Alumni Bio – Rachel Fenderson
MA Fashion Studies ’18 and Fashion Design ’08
Rachel and her cohort are the first graduating class from the MA Fashion Studies Program at Parsons Paris. At present she is a Fashion Historian, Curator, Designer, Guest Lecturer, and the Lead Authority on the historical Fashion Figure Jay Jaxon. Rachel completed a BA in English with a specification in English Literature from Hofstra University in 2006. Next, she started her career in fashion by successfully completing an AAS degree in Fashion Design from Parsons The New School of Design in New York in 2008.
By 2011, Rachel and her sister Marshea Fenderson launched their womenswear brand Pepper Jacques. Rachel found that working in Corporate America as an Executive Assistant to C-level executives, not only gave her the financial opportunity to fund her brand but also the educational opportunity in the inner workings of growing a company by working directly with CEO’s. She learned how to build a company deck to actively pursue fashion investors. While attending a Parsons Alumni Reunion in 2015, she met renowned Fashion Designer and Alumni Kay Unger and that subsequently led Rachel to later meet the leaders of Parsons at a Board meeting conducted to help strengthen Alumni relations. It would be at this meeting that Rachel decided to further her education by pursuing an MA in Fashion Studies. She was inspired by the possibilities of what life and her fashion career could be in the fashion mecca of Paris.
During Rachel’s scholarship at Parsons Paris, she was a Program Assistant to the Program Director, an LVMH Talent, and the Editor-in-Chief of the MA Fashion Studies first newspaper publication named NaĂŻve.  Rachel interned for the likes of fashion brands Jonathan Cohen, Talbot Runhof, Ach Chajai, Semeiotics and multimedia company Indigital Media.  Her work as a scholar revelled in examining themes surrounding how African Enslaved Labor kickstarted the fashion industry in Europe, as well as who masterminds the writings of hegemonic histographies, and erasure with the fashion historical narrative.  Rachel loved the MA courses Fashion Systems, Fashion History & Mediation, and Museums and Collections, where she felt the teachers challenged her mind, cultural understanding of the world, while helping her to see where the holes in history thrive.  Ultimately, these courses would help lay the groundwork for Rachel’s first ever investigative biographical thesis on Fashion Designer & Couturier Jay Jaxon and exhibition at the Mona Bismarck (2018) in Paris. Â
This historical work allowed her to guest lecture for Parsons and FIT, as well as to pursue and single handedly create exhibitions on Jay Jaxon’s historical contributions at The Queens Public Library (2019) and at the Queens Historical Society (2020) in New York City. Rachel pursued these exhibitions by researching exhibition proposal templates, then developing a draft on Jay Jaxon’s life, and consistently pitching her proposals until she received a ‘yes’. The key to her success is rooted in showing up, never giving up, and following up on the noes.
Rachel’s MA Thesis has been featured in Vogue and her historical work on Jay Jaxon has been featured in The New York Times and WWD during the pandemic in 2021. Rachel is currently working on the first ever biographical book on Jay Jaxon, while continuing to build Pepper Jacques.
The advice Rachel Fenderson leaves for the present and future scholars is detailed here in her favorite quote by Barbara J. Winter:
“When you come to the edge of all the light you know, and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly.”
Learn more about Rachel on her website.