BRIDGET PARRIS, MA/ART HISTORY + MFA/PAINTING & DRAWING

Creating Your Own Path

Meet LSU alumna Bridget Parris, who has exhibited her paintings at galleries and museums in New York, designed decorative tableware for Anthropologie stores, has a self-named collection with Magenta, and is now pursuing a career in couture fashion design after graduating from the prestigious Parson's School of Fashion Design and interning with the couture and bridal team at Marchesa. This is where an MA in art history and an MFA in painting & drawing can lead! 

In the past two decades, she has taught courses and workshops in fine arts and industrial design at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Arts and Design, the Fashion Institute of Technology, and Parson's: The New School for Design. As senior designer for Anthropologie, design director at Springs Global, and owner of Bridget Parris Design & Consulting, she has designed products in a wide range of materials including ceramic, glass, metal, and wood, creating artwork for apparel, fashion accessories, and home textiles. In 2013, she was invited to design a self-named collection, Bridget Parris for Magenta, for Magenta's boutique line. Bridget's most notable recent collection of paintings, And Then There Was a Revolution, was exhibited at the Chair and the Maiden Gallery in New York in 2010, and was inspired, in part, by the archive of research she collected on 18th-century decorative art for a holiday collection she designed for Anthropologie. She is currently working with an experienced fashion designer in New York and designing high-end custom bridal and evening wear for private clients with a goal of establishing her own high-end fashion brand one day. 

"What I appreciated most about my time at LSU was that I had teachers who encouraged me to find my own path and develop my own creative style," Bridget recalled. "Having a design career helped me support my painting career, and my background in fine arts and art history has opened many doors for me." 

Read more in this month's alumni spotlight.