Since arriving in New York in August, Burak Cakmak, the new Dean of Parsons School of Fashion, has been making his mark in several areas, including sustainable design, which is a field he is particularly passionate about.
Cakmak, a native of Turkey, arrived at Parsons with an impressive resume. Most recently, he was Swarovski Group’s first Vice President of Corporate Responsibility, and implemented, among other initiatives, programs that fostered environmental stewardship at the Austrian crystal house, while leading its Swarovski Waterschool initiative’s education program. Before Swarovski, he served as General Manager of MADE-BY Benelux in the Netherlands, working on advancing sustainability practices for such brands as Tommy Hilfiger, and, prior, he was Kering’s first Director of Corporate Sustainability. He started his career Gap Inc. as the Senior Manager of Social Responsibility.
Cakmak didn’t just work for brands and luxury groups. He played a key role in the creation of the Sustainable Technology for Future Luxury Scholarship at London’s Central Saint Martins, as well as in Parsons’ MFA Fashion Design Scholarships. He serves as a member of the Advisory Board Committee for the CFDA + Lexus Fashion* Initiative business development program designed to inspire thought leadership, facilitate the implementation of innovative business practices and create meaningful change within American fashion.
Here, Cakmak tells CFDA.com about recent evolutions in fashion education, the key role sustainability plays in fashion’s future, and his view of American design.
CFDA.com: What triggered your interest in fashion and luxury?
Burak Cakmak: “What was always interesting to me is the human element. Growing up in a country like Turkey and seeing a lot of different points of view—East meets West and those dynamics that work against each other – you see a tension and how two sides can find a way to live together. I was interested in international relations, potentially all the way to the government level. I studied to be a diplomat. I was looking for that angle in my work that had a human and also an international level. When I looked for opportunities, I found a role at Gap. That’s how I got into fashion. I personally always cared about style and fashion and what it brings to peoples’ day-to-day lives, and being able to be part of it from this side got me hooked.”
CFDA.com: How has fashion education evolved in recent years? What changes do you expect in the next decade?
B.C.: “I started being interested in the human element and ultimately realized how the industry works as an influence on designers themselves, and how success is also tied to their overall impact on society. The best way to bring change to people in business is education. Through the companies that I worked at, I reached out to many different design schools. I had a taste of fashion education and luxury and sustainable luxury—both in how the industry works and how the young feel about these issues.
There are a lot of creative people coming out of these schools. Recognizing how the industry is growing and how interlinked everything is is key. Creativity in its raw form is not the only thing they need to learn, but they need to figure how to take their place in society and in the fashion industry at large to be strong and make their own statement.
The fact that as the industry grows to a bigger size, the expectation of designers is different: what does it mean to be an entrepreneur and to run a fashion enterprise? What are the means to reach customers not just through the clothes? Part of it the challenge for these students is to really create an identity for themselves and deliver a clear message of who they are.”
CFDA.com: What are some of the things you have implemented – or hope to implement – at Parsons?
B.C.: “We want to make sure we meet the needs of the present time and deliver a curriculum that is able to function within the industry. We also want to give students more specific skills around branding—understanding how to be in fashion management and using communication as a tool to talk about yourself and all the other aspects of design that can exist in media and technology to product design, even performing arts. We want our students to have a broader mind when it comes to what fashion represents.”
CFDA.com: How important will sustainability and social awareness be for tomorrow’s designers?
B.C.: “We already know that it is important to them. I have experienced this from the students in my first three months at Parsons. What Parsons has done with its curriculum is that, in the freshman year, we included courses on Systems and Society so that designers going into their fashion course are already more aware and coming up with ideas on how to tackle challenges, and that’s without us triggering it. They look at topics that are linked to society, not just to design and the fashion business. I appreciate how they are able to do both. We see students do collections, and at the same time, work on projects that address societal issues such as looking at how to improve the experience of a child in hospital and how that gown can engage them, make them happy and get them out of the psyche of what happens next, as well as the sustainability story behind the materials used. Now, we are seeing students questioning how fashion can help migrants from Syria into Europe. They are thinking about designs that are more resilient and suited for that journey.”
CFDA.com: Coming from such an international background, what is your view of American Fashion?
B.C.: “I started my fashion career with Gap. At the time, they were largest fashion retailer in the world. I think historically [American Fashion] has had the ability to reach a wider part of society and meet daily needs, and that role has been critical and served a model to other businesses that are very successful now, especially in Europe. In the future, what will designers out of U.S. offer in a new way that is not necessarily just luxury, but design mixed with everyday wear that still has a key component around style. I am hoping for new designers to emerge, with an eco-system of younger designer and smaller brands that can excite the global audiences.
There is a definite distinction to Europe. That point of view is what makes the U.S. unique. There is always a sense of being able to show creativity but also making something wearable. That is the fine balance the U.S. has always been able to offer and make it more appealing to a wide consumer base.”
