Originally named the Chase School of Art, Parsons School of Design was founded in 1896 by American Impressionist painter William Merritt Chase with a focus on the fine arts: painting, drawing, and sculpture. Two years after its founding, the school changed its name to the New York School of Art. In 1907, Frank Alvah Parsons became an administrator at the school and made design an important part of the educational mission. He introduced the first full professional departments in interior design, fashion design, and graphic design. To recognize the growth of the design curriculum, the school was renamed the New York School of Fine and Applied Art in 1909. In honor of Mr. Parsons, who was important in steering the school's development and in shaping arts education through his theories about linking art and industry, the institution became Parsons School of Design in 1941. It became a division of the New School for Social Research in 1970.

The school offered courses in fashion design, then called costume design, as early as 1904. Frank Alvah Parsons enlarged upon these courses to create a full professional department in 1907. Over the next four decades, the program's name was changed several times, as follows: Costume or Clothes Design (1918), Costume Design and Costume Illustration (1921), Costume Design (1922), Costume Design and Costume Illustration (1923), Costume Design and Costume Construction (1925), Costume Design and Construction (1927), Costume Design, Construction and Illustration (1928), Costume Design and Illustration (1937). In 1954, the department was divided to form the Fashion Design Department and the Fashion Illustration Department. As of 2019, Parsons School of Design's School of Fashion offers AAS, BFA, and MFA degrees.

In the early twentieth century, Parsons’ fashion curriculum focused on the creation of sketches of fashion designs that could be sold to manufacturers. In 1915, students also began to work with fabric to produce finished garments. In its current incarnation, as of 2019, the School of Fashion places an emphasis on understanding the entirety of the design process from the initial concept to the final product and its marketing. The curriculum seeks to educate students on the fundamentals of good design, as well as to develop essential skills specific to fashion design, such as model drawing and pattern drafting, which are applied to real-life design problems. Students also research the historical purposes and implementations of fashion design, study business practices, and investigate the environmental and commercial impact on the profession.

In 1919, to supplement its core group of instructors, the department initiated a program to invite professional designers to critique student work. By 1954, students in their junior and senior years worked under the supervision of visiting critics from the professional fashion industry to design and create garments. The department’s curriculum was revised in 2001, such that the critic mentorship program was confined to the junior year, while seniors worked independently to produce a thesis collection that exhibited their own individual style.

Notable fashion designers who attended--although they may not necessarily have received a degree from--Parsons School of Design include Gilbert Adrian (1923), Claire McCardell (1928), Donald Brooks (1950), Willi Smith (1969), Donna Karan (1969), Anna Sui (1973), Isaac Mizrahi (1982), Marc Jacobs (1984), Tracy Reese (1984), Mark Badgley (1985), James Mischka (1985), Derek Lam (1990), Narciso Rodriguez (1991), Behnaz Sarafpour (1992), Peter Som (1997), Lazaro Hernandez (2002), and Jack McCollough (2002).

Parsons began organizing annual fashion collection shows at prestigious venues to present graduating student work probably in the mid-1920s. The event was regularly recorded on 16mm film, and later on video, from 1966 onwards. In 1974, the name of the event changed to Critics' Awards Show, and, in 1993, to Critics' Awards Benefit. From 2002 it was called Parsons Benefit & Fashion Show.

Beginning in the 1940s, visiting designer critics nominated students to receive awards at the annual fashion show (from 1960 called the Gold Thimble Awards). The Student Designer of the Year Award began in 1967, and was given annually to the best student. Since the 1970s, the annual fashion shows have also honored outstanding contributors to the fashion industry, with the Parsons Award presented to recipients as part of the annual show. For several years, the Mohair Council of America, the National Association of Men's Sportswear Buyers, the Scandinavian Mink Association, and J.C. Penney Company, among other fashion businesses, also awarded students at the annual show.

Each year a 'jury of selection show' preceded the annual fashion show, where the audience often selected which designs were presented at the annual show, and the jury committee decided which designs received awards. The first 'jury of selection show' recording in this collection is from 1969.

Probably beginning around the 1980s, the Junior Year Presentation were also recorded, where some junior students were awarded Silver Thimble Awards. The first Junior Year Presentation recording in this collection is from 1981, the last from 1999.