Degrees of Separation

My latest article for FashionUnited.com:

If over the past three decades car prices had gone up as fast as tuition, the average new car would cost more than 80,000 dollars, reported The New York Times this week. More than 70 percent of American families send their children to college and student loan debt is replacing credit card debt as the biggest  drain on the nation’s finances. Mark Zuckerburg  and Steve Jobs redesigned our daily lives to the nth degree––with no degree. So is a degree necessary to succeed in the fashion industry?

Here’s where I begin to argue myself, an educator, out of a job. There are a slew of prominent designers who have never been awarded that validating certificate adorned with calligraphic script, yet have unquestionably secured their places in the textbooks: Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Raf Simons, Alexander Wang, Rei Kawakubo of Comme Des Garcons, Miuccia Prada, Paul Smith, Vivienne Westwood, Karl Lagerfeld, Michael Kors, Gianni and Donatella Versace…  click to continue to website

Images of work by Carrie-Ann Stein and Toma Stenko