These MFA Designers Are Defining the Next Generation at New York Fashion Week
San Francisco: Unprecedented collections by award-winning designers will come to fruition at New York Fashion Week. This year’s Graduate Fashion Show will feature 11 designers selected by Simon Ungless, Executive Director of the School of Fashion.
“We expect our students to exercise their creativity alongside the skills they’ve learned. What we see is their work – they do not outsource – they create, from inspiration to collection, and they’ve done this beautifully,” said Ungless.
Reinvigorating Menswear
MFA Designer Qing Guo channels the exuberant energy of the Lantern Festival into her functionally extravagant menswear, demonstrating her mastery of form though recurring lantern motifs, exaggerated pleats, and vivid color.
Jean-Michel Basquiat dressed by combining fabrics, shapes, and textures, inspiring Chelsea Grays, MFA Designer’s mixed-media garments that embody urgent creativity. Influenced by clowns from the 1900s, Christopher Cabalona, BFA Designer utilizes precision tailoring to redefine classic menswear. Both designers were selected for the CFDA’s Fashion Future Graduate Showcase and were named “Designers to Watch” by i-D and Vice Magazine.
Tailored Expression
Mariana Gorey, MFA Designer’s collection is a culmination of her unconventional artistic process, involving draping fabric to imitate sculpture and painting before sketching any garments. Abby Yang, MFA Designer’s garments communicate her connection with non-verbal expression, mimicking the shape of hands emoting the varied, all-encompassing feelings of love.
An Exploration of Womenswear
Motivated by the cyberpunk film, “Being Pretty,” Yi Pan, MFA Designer addresses how differences in physical appearance are ostracized by society. Her collection tackles the film’s commentary through using silk taffeta to create overproportioned shapes paired with large strategic cutouts.
Yue Shen, MFA Designer and Mingyang Zhang, BFA Designer express powerful vulnerability through elements of rigidity contrasted with delicacy. This sentiment is communicated with heavy, fine knits paired alongside woven wool fabric.
MFA Designer Ying Jin’s earth-tone designs reflect the construction and structure of a horse saddle, and are adorned with sophisticated belts, buttons, and metallic closures. Her collection conveys the bravery, authority, and confidence of women who wear her garments.
Hanbit Ku, MFA Designer is enthralled by anatomy, and uses her garments as a medium to create a new vocabulary in womenswear. Her functional use of zippers as linear design elements allows women to adjust the garment’s weight to complement nuances of the female form.
A New Take on Sustainable Fashion
Through thoughtful precision, Yaryna Zhuk, MFA Designer explores how to incorporate sustainable efforts into her design process. Yaryna utilizes meticulous patternmaking, minimal yardage of fabric, and sustainable materials featuring hand-sewn appliqués, unveiling a fresh interpretation of sustainable fashion.
The School of Fashion will be the first university to show at the iconic Skylight on Vesey this Sunday, September 8th at 5:00 PM EST.
These young designers are geared up to showcase sustainable fashion at the New York Fashion Week. Technology acts as a real enabler for the apparel brands, as they bring sustainable fashion options for their customers through customization and personalization. You can also offer custom-created apparels for your customers through iDesigniBuy’s Apparel Design Software.
