Profile
Daniel Drak is Assistant Professor of Fashion Management and Director of the MPS Fashion Management program at Parsons School of Design. His work asks how fashion education can prepare students not simply to enter industry, but to understand, critique and reshape the systems that govern it.
Daniel's research examines digital fashion, avatar systems, gaming and platform power, with particular attention to how queer, disabled and other marginalized communities use dress and technology to build identity, access and belonging. As an educator and academic leader, he develops curricula and program structures that connect business strategy with justice, responsible innovation and systems thinking. His project-based pedagogy draws on experience across fashion communication, design research, event production and academic leadership, helping students move from critical inquiry strategic and creative action.
Degrees Held
Master of Science (MS), Strategic Design & Management, Parsons School of Design, The New School, 2016
Bachelor of Design (BDes), Fashion Communication, Toronto Metropolitan University, 2013
Recent Publications
Drak, Daniel. “Mediatized Sustainability: Branded Digital Fashion Consumption.” In Creating Responsible and Inclusive Fashion Brand Narratives: Theory and Practice, edited by Emily Huggard, 53-70. Routledge, 2026. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003516750.
Särmäkari, Natalia, Emily Huggard, and Daniel Drak. “Digital Avatars as Fashioned Bodies: Identity Making and Boundaries.” In Digital Fashion: Artificial Intelligence, Virtual, and Other Emerging Applications, edited by Abu Sadat Muhammad Sayem, 104-115. Routledge, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003594482-9.
Drak, Daniel, and Ben Barry. “Disability Dress in Video Games: Player Modding and Fashioning Disability Worlds in The Sims 4.” ZoneModa Journal 15, no. 2 (2025): 71-85. https://doi.org/10.60923/issn.2611-0563/23051.
Smith-Glaviana, Dina, Alyssa Ridder, Daniel Drak, and Laura L. Camerlengo. “2025 Scholars’ Roundtable: From Zoom to Lectra: The Tools, Theories, and Technologies That Move Dress Forward.” Dress (2025): 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/03612112.2025.2561450.
Drak, Daniel, and Ben Barry. “Modding Masculinities: Video Game Glitches and Transcending Gendered Dress.” Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion 10, no. 2 (2023): 197-215. https://doi.org/10.1386/csmf_00076_1.
Performances and Appearances
Select Conference Presentations
“The Fashion of Play: Access and Identity Creation Across Gaming Platforms,” Queerness and Games
Conference, Montréal, 2025 (with Alex Pidzamecky).
“From Zoom to Lectra: The Tools, Theories and Technologies That Move Dress Forward,” Costume Society of America Scholars’ Roundtable, 2025.
“Digital Avatars as Fashioned Bodies: Identity Making and Boundaries in Roblox,” Digital Fashion Innovation Conference, Manchester, 2024.
“A Digital Enclothed Cognition: Deconstructing the IRL and Digital Fashioned Identity Binary,” Fashion in 3D / ZoneModa International Conference, University of Bologna, 2023.
Research Interests
digital fashion, virtual worlds, avatar identity, game studies, platform studies, disability representation, queer and intersectional design justice, fashion management education, technology and innovation, responsible AI, design research, systems thinking
Awards And Honors
Costume Society of America Scholars’ Roundtable Honor, 2025.
School-Based Funds Grant, Parsons School of Design, 2025.
Innovations in Education Fund, The New School, 2024.
School-Based Funds Grant, Parsons School of Design, 2024.