Prof. Simon Collins

Chief Creative Officer

Chief Creative Officer
Former Dean: School of Fashion, Parsons
Visiting Professor: Tsinghua University
Former Creative Director: Nike

“I’ve seen the excellence of Chinese designers in every country and design team I’ve worked in. So I’m delighted to be able to help create a Chinese Design University that lives up to their endless potential.”

Creative advisor, keynote speaker, board member, distinguished professor and writer, Simon Collins is a former Dean at Parsons in New York and creative director at Nike in Asia. He has spoken at the Cannes Lions in France and the United Nations in NY, and he’s been featured in Forbes, Business of Fashion, AnOther Magazine, WWD, SCMP, China Daily and The New York Times.

After working with Nike, Polo and Zegna, he spent seven years as Dean of the School of Fashion at Parsons where he helped turn the quietly respected design school into a global mega-brand. Featured in The Business of Fashion’s Global 500 and Fast Company Magazine’s 100 Most Creative People in Business. Assouline published his book“The School of Fashion” in 2014 and he joined the Parsons Board of Governors. He then chaired the Advisory Board for Global trend group WGSN and advised WME IMG on reinveting NYFW. He joined the Advisory Council for NYU Stern Luxury EMBA and was appointed an Honorary Ambassador for the China Institute in New York, and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University.

In 2016 he founded the Fashion Culture Design Unconference in New York and in 2017 he founded the global design education platform WeDesign.org

Simon Collins is dedicated to helping everyone create beautiful solutions. Based in Shanghai he is the Chief Creative at Design Innovation Institute Shanghai where he is focused on creating the world’s first Design University.

Whenever possible he travels the world sharing his adventures and passion. Here’s a speech he gave in August 2021 to launch Stockholm Fashion Week https://www.fashionfuturesthlm.com (Simon’s speech starts at 2min).

WeChat, Twitter, Instagram: @SimonCollins08