New Chair Appointed for Department of Fashion Design

Jennifer Minniti, a professor who also has served as an associate chair and associate dean at the California College of the Arts, where she has been teaching since 1997, has been appointed as the new chair of Pratt’s Department of Fashion Design. Her appointment is effective August 1.

“Professor Minniti has an impressive history as a designer, curator, scholar, and academic administrator,” said Dean Concetta M. Stewart of the School of Art and Design. “I am pleased that she will be bringing this wealth of experience to Pratt.”

Minniti’s other recent teaching appointments have included visiting professorships in Fashion at CEDIM University in Monterrey, Mexico, and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A practicing designer, educator, and consultant, she has taught graduate and undergraduate classes in fashion history as well as in contemporary fashion theory and design. She also has experience in all aspects of building academic fashion design programs, from curriculum review and development to faculty appointments.

Minniti’s industry experience includes working for Donna Karan in Manhattan, and she recently helped launch a sustainable collection, Clothespin by Gale Parker. Her curatorial work includes appointments as a research consultant in ethnographic textiles and modern fashion at the DeYoung Museum and as a curatorial consultant to the Wattis Institute, both in San Francisco, California. She received a master’s degree in costume studies from New York University and a bachelor’s degree in fashion design from Philadelphia University.

Photo: Courtesy of Jennifer Minniti