” says Krutiy, “but at the same time also have the building blocks of what it means to be a leader.”

As Krutiy sees it, the Parsons Paris SDM program offers students a unique way to learn the ins and outs of fashion management by reading theory alongside work on real projects with other Parsons design students and with major creative companies. This practical learning happens not only in the senior year capstone but also throughout the four years a student spends in the program. Krutiy aims to have these interactions between students and innovative brands lead to connections and jobs, as creative firms are “always looking for talent.”

In a project management class, Krutiy invited Chanel’s ready-to-wear production team to share the details of an upcoming product launch. “Students were asked to research and develop this project as if they were the project manager,” Krutiy explains, “selecting the team, building an appropriate timeline, and managing risk assessment and deliverables.” At the end of the assignment, students presented their proposed plans to the Chanel team managing the product launch, who in turn shared the work they had done. For Krutiy, the experience offered an ideal way to learn because “students could compare what they researched with a real-life case study from a company they might actually end up working for.”