CLARISSA DE VASCONCELOS MATOS is a fashion designer, specifically a textile designer, and scholar student at Parsons School of Fashion Design in NYC. She is a BFA Fashion Design major student with a concentration in the Materiality pathway, and focuses on vegan and sustainable fashion.
Clarissa was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and raised in Los Angeles, USA. She grew up as a visual artist, and is pursuing her education and career in fashion. While studying at Parsons, she studied abroad at Parsons Paris, where her genderless capsule collection won the Cerruti 1881 and The Woolmark Company competition. Clarissa has also worked for Anna Sui, Abercrombie & Fitch, Sketchers, Vaute Couture, Sony Pictures, and Fox Studios.
Her work focuses as an integrative form of art and activism. In addition to a commitment to sourcing materials not derived from animals, she seeks to create work that explores the political, social, cultural, environmental, and economic themes of veganism, and integrating them with her love for animals and the beauty of the planet we inhabit..
Her main purpose as a visual artist, fashion designer, and human person is to make compelling art that unites what we deem separate, to shed light on unconscious biases we may hold, and to make a positive contribution to our world, specifically with regards to making meaningful gains in the conversation between fashion and animal rights. Her goal is to convey this creative experience in her work, in the hopes of awakening people’s consciousness and raising questions on the nature of our current relationship with animals, our environment, and ourselves.
