Meet the Students
Caity Briare
Caity Briare, also known as Ca8ty, is an artist and designer completing her final year in the MFA Fashion Design and Society program at Parsons School of Design. She chose the program for its collaboration with the Parsons Disabled Student Program and its focus on inclusive fashion and making an accessible space. Caity runs her own brand, where she upcycles garments and accessories using her signature free-motion embroidery technique. Her work explores themes of whimsy and humor, which she describes as “wearable art.” Caity has designed accessories for KidSuper’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection and created custom pieces for celebrities. After graduation, she hopes to grow her brand and build a team to help bring her ideas to life. She is also interested in joining a creative team at a fashion house, with her ultimate goal of becoming a creative director.
Caity has enjoyed the positive relationships that the Parsons Disabled Program has brought her and the experiences to connect with experts in the fashion industry. Caity was selected as one of the muses for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund 2025, centered on Adaptive Design. She is also very grateful for the scholarship support to pursue her dream of becoming an artist and fashion designer.
Caity is a white woman and a Little Person. She stands on a rooftop deck with a city skyline in the background, facing the camera with a smile. Caity has shoulder-length, wavy brown hair with bangs and is wearing a long-sleeved white lace blouse layered under a colorful vest featuring animals and landscape shapes. She is also wearing a long, dark blue skirt and several rings on her fingers.
Elijah is a Black man standing on a rooftop deck with a city skyline in the background. He is facing the camera and smiling. He has short brown hair and is wearing a cream polo shirt and camouflage-print trousers. He wears an earring in his right ear, and his hands are in his trouser pockets.
Elijah Turner
Elijah Turner is an artist and designer from Dallas, Texas, specializing in menswear and textiles in the MFA Fashion Design and Society program. His work uses materiality as a storytelling device, exploring dualities and juxtapositions to rethink the role of clothing in contemporary culture. Approaching garments not just as products, but as cultural signifiers that reflect and critique the world we live in, engaging with the broader economics of fashion and shifting notions of taste and beauty. After graduating, he hopes to pursue design roles in menswear while also developing an art practice in clothing-based sculpture and digital art.
Giani Rocha-Barnes
Giani Rocha-Barnes is a fashion designer attending Parsons The New School, and studying fashion design in the BFA program. He always loved fashion growing up. His clothes and how he dressed influenced him heavily, and he always tried to be as clean and cool as possible. Eventually, Giani began to create his own garments and designs. He would screen print his own graphics and taught himself how to use a sewing machine. While he spent some time in the Air Force, he used his free time to go to school and start his own brand. Once Giani left the military, he immediately transferred to Parsons to study fashion design which finally began his career. Within his first year of moving to NYC, Giani interned for Willy Chavarria, and the experience he gained truly inspired him. That experience led Giani to intern with Who Decides War and Head of State. Two brands that he admires and the craft that goes into their work. After graduating, Giani plans on continuing to work with brands he loves while also exploring and expanding his own line as well.
Giani is a white man with brown hair pulled back into a low ponytail. He stands on a rooftop deck with the city skyline in the background, facing the camera with a relaxed smile. Giani is wearing a black jacket layered over a black shirt and has an earring in his left ear.
Khia is a Black woman, facing the camera and smiling on a rooftop deck with the city skyline in the background. She has dark brown, shoulder-length hair and is wearing a navy double-breasted blazer with metallic buttons, paired with a cream pleated skirt.
Khia Williams
Driven by a lifelong passion for fashion and storytelling, Khia is currently pursuing a degree in Fashion Design at Parsons School of Design, where she is learning to merge creative vision with thoughtful craftsmanship. For Khia, fashion has always been more than clothing—it is a language through which identity, culture, and emotion can be expressed. This belief guides her work as she develops a design perspective rooted in narrative, purpose, and innovation.
Alongside her studies, Khia serves as a Customer Experience Manager at Macy’s, where she leads with empathy, problem-solving, and a deep understanding of how people engage with fashion in their everyday lives. This role has strengthened her appreciation for the connection between design and the consumer journey, inspiring her to create work that resonates on a personal level.
Her long-term goal is to transition into a full-time design career, using her craft to tell meaningful stories. Parsons has been incredibly supportive throughout this journey by lending the resources to further her development, as well as connecting with other creatives to befriend and collaborate with. She is excited to continue her journey at Parsons and see what comes to fruition.
Nia Standford
Nia Standord was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. Her interest in fashion began when she was a child. Fashion has always been interesting to her because she has always been fascinated by people’s dress and why they dress the way they do. Nia distinguishes between past decades, when garments were crafted with greater emphasis on quality and were often tailored for the individual, and today's focus on mass production.
This year became a year of transition for Nia. She recently switched from the AAS fashion design program to the AAS fashion marketing and communications program. Nia is looking at this change as an opportunity for her future career, as her prior design knowledge (including construction, fabric, and materials concepts) will give her an edge when job searching.
The Disabled Fashion Student program has given her opportunities to make connections and to be in rooms that she would not have been able to be in otherwise. There have been numerous parts of the program that she has enjoyed, including getting interviewed by Teen Vogue magazine in the spring of 2024 as one of the first three recipients of the Disabled Fashion Student Program scholarship. She had opportunities to visit the H&M Headquarters (Fall 2024) and the Capri Headquarters (Spring 2025), which allowed her to converse with industry executives and hear their experiences.
Nia was also part of the backstage team during Fall 2025 New York Fashion Week. Thanks to one fellow Disabled Fashion Student Program classmate, Gianni, Nia worked for the Head of State show.
Nia's main goals are to graduate and secure a well-paying job in the fashion industry that allows her to live comfortably and independently. While unsure of the exact role, she is strongly interested in being a buyer, creative director, editor, fashion marketer, stylist, or working in fashion PR. Eventually, she plans to return to school to pursue a fashion design degree, but only after graduating with her current degree and gaining practical industry experience to build her design skills and portfolio.
Nia is a Black woman standing on a rooftop deck with a city skyline in the background. She is facing the camera with a smile. Nia wears glasses, and her hair is pulled back into a high ponytail. Her outfit includes a light gray plaid blazer layered over a bright blue button-up shirt and dark pants.
U.S. study of Disabled fashion student experiences
The voices of today’s Disabled fashion students have been foundational in crafting the vision and goals of the Parsons Disabled Fashion Student Program.
We interviewed 35 Disabled students enrolled in fashion programs across the United States to understand their experiences in fashion school and the ways it can be improved.
Results from this research will be used to develop practices that best support the incoming Disabled students in the program and at Parsons at large.
Image Description: 12 models, including 2 wheelchair users and a baby, wearing neon and holographic spandex clothing dance on a platform stage in Gallery 400 with graphic geometric shapes painted on the floor.
“Hopefully, somewhere along the line, my path will lead the way for someone else to follow in my footsteps and have a slightly easier time. Kind of the whole concept of ‘water can carve a path into rock.’”
“I think I can use my experiences, both positive and negative, as material evidence of a need.”
Centering Disability experiences and accessibility
Students shared with us the benefits that their disability experiences bring to their fashion work, the barriers they face in fashion school, and their dreams for the future of fashion education that is accessible and welcoming of the Disability experience.
Image Description: Aaron Rose Philip, a Black woman with small, waist-length braids smiling wide on the runway for Collina Strada in her power wheelchair. She is wearing wide leg ripped denim jeans, a white sheer bralette, and a tulle layered skirt with green and pink accents designed by Collina Strada. There are dried flowers jutting out of the frame of her chair.
Image Description: Sinéad, a white, Queer, physically Disabled woman with brown shoulder-length hair wearing a slate blue Gucci suit. A small red embroidered patch on the left sleeve reads "Gucci Sinéad Burke." To her left is a small end table with a brown leather Gucci handbag and a gold metal lamp.
Supporting disabled fashion students at Parsons
Results from this research will be used to develop practices that best support the incoming Disabled students in the program and at Parsons in general. We will also use the results to develop a framework and strategies to recruit, support, mentor and build community among Disabled fashion students at Parsons.
Supporting Disabled students at other fashion schools
Additionally, we will share these findings with other fashion schools with the intention of reshaping the foundation of fashion education by supporting the inclusion of Disabled fashion students in the US and around the world.
Image Description: Sinéad Burke on the cover of Business of Fashion in 2018. Sinéad, a white, Queer, physically Disabled woman with slicked back brown hair wears a custom Burberry trenchcoat that is haphazardly cut in the front above the knee. The back of the coat is
still attached. She is holding a pair of oversized open scissors.
We invite applications by March 16, 2026 for the Fall 2026 semester
Apply now for the Disabled Fashion Student Program.