PPR + The Fancy.com “Empowering Imagination” x Parsons – Meet the Finalist: Melanie Seligman

Parsons The New School for Design, PPR, and The Fancy have teamed up for “Empowering Imagination”, a contest providing Parsons students with a unique opportunity to win an internship within one of PPR’s 16 luxury and sport & lifestyle brands.

Out of twenty top candidates from the graduating class of the BFA Fashion Design program at Parsons, five finalists were chosen by a panel of fashion industry insiders based on the quality and conceptual vision of their graduating collections. The designers who best exemplified PPR’s defining theme, “Empowering Imagination” are now featured on The Fancy, where its one million users will help decide which two designers will win by “fancying” these looks. One ready-to-wear and one accessory designer will be awarded an expense-paid internship with a PPR brand and have their work showcased on the 8th floor Co-op at the iconic Barneys New York on Madison Avenue during September New York Fashion Week.

Melanie Seligman

“As a designer, ingenuity, craftsmanship and quality are three very important qualities that define me and my design principles, and they are reflected in my thesis collection. When I design any accessory, I look to outside inspiration as a jumping off point. The best inspiration is usually from sources completely unconnected to the fashion world. Art, science, literature, history, geography and culture are where I look to first when deciding on an overarching story for any collection. It is in the detail of a petal, the curvature of a spine or the exact hue of the pigment on a Grecian urn that sparks my imagination and enables me to conceive an entire collection.”

Check Melanie Seligman out on The Fancy here. Stay tuned for our other finalist profiles!

Melanie Seligman studied Visual Arts at the University of Western Ontario in Canada and went on to earn a BFA in Fashion Design from Parsons The New School for Design. She recently had her designs displayed in the windows of Saks Fifth Avenue as part of a Parsons showcase and also was selected to exhibit her collection at this year’s Parsons Fashion Benefit and the 560 Exhibition. Melanie has interned at Jill Stuart, Paloma Blanca, Mikaella Bridal, and Roots Canada. She has worked as a volunteer for various charitable organizations including Fashion Cares for the AIDS Committee of Toronto and Rethink Breast Cancer and spent a summer rebuilding homes and schools in Costa Rica.

Melanie’s thesis was inspired by her father and his profession: orthopedic surgery. http://melanieseligman.com/

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You can view more 2012 Parsons student work here.