Patrick Robinson and Virginia Smith.

Parsons has produced more fashion stars (think the Proenza Schouler guys, Jason Wu, Marc Jacobs and Tom Ford) than Barney’s can stock. The school’s 2013 fashion show will be attended by big-name store buyers, magazine editors and movie stars, all on the lookout for the next big thing primed for Seventh Avenue success. Hosted by the school’s Executive Dean Joel Towers and Dean Simon Collins as well as alumnus Patrick Robinson, the show’s front row will be stocked with the power players who rule Fashion Week at Lincoln Center. Dress for the style press.

Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers, 23rd Street and the West Side Highway, (212) 336-6060, 11:45am, by invitation only.

Galliano (Getty)

Anti-Semitism is out of style at Parsons.

Students at The New School of Design are angrily protesting the schools’ controversial new hire: designer John Galliano, the notorious deliverer of a hateful, pro-Hitler tirade in 2011.

The world-renowned design college has reportedly hired Mr. Galliano to teach a short workshop on “emotion” this May. Upon hearing the news, an anonymous group took to Change.org to start a petition that would block the designer from teaching at the school. 

“This is a person who was fired from Dior for his anti-Semitic remarks, who Natalie Portman refused to work with because of his remarks, so why is Parsons The New School for Design hiring him?” the petition demands.

“[Parsons] plans to hire John Galliano for a 3-day workshop,” the petition continues, “It doesn't matter if its for three months or three days, hiring someone who has made such horrific comments shows that the school values Galliano over their entire Jewish student body. It shows they value him over their students' respect, peace of mind, and heritage.” The petition later likens the hiring of Mr. Galliano to hiring a member of the KKK.

Supporters of the petition angrily voiced their disgust with Mr. Galliano. Most commenters were students, disgraced and offended that their school would hire an instructor with his track record.

“As president of the Jewish Student Union (the oldest and largest club on-campus), I am shocked that The New School hired John Galliano,” one Jennifer Kaplan commented on the petition’s webpage.

“I find it appalling that a known Anti-Semite like John Galliano could be hired to teach at The New School,” wrote Alex Goldblum, a Parsons alumnus. “I am demanding his immediate termination.”

The petition was supported by Parsons parents, too.

“My in-laws are survivors and lost their parents and many relatives in the Holocaust,” wrote Sally Baerman, whose daughter is a Parsons freshman. "Galliano, who debases himself with anti-Semitism, is NOT an instructor that is worthy of educating students ~ no matter how talented he may be.”

Mr. Galliano made headlines in 2011, when his anti-Semitic rant in a Paris cafe was caught on tape. “I love Hitler,” Mr. Galliano says in the video. “People like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers, would all be f------ gassed.” Following his actions, the designer was promptly fired from Christian Dior.

Mr. Galliano made waves again last Fashion Week, when he stepped out in a questionably-offensive outfit that channeled Hasidic Jewish garb.

Still, the school stands by its decision. 

"The planned master class with John Galliano will be a dynamic and intimate opportunity for our students to learn from an immensely talented designer," a statement released by Parsons read.

"We believe that over the past two years Galliano has demonstrated a serious intent to make amends for his past actions, and as part of this workshop, Parsons students will have the opportunity to engage in a frank conversation with Mr. Galliano about the challenges and complications of leading a design house in the 21st century."

The  petition aims to collect 500 signatures. Stay tuned to find out if Mr. Galliano will be permitted to walk the runway, or whether the school will decide he’s simply out of fashion.

Update: An earlier version of this story said the petition was started by an anonymous group of Parsons students started the petition. It is not known whether they are students.

Alexander Wang.

Forget Project Runway—the real fashion showdown is at “Fusion,” the annual competition that pits future design superstars from Parsons against those from FIT in a runway show with only one winner and one school going home with the gold. Past Fusion contestants have included Prabal Gurung, Chris Benz and Alexander Wang. The catwalk competition includes five shows over the weekend, and the crowds from both schools are loud and proud and dressed as if they are attending the opening of a nightclub, so kit yourself out in your best after-hours garb.

Parsons The New School for Design, 66 Fifth Avenue, (212) 229-8900, 2pm and 6pm.

So last year the Brooklyn born Graffiti Research Lab, a group who's founding members are either professors or graduates of Parsons the New School for Design, speaheaded the Eyewriter project.  They teamed up with OpenFrameworks and Free Art and Technology communities to build low cost, open source software and hardware that would allow Tempt1 to paint again through the use of eye tracking. Similar technology has allowed the physicist Stephen Hawkings to speak using only his eyes. But the technology EyeWriter created was the first to allow for detailed artistic expression.

Their low cost approach and open source methods have allowed other artitsts to replicate this technology across the world, from Cali to Kyoto to Mumbai.  Today the team broke a new milestone. With the help of New York City-based funding site Kickstarter, the team raised $15,000 to build the next generation of EyeWriter software. The new version will expand the functionality beyond graffiti, so that users can also browse the web or compose emails just by moving their eyes.

Art By Eyes: TEMPT1 / EyeWriter Kickstarter Initiative from Evan Roth on Vimeo.

"I don't like it. I want a different scent," he told international fragrance-maker Pascal Gaurin, the man behind Arden Beauty and Tom Ford Black Violet.

The audience gasped.

M. Gaurin blanched.

The two men were onstage with fellow "accidental perfumer" Majora Carter, MacArthur "genius" and co-host of the new public radio series The Promised Land, whose pioneering green-collar work is bringing beauty to the Bronx. Ms. Carter and Mr. Gaurin are collaborating on a fragrance to be piped through the ducts of the 103-unit Sister Thomas Apartments building on 870 Southern Boulevard in Hunts Point.

Mr. Burr praised their efforts as being "the olfactory equivalent of green-roofing the Bronx," but disparaged their bright and slightly floral, slightly citrusy L'eau Vert du Bronx du Sur for not being as "natural" as he'd like. He would prefer a fragrance that smells exactly like a leaf or grass, he explained to the packed auditorium.

Other matters under discussion during the daylong conference, titled HEADPSPACE and hosted by Parsons' the New School for Design and MoMA in partnership with International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (IFF), Coty Inc. and Seed magazine: Is there a language of scent? How is scent tied to our perceptions of space and time? How will electronic sensors reshape our olfactory world? Will iPods someday be scent containers? Throughout the day, different aromas were sent through the air, all of them pleasant.

The event launched Parsons' new M.F.A. program, Transdisciplinary Design, and featured a roster of 29 speakers and panelists, including IFF senior perfumer Carlos Benaim, Rockefeller University neurobiologist Leslie Vosshal and Berlin-based conceptual scent artist Sissel Tolass, who once bottled the sweat of 16 phobic men at the precise moment of panic attack and showcased the "scents" in a gallery.

Ayse Birsel, co-founder and creative director of the New York-based "empathy driven product design studio" Birsel + Seck, had teamed with Mr. Benaim and IFF New York Creative Center manager Véronique Ferval to create a customized perfume palette for the conference. Ms. Birsel said that the experience of bringing scent and design together made her feel as if she'd been producing silent films and then had suddenly discovered sound. The team's results-"Birth," "Puberty," "Partnership," "Sex," "Empty Nest," "Death"-were available on a folding table in the lobby, with sniffers invited to spoon "scent beads" into little plastic baggies for at-home whiffing. "Puberty" was redolent of sweat and dirty socks. "Sex" smelled suspiciously of semen. "Death" was pleasantly musky, a bit like a rainy fall day in Ireland.

Neither woman is French—Ms. Cushnie is British, born to Jamaican parents, and Ms. Ochs is a Canadian of German-Filipino ancestry who grew up in Maryland—but who cares?

“Abbreviated with ‘et’ as ‘and,’ it’s ‘CEO,’” said Ms. Cushnie last week at the pair’s cozy studio in the “fashion ghetto,” as they called it, on West 36th Street (they are pronouncing “et” phonetically). “We’re young, and becoming CEOs basically of our own company, so we kind of liked that aspect of it.”

“It was a beautiful day,” said Ms. Ochs, no relation to The Times Ochs-Sulzberger clan.

“Oh, it was a gorgeous day,” echoed Ms. Cushnie in a soft, aristocratic lilt.

Best friends since junior year, the women had always shared a strikingly similar, streamlined aesthetic. Their parents had encouraged them to work for established labels first, but after months of interviewing, they were still determined to go into business together. Ms. Ochs had won Parsons’ prestigious Designer of the Year Award (Ms. Cushnie finished second). They’d both already appeared on the cover of Women’s Wear Daily. They’d racked up internships at Donna Karan, Oscar de la Renta, Isaac Mizrahi, Marc Jacobs, Proenza Schouler and Chado Ralph Rucci. What more was to be learned without actually doing, they figured?

Now, a year and a half after that fateful lunch at Felix, Ms. Ochs proclaimed joining forces “the right thing to do.”

She was sitting with Ms. Cushnie at a black lacquered table in their studio’s anteroom, surrounded by racks of tight, monochromatic dresses from their debut collection for spring 2009. Ms. Ochs is the more bubbly of the two, with a short, angled black bob and a self-described “potty mouth.” Ms. Cushnie is a 5-foot-8 former fit model with a glossy, blondish ’fro and bedroom eyes.

As snow fell softly outside the window, the partners explained that they’d designed their first collection with a female version of Patrick Bateman from the film version of American Psycho in mind. “I think the character—not the killing part—I related to,” said Ms. Ochs, who graduated from a military high school in D.C. (hence the small office’s crisp organization). “The type of woman we want to dress is not the wallflower, kind of stuck in the corner.”

“It was just so interesting the way he was so meticulous in everything he did,” said Ms. Cushnie of the Bateman character. She was introduced to the movie by Ms. Ochs, who was “trying to Americanize Carly.” Some of the clothes in the collection, including the electric pink dress that opened the show, had strategically placed, flesh-baring cutouts—meant to reference “the slashing, obviously,” said Ms. Cushnie.

They said they like “lips, tits and ass” on their runway models, women as opposed to girls. Glowing reviews of the collection often mentioned that Ms. Ochs and Ms. Cushnie—hardly wallflowers themselves—looked exceptional in the clothes as they teetered onto the runway after the show, offering tentative waves.

“Few things are more electrifying than bearing witness to the nerves and excitement of a young designer’s first break-out show,” wrote Bergdorf Goodman women’s fashion director Linda Fargo, who was in attendance, in an email to The Observer. “It was highly anticipated by myself and the Bergdorf team … the last girl walks, the curtain closes, they take a nervous bow.  Cushnie et Ochs delivered and the label was born!” She called the collection “as sharp, body-aware, modern, and beautifully turned-out as these two polished young women.”

Ms. Fargo, who had been on the panel that judged Ms. Ochs and Ms. Cushnie’s senior theses at Parsons, bought six looks for Bergdorf, where, priced at a not exactly recession-friendly $825 to $1,695, they will hang as of Feb. 5 alongside creations by Prada, Jil Sander and Mr. Jacobs.

BABES IN BAND-AID DRESSES

The designers have a specific customer in mind for their snug, architectural, often Band-Aid–like dresses.

“Well, she takes care of her body,” said Ms. Ochs, laughing.

“Someone who’s confident and likes fashion doesn’t want to hide between some tent dress, likes to dress up, likes to make an effort, likes clean lines and likes to look sexy without being vulgar,” Ms. Cushnie put in.

Who is a Cushnie et Ochs celebrity? “Leigh Lezark,” Ms. Cushnie said, speaking of the Misshapes DJ ubiquitous in fashion circles. Also: “Demi Moore, I think, could rock this.”

“Our favorite all-time muse girl is …” began Ms. Cushnie.

“Esther,” supplied Ms. Ochs. “I don’t know how you say her last name.”

That would be Esther Cañadas, the generously puckered Spanish blonde best known for a series of lusty DKNY ads in the late ’90s.

“We watched The Thomas Crown Affair the other day, which she was in,” said Ms. Cushnie. “She would be our, like, our woman.”

It is not lost on Ms. Cushnie and Ms. Ochs that while they’ve barreled straight into Bergdorf in the middle of the biggest financial meltdown in 80 years, other, better-established designers have had much worse luck.

“It’s weird for us that we’re sort of slowly moving forward while people are scaling back,” said Ms. Ochs. “People ask, ‘How is the economy affecting you?’ It’s affecting everyone. We’re at the bottom.” She noted that buyers had been cautious during last September’s Fashion Week, which roughly aligned with Lehman Brothers’ implosion, and that several stores that had raved about the collection—among them high-end downtown emporium Jeffrey—had decided to wait another season before placing any orders.

“Everyone took a different path,” said Ms. Ochs diplomatically. “Some people shot up, like Marc [Jacobs]—he went bankrupt twice, but look at him now! I mean, I don’t want to say, ‘Let’s go bankrupt twice …’”

Mr. Jacobs is of course himself a former Parsons Designer of the Year, but Ms. Ochs and Ms. Cushnie are more often compared to another duo, Proenza Schouler, the label designed by current industry darlings Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez. Messrs. McCollough and Hernandez launched their business right out of Parsons, where they also won Designer of the Year, and are now worn by everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow to Rihanna.

While the female duo shrugs off any similarities, the fashion world is increasingly like basketball, wherein prodigies are anointed early and saddled with comparisons to Michael Jordan. Young designers are plucked from their dewy financial obscurity and given Target capsule lines, Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) funding or the backing of an international conglomerate (Proenza is now backed by Valentino).

In early January, like Proenza before it, Cushnie et Ochs won an Ecco Domani award, one of several $25,000 grants awarded annually to promising young designers. In a season when more established names like Vera Wang and Betsey Johnson are scaling back to in-store “presentations” for Fashion Week in February or dropping out entirely, that money will help them to stage an extravagant runway show at the New York Public Library.

Va-Va-VA VROOM!

The forthcoming collection was inspired by a photograph they saw in a magazine of a Volkswagen factory in Dresden.

“Before the whole auto bailout and everything with the car industry, we saw that and it was so clean and so white,” said Ms. Ochs.

“Very us,” said Ms. Cushnie.

“Very us. It was just like, ‘We’re starting here,’” said Ms. Ochs. “We don’t discuss anything. We have no concept, we’re not like, ‘This is the direction we’re going.’ We kind of separate, don’t say anything to each other, and—”

“And it usually ends up being the same thing,” Ms. Cushnie said, “and we’ll mix and match and then we’re like, ‘Omigod, we’re on the exact same page without having said anything.”

They seem to have mutually arrived at an industrial, assembly-line vibe: “looking at the idea of mass-producing the supreme being, and what she would look like today,” explained Ms. Cushnie. And as with the debut collection, they’re obsessed with the perfect color of nude, or “the idea of being naked without being naked,” as Ms. Ochs put it.

“They’re both very sexy,” said shoe designer Alejandro Ingelmo, who is providing industrial-grade footwear for the show. “What they design is who they are. … They’re not, like, all over the place.”

Indeed, as fashion increasingly leaps into bed with reality television and markets itself to the middlebrow, Ms. Cushnie and Ms. Ochs are determined to keep things high end. “People take fashion and think it’s easy,” Ms. Cushnie said.

“Project Runway hasn’t helped. It really hasn’t,” said Ms. Ochs.

“And with all the celebrity lines, it’s like the new ‘It’ job to have,” said Ms. Cushnie.

They both insisted that despite being the most photogenic female designers to emerge in years, they plan to avoid television cameras at all costs, preferring instead to be land their wares in iconic boutiques like Kirna Zabete, Jeffrey and Browns in London.

“Something English,” Ms. Ochs said dramatically. “I think our woman is a little more ‘over there,’” she added, meaning Europe, “because everyone saw us and was like, ‘Oh, are you selling to Russia?’ I’m like, ‘We’re trying!’”

Though the duo’s bandage dresses, American Psycho references and pneumatic models have undertones of an early-’90s revival, Martin Price, a former Parsons professor of the duo, praised their innovation. “They’re living in the 21st century,” he said. “A lot of young people live in the ’60s, or the ’40s, but it’s important to tap into he fact that it’s 2009.” He called their bare, accessories-free aesthetic “an extremely streamlined sense of the way women want to dress.”

And: “They are their best advertisement,” he said.

While the women always wear their own designs when they venture out, they’ve been too busy lately to do much of that.

“Going out is a luxury now,” Ms. Ochs said, recalling undergraduate days of foie gras burgers at DB Bistro.

“I don’t think there’s that many great places to go out anymore,” Ms. Cushnie said, remembering a night they got into PM after a particularly stressful day of classes, Ms. Ochs wearing Uggs and carrying pattern paper. “As soon as he let me in, I said, ‘Shame on you,’” she said.

Nowadays, they prefer the relatively subdued scenes at SubMercer or the private club Norwood. Or better yet, carnivorous mecca Shorty’s .32 in Soho, which “has the best short ribs,” said Ms. Cushnie.

“We go there when we’re dying,” Ms. Ochs said. “We don’t need menus, they put it right in,” said Ms. Ochs. “Because they know. Two short ribs, string beans on the side, mashed potatoes.”

“We don’t talk to each other,” said Ms. Cushnie. And they howled with laughter.

mbryan@observer.com

But, hey! There's a funny article in today's Chicago Tribune on... nude artist models!

Drawing from a nude model has, of late, become a Sunday artist kind of thing to do. This has not always been the case. Way back when, like, when the human figure was the basis for most Western art and being an artist meant spending the better part of your teens and early-twenties sitting on a wood plank all day in a studio garret, struggling with the knot-and-hollows density and structure of the man or woman (likely a woman, likely "disreputable") posed in front of you while your teacher threatens your sketch from behind with a gum eraser. Back then, nude models were the obstacle course, firing range, and graduation day parading ground of art boot camp.

That doesn't sound like much fun. At least, it sounds like a lot of work, which is probably why the number of artists who are schooled in figure drawing and possess--what do you call them, again?--formal skills seems to diminish annually.

That's probably not a fair generalization. In any case, Parson's MFA program is having its annual Open Studio event tonight at 2 West 13^th street and various locations.

Both faculty and students will show. Aside from general skill level, will there be any outward difference between faculty and student art? One with the self-confidence of the tenured, the other coolly eyeing an immediate future of daytime jobs and cold studios in Bushwick? We'll see.