In our ongoing mission to develop and promote emerging talent, DESIGNOW couldn’t be more excited to shine a spotlight on the best of the best designers from New York City’s top design schools: Parsons, FIT and Pratt.
Presenting THE COLLECTIVE 2018 Runway Show Winner:
Tirzah Rasys
School: The Fashion Institute of Technology
Year: Senior
What do you love about fashion?
Fashion is the essence of creativity. It is an avenue to express oneself. This is for both the designer and the wearer.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
How often does one’s emotions impact the choice of clothing for the day? For men and women, it can make all the difference in their self-esteem. I want to contribute to that. It may seem inconsequential to everything occurring in the world today, but I believe that real change is in the details.
How would you describe your design style?
It asks the viewer to pause and think.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Everest After. Everything is by vantage point…even human values, such as, right and wrong. The view of the mountain at the base is far different from the one seen at the peek. Everest After challenges this perception through fabrication of sheer textures and plastics. It asks one to acknowledge layers and recognize the reverse side of things by highlighting the use of backing of jacquards.
The coats are entirely knit with the exception of the fur trim and vinyl overlay. The silk wool yarn allows for comfort and breathability. As knitted structures tend to absorb light and soften shadows, the vinyl overlay was used to brighten and reflect the contrast of light within the cable and jacquard structures — a feet not typically achieved with knit.
Presenting THE COLLECTIVE 2018 Runway Show Fan Favorite:
Jessica Chang
School: Parsons The New School for Design
Year: Class of 2019
What do you love about fashion?
Fashion to me is something they I can express myself in a meaningful form. I came from a fine art and animation background But decided to go into fashion because fine art and animation felt very distant to me, I did not prefer it when the projects I create lives alone in their space, they became forgotten and meaningless. This feeling of emptiness was resolved when I started making clothes because to me the essence of dressing is performance art. clothing is so intimate and full of emotion that the wearer gives, they are always alive. Even the normal act of having second-hand clothing is beautiful in itself; the clothing can have a second or more storyline and history with each owner they have.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
Maurice Ravel’s symphony Bolero led me to discover the changing and repeating sequences that are all around us. “Sequences” they change and repeat, using each other as a reference point, they give meaning and context to everything.
Throughout my exploration, I repeated everything I do, over and over again. Starting with a painting sequence that reflects Bolero, then draping repeatedly about those paintings. Each iteration is different, but their roots are the same, the root that strings these outcomes together is clear. The transformation they go through is the sequence I want to reveal.
How would you describe your design style?
I am very proud of what I have created in my most recent collection; it is very different, I think my fine art and animation side shows through in my collection, which is something I don’t see very often. My garments are created and treated as sculptures and artworks that transforms the body into performance.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Sequences. The essence of a sequence also has to do with time. Therefore, I dyed my garments with photosynthetic dye, where the color over time, develops when exposed to UV light (the sun). I wanted to emulate the event where forgotten things fade in color when left out in the sun. They have changed, yet still the same; I want to convey the strange yet familiar feeling that things will change even if they are left alone, not better nor worse, just different, even if the thing itself is still the same.
The roots of the paintings are the symphony Bolero which is impressionist music, flowing and emotional. The roots of these garments are the paintings. Therefore I tried to emulate brush strokes with flowing pleats, some enveloping the body, some in unexpected places. My garments are also impressionistic, romantic and emotional. In the end, the music, the painting and the garments, the way they are connected is very clear visually and audibly.
Congratulations to the rest of The Collective 2018 finalists:
Kristin Bachmann
School: Parsons The New School for Design
Year: AAS Senior / Class of 2018
What do you love about fashion?
I’ve always been interested in fashion. My mother made most of my clothing, and I spent most of my childhood visiting fabric stores with her. My father was a theater director, and one of my favorite places was the costumer shop where I would think about what message our clothing sends.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
Before coming to Parson, I was a lawyer and consultant for several years. I had a difficult time finding professional clothing I liked and eventually visited a tailor to have some suiting made. It was then that I discovered my love of tailoring and decided I wanted to pursue fashion full-time.
How would you describe your design style?
Tailored without the formality.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Cuirass. I used this collection to explore how to incorporate tailoring (ex: visible selvages to highlight the use of beautiful wools) and techniques (ex: pad stitching) to shape the pieces and experiment with new textures and ways of “ornamenting” garments.
What are your next steps and ultimate goals for the future?
My goal is to launch a brand that creates tailored professional garments for fashionable women. I would love the opportunity to have The Collective X DESIGNOW showcase my work, as I believe it would be a great platform to launch my brand.
Jaeyoung Bang
School: Parsons The New School for Design
Year: Junior
What do you love about fashion?
Fashion is what I have always wanted to do and what I want to do for the rest of my life. Fashion is my “partner.”
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
Since the 5th grade, I’ve followed fashion designers and collection through tv and magazines. This inspired me to pursue my own designs.
How would you describe your design style?
My designs and collection appeal to a lot of people.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Persona. People have various personas which can be used for different moments. In an extreme case, it is identified as “Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)”, but when they are used properly, hidden inside is a person’s true potential. I wanted to promote variety in one garment, so my garments are changeable with respect to shapes and colors.
Nicole Bisono
School: Parsons The New School for Design
Year: Senior
What do you love about fashion?
For me fashion is not only a clothing line or a fashion show but also an inspirational path to encourage others to break their limits and find the best of themselves. Fashion for me is communication, the way you dress yourself tells a lot about your self-confidence, self-love and who you are. Fashion for me is beauty, innovation and comfort.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
I’ve been interested in fashion since I was a little 7 year old sketching and making dresses for my dolls.
How would you describe your design style?
I found my vision and philosophy as a designer by representing my ideas of fashion in my own way.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Exploring The Unknown. Stepping inside the unknown makes you consider the human impulse to go deeper in the obvious sense, but also look into ideas that might normally seem beyond reach.
This collection merges couture and technology into the design process. I developed my own processes to make new techniques in the construction of textiles, complete looks and accessories. This collection is a connection between the past and the future using sculpture, couture and innovative tech elements.
Christine Choi
School: Parsons The New School for Design
Year: Class of 2018
What do you love about fashion?
Fashion means to me expression, experience, and fascination. I find the exploration of endless possibilities of materials that are able to form and interact with the body incredible. It is art on the form, and it’s fantastic to learn the technologies and techniques have been developed to accommodate it.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
Initially, my interest in fashion was through costume design. By learning and practicing different techniques and materials and figuring out how to apply them to my body, it later made me realize that fashion is a unique medium since art and body come together to create expression and experience.
How would you describe your design style?
I want to stretch and touch people’s imaginations. I want to go beyond what is possible and show them a different world. To share this feeling I have through fashion, the experience I have in a personal level.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Chimera. Within the world and story of CHIMERA I want people to feel as if they have entered a different realm, allowing them to have a unique experience through my hybrid collection. My goal is to empower individuals through my fantasy realm.This concept is reflected through the garments, allowing each piece to transform by the addition or removal of parts. For instance, the side panels can be added or removed with zippers, a spine-like piece can be snapped on or off on the back, or a vest that can open up into sleeves, etc. In this way people can create their own unique characters within this world.
Kijeong Choi
School: Pratt
Year: Senior
What do you love about fashion?
My clothes are conceptual and three-dimensional. I consider design in 360 degrees because I think fashion is another form of architecture and sculpture. I want to prove that conceptual shapes can be wearable too.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
It has been 7 years that I have studied fashion. I learned the social context and history of fashion when I was studying in Korea, and when I came to New York, I learned a lot of tailoring techniques, drape, construction, and pattern making.
How would you describe your design style?
I used elongated shapes and silhouettes, geometric elements inspired by buildings. Furthermore, I use mirror vinyl fabric to give visual impact and a feeling of reflection off windows and mirrors. Most of my designs are made with wool and high-tech fabrics, rendered in contrasting weights.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Hide Within A Crowd.I’m inspired by the crowd in the city. I felt like I didn’t exist, like I just reflected other people and buildings. This collection expresses this loneliness.
Alexandra Ciocan-Vladescu
School: Parsons The New School for Design
Year: Junior
What do you love about fashion?
The chance to reinterpret and challenge the feminine silhouette and standards of beauty.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
I have known I wanted to become a fashion designer since the age of 12 and have been designing ever since.
How would you describe your design style?
I believe my work to be authentic and always in the search for something aesthetically unseen.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Erasure. This collection is a looking glass into the concept of erasure and it’s significance in History. What is it to exist? What is it to not exist? What is it to be erased? I will be exploring this concept through a series of patterns, prints, shapes and construction details in the attempt to materialize the abstract idea of erasure into a physical collection. This story will unravel in a futuristic context where I will also develop my own vision of future fashion.
Yasmin Hamza
School: Parsons The New School for Design
Year: Class of 2018
What do you love about fashion?
Through fashion design and this collection, I am eager to break the barriers regarding the creative opportunities not only in my home country, Saudi Arabia, but to whoever can grab strength from my journey.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
Being an artistic person since my youth, I have always hoped I would somehow end up in the creative industry. However, fashion wasn’t a clear career path to me because creative industries like fashion were not looked at as a serious career choice in the Middle East. Post studying and working in a different field, it was clear to me that I should be a fashion designer.
How would you describe your design style?
I am eager to create Avant Garde apparel that stays true to the high quality and pristine construction of high-end apparel, yet is sustainable through recycling. I would love to showcase unexplored fabric experimentations, and discarded ones to create not only salvageable looks but extraordinary ones in every sense.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Can You Sea My Thoughts? This collection is inspired by the deep sea, its creatures, and treasures. All the looks in the collection derive an edgy, dark, rusty, dangerous, and angular aesthetic and inspiration found in the deep sea ecosystem. Black, blue, and green color hues dominate looks in the collection. Angular cutouts, reversible functions, and flowing constructions take inspiration from creatures like the shark, lichen, and jellyfish. Lost treasures in the sea; like rusted pocket watches inspired me to create my own digital fabric patterns, and use the watch’s inner gear mechanism pieces as embellishments resembling sequins.
Year: Senior
What do you love about fashion?
Fashion is something that I have lived and breathed every single day since I was six years old and announced to my mother that I wanted to be a fashion designer and study fashion design in New York City. I see fashion as the ultimate means of self expression among people – what we wear speaks volumes about our personalities, before we even open our mouths to speak and make introductions.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
I constantly notice and am inspired by what I see people around me in the world wearing, and often, what I don’t see them wearing, that inspires me to create something that fills that void that I see. My collection is current, fun, and vibrant, creating a nostalgic vibe that nonetheless feels modern and has a place in our fast paced urban world.
How would you describe your design style?
My designs are made using natural and/or organic fibers, reclaimed textiles made from vintage garments (leather jackets, jeans, sweaters, etc.), donated textiles and FabScrap fabrics, as well as 100% cotton, linen, merino wool, and cashmere yarn for the knit pieces. I included both machine knits (fully-fashioned and cut and sew) that use jacquard patterns that are stylized versions of my label name/personal graffiti tag “SIRIS” that I developed on punch cards. I also used hand knitting techniques with a variety of texture and cable stitches. I also used needle felting techniques to create one piece in particular; the grey sweater with machine knitted scraps needle felted into it to create a “living” graffiti garment. The accessories I created for this collection use reclaimed deadstock upholstery leather swatches, 100% cotton rope, and found hardware, with hypoallergenic sterling silver earring hooks.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
If Walls Could Talk. Inspired by the birth of the graffiti writing movement in New York City in the 1970s and 80s, this collection conceptualizes and reimagines the young, bold, rebellious artist and places him in a modern world. We see graffiti on the street every single day: but do we recognize the people who wrote their names on the walls around us? Likely not, but their names, their signatures, are so recognizable to us. I chose to explore clothing in this way, creating my own “signature” the way a graffiti writer would, but through my design style and silhouette. Crafted from reclaimed vintage materials, natural fibers, and donated textiles in addition to using fully-fashioned knitwear techniques, this collection hybrids environmental consciousness with urban grit.
Camilla Hopkinson
School: Parsons The New School for Design
Year: Senior
What do you love about fashion?
The transformative, expressive, and performative elements of fashion and art have always appealed to me.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
I have loved fashion since my youngest days that were mostly spent playing dress-up to be a character out of Jane Austen novel or as Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady.
How would you describe your design style?
I have a kaleidoscopic view of the world and of fashion. With a broad range of interests and skills I am able to filter and curate culture in and around my work.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Rip Studio NYC. Using film and movement as generative mediums, I explore how destruction can be hopeful, productive, and the starting point for creative work.
As a former ballet dancer, movement is always central to what I do. I used cathartic actions like ripping, crumpling, and shattering to create unconventional and beautifully imperfect textures and objects.
The clothes are made using processes such as pearl stitching and sonobonding that are as satisfying at ripping and tearing and also make the process visible on the surface of the pieces. The project is called Rip Studio NYC because I believe that this methodology of breaking things down in order to reconsider their current uses and their potential could be a founding principle for a multi-disciplinary design firm.
Katherine Jacobson
School: Pratt
Year: Senior
What do you love about fashion?
When I decided to make the move to fashion school in New York, my mission was to incorporate my love for design and my passion for a more sustainable future.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
I have been interested in making art and design ever since I can remember. I used to crush up flower petals and use them as pigments to paint. I tore up bed sheets, old pants, whatever I could get my hands on to create something new out of something old.
How would you describe your design style?
I developed the term Couture NUE, meaning the new couture. A more sustainable way of creating high-end garments. This is just the beginning of my creative journey towards helping the fashion industry reduce textile waste. My goal is to come up with fabric manipulations and designs that create very little to no textile waste all while developing a way to make it scalable.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Couture Nue: A Zero Waste Collection. My designs celebrate the beauty of human connection through an exploration of textile manipulations including fusing, tying, linking, layering, looping, and wrapping.
All fabrication has been manipulated in some way to make it original. Some garments have up to five manipulations in one piece including bonding, silk screening, painting, fusing, and knitting. Most manipulations are engineered into the design.
All of the designs within the collection were made with the zero waste technique, most of which were fabric remnants.
A few of the gowns consist of strips of chiffon where they are completely hand sewn together, molding the body perfectly without using any darts or seams.
Chaewon Kim
School: Parsons The New School for Design
Year: Senior
What do you love about fashion?
Clothing contains meanings and values, which can be carried on throughout your entire life. For me, fashion has no limits; the age of the woman who wears them is irrelevant.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
I was interested in fashion since a very young age because of my mom, who is a creative director in fashion. Since I was in middle school, I started helping my mom as a design intern just because I was extremely into colorful and fun textiles and clothing.
How would you describe your design style?
My motto is not to become “mature”. Childish can be expressed in simple, naive and fun ways. I am a designer who is attracted to everything that is cute and has colors. Beauty, as I understand it, consists of patterns and colors that change nothingness into a work of art. I create my own textiles and specialize in using colorful fabrics and yarns. My youthful and playful attitude is my motivation and inspiration when shaping my art.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Popsiz-our creative space. For this specific collection, I’m producing my own prints that will perfectly match my aesthetic. To further support the mood, I’m also focusing on a particular fabric manipulation that will play a big role as ornamentation on many pieces. Trimmings like buttons and details going on top of the garments will solely be made by myself.
I’m not only a garment designer but also an accessory designer so in this collection, accessories such as bags, headpieces, glasses, earrings and even rings will be produced to enhance the overall collection.
MinHo Lee
School: The Fashion Institute of Technology
Year: Senior
What do you love about fashion?
I was always fascinated by fashion.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
I decided to start my path as a designer after my photography education at Rochester Institute of Technology. Then I finally asked myself, “Why don’t I just become a designer?” I decided to specialize in knitwear because it has a special meaning to me. When I was young, I learned how to knit from my grandmother, and I completed my first beanie for an unknown child in Africa through the “Save the Children” program. I participated in this program with my family, and I was amazed by the fact that I could help someone with my own hands. This definitely inspired me to pursue my career in knitwear.
How would you describe your design style?
Playful. I try to use as many colors and shapes as possible in my designs to make the garments exciting and unique.
I also added pom poms on a pointelle cardigan to capture the unique silhouette and the colors of them are inspired from the sesame street characters and the inner dress is made out of special honeycomb variation stitch with the mixed colors brushed mohair to capture the fluidity color balance, top to bottom.
In addition, I added tassels at the bottom of skirt to show the swing and for the top. I also added the jacquard of Cookie Monster, who is my favorite character.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Sesame Street. This project is about my childhood memories of Sesame Street. I grew up in Yeoung-Chun in the countryside in South Korea, and all I could watch was Channel 2 on television. It only showed the American programs and I always watched Sesame Street with my grandmother. I wanted to recall that memory to reflect and meet my creativity. The first look with fringe dress is the idea of Big Bird and Cookie Monster. I wanted to play with the texture but in an interesting way, so I used fringe to give a dramatic effect and show the furry texture inside. The second outfit is to show all the colors of sesame street characters, and the mixture of colors gave me the idea of a Monet painting, so I treated the inside dress, mohair with wool blended yarn, to be brushed so it gives the atmosphere of smooth and blended color. The pompom top is treated with all the different sizes of pompoms and tied on the pointelle cardigan to illustrate the interesting volume of the silhouette. In addition, the hand-knitted bag has a pompom closure with bamboo handle so it makes more organic look.
Yuting Min
School: Parsons The New School for Design
Year: Junior
What do you love about fashion?
My daily work includes many things I’m passionate about: prototyping, pattern making, draping, and pattern modification.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
Whether working in academic or professional settings, I have proven to be a creative thinker and a self-driven problem solver.
How would you describe your design style?
At first, I was not good at drawing fashion sketches and illustrations using markers. I quickly became familiar with illustrating textures with makers and also making flats using Adobe Illustrator. As a fast learner, I am not afraid of taking on new challenges and have always taken the initiative to learn. Regardless of where I go in my career, I always hold myself to equally high standards.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
The carnival of solitude. This is a state or situation of being alone. I believe this is one thing I need to function. If I just have no time to be alone for a short time that may be full of fun. However, if I have no time to be with myself alone for longer time. I would have little time to think, to change and to learn. I feel very comfortable when I am alone.
Amit Mizrachi
School: The Fashion Institute of Technology
Year: Senior
What do you love about fashion?
I have always loved vintage and novelty sweaters.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
I think I bring something different, cheeky, colorful and full of daring. I try to raise questions and discussions through my clothes. I’ve been always exploring the thin line between pretty and ugly and actually the question, ‘What does ugly mean?’ has been keeping me busy since I’ve started fashion school, 5 years ago. My work is never too pretty or too perfect and I think this is what makes it very interesting.
How would you describe your design style?
Bringing kitsch to high fashion!
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Low Brow (?) In this collection, I am trying to explore why people are so scared of kitsch? What is it in kitsch that makes them feel repulsed? Is it the color, the nostalgia, the fun, maybe all these elements combined? Why is fashion that is more colorful being taken less seriously than monochromatic designs with darker topics? Visual inspiration was taken from the 1930s to modern cartoons.
My yarns are mostly wool and bamboo. Lurex in a variety of colors was applied in different areas and shapes in order to give shine and to create dimension.
Joshua Mudgett
School: Parsons The New School for Design
Year: Senior
What do you love about fashion?
It is, in its purest form, a great method of character development. Telling a story by creating characters. I enjoy this part of the process very much.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
My greatest inspiration will always be my curiosity. Though blessed with many answers growing up, I find the questions in fashion to be the most exciting.
How would you describe your design style?
My work is based on the concept of normalizing sustainability and technology in the fashion realm. I use my knowledge of genetics, chemistry, coding, technology and 3D art as a tool to further my aesthetic and brand.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
My newest collection is titled Corps Futur, meaning Future Body in French. The collection is a critical examination of alienation, race, gender and sexuality as seen through the lens of science fiction. I will be creating pelts/hides out of A.I. designed bump maps for alien skin, bio-fabricated textiles, and examining the silhouette of genderless/sexless/raceless bodies.
My collection will be augmented reality capable, meaning anybody in the audience will be able to use their smartphone to witness holograms explode out of my garments, further driving home the concept of my collection.
Alice Ronnakittipisut
School: Pratt
Year: Senior
What do you love about fashion?
Fashion can change a bad day to be a good day. Having wonderful clothes on a special day can give people hope and happiness. I like that it is a small thing in our lives yet so impactful. Also, fashion has endless possibilities. There are so many shapes, and designs to explore.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
I have been interested in art and design in general for a really long time, but fashion is the most special to me.
How would you describe your design style?
The collection ‘Life Study’, explores the human emotion and refers life as theater.
Us, as characters, we need to follow rules, and get along with the social norms, which sometimes require us to lie and put on masks. To do that, we lose our souls and become like ghosts. This collection focuses on elongated proportions, darker color palettes, and mysterious feelings.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Life Study. The main theme of this collection focuses on making looks that are mysterious, feminine, and elegant. Most looks will be incorporated with sheer and light fabrics. The color palettes are dark colors and neutrals such as black, white, and deep blue and red. The designs are inspired by ghost-like creature/characters in theater performances.
Liv Ryan
School: Pratt
Year: Senior
What do you love about fashion?
Workwear as well as streetwear have always been major influences.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
Clothing has always been a major influence in my life. After making costumes at LaGuardia High School, I realized my passion for designing was not in theater, but for real individuals. My collection offers a new approach to make streetwear and workwear marketable to many groups of individuals.
How would you describe your design style?
My designs include a combination of masculine and feminine silhouettes in structured, functional fabrics.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Thesis Collection. My thesis collection is an exploration of architecture within New York. I’ve focused on the juxtaposition of geometric and biomorphic architecture shown with structured denims and soft knits. I also included a variation of grid patterns inspired by the grid understructure of buildings.
Chaohua Shi
School: Parsons The New School for Design
Year: Junior
What do you love about fashion?
Fashion is a great medium to communicate with other and your aesthetics and unique definition of what’s beautiful. To express what language cannot describe.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
Fashion has always been my dream field.
How would you describe your design style?
I have a unique style that some would call ‘strange’.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Sensitive Outsider. My collection is inspired by the book ‘The Stranger’ by Albert Camus. I was really attracted to the protagonist’s attitude to things and people, how he is such an outsider from society and the community. I want to design for him. Since there is a lot of randomness in the protagonist’s life, I chose two different ranges of fabrics including laces, linens and chiffons. I’m trying to use chiffon’s transparency and delicate lace to represent his sensitivity. The juxtaposition of fabrics also shows the randomness and conflict in his personality. Plus, since these fabrics are usually allocated to womenswear, showing them in menswear lends an “outsider” feel.
Lili Shi
School: The Fashion Institute of Technology
Year: Senior
What do you love about fashion?
I’ve been sculpting and painting for over a decade. Fashion design energizes me in a way these art forms do not.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
This collection is inspired by Daoism’s philosophy: Dao begets one, one begets all.
How would you describe your design style?
I constantly ask myself, ‘what is my unique voice as an artist and a designer?’ I think the answer is deep within. I wonder if the various art forms I love can be integrated into some new style that allows the best of all to come together. Using fashion as a bridge,I want to connect art and functionality that helps express an understanding of one another. I want to create garments that are original and timelessness, where everything from the design to the fabrication is well considered. Or perhaps frame garments and exhibit as an art show…
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Blossom. I use one simple flower shape as my design element which is an organic shape and contains geometric and mathematical science behind it. This implies the existence of a system in metastable equilibrium that can individuate by repeating the same shape over and over again, symbolic of nature and life-blooming characteristics. I utilize laser cutting techniques and computer-designed hex shapes to interlock each pattern.
Annabelle Tok
School: Parsons The New School for Design
Year: Senior
What do you love about fashion?
Fashion has become my channel to express myself.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
With almost 10 years of art experience, I am excited to share with a wider audience my concepts.
How would you describe your design style?
I want to share my artistic vision through garments, as well as film, photography, fabric and textile development, and other methods.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Sentient. ‘SENTIENT’ expresses an interest in environmental activism, and aims to bring about participation from a curious audience.
‘SENTIENT’ introduces untouched environments through the treatment of plant materials in resin casting, coding and digital manipulation (that includes textile printing).
Sara Vetser
School: The Fashion Institute of Technology
Year: Senior
What do you love about fashion?
Fashion is a beautiful way to express yourself, not only in what you wear as a consumer, but, for me, in what I create as a designer.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
I have always been interested in fashion, but my passion really took shape in High School and continued into FIT., where I have loved to see my ideas come to fruition.
How would you describe your design style?
A fearless use of color and shape. I want people to be able to enjoy my work, and to bring a bit of joy to their lives through fashion.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Senior Thesis Collection Look #3. Inspired by the strength and beauty of wildflowers, the shapes in my garments were taken from tracings of wildflower photographs that I have collected over the years. Although they are so delicate looking and dainty, wildflowers survive under harsh conditions out in the wild. They grow free and stand tall against the storms that come their way. Ultrasuede is the primary fabrication in my collection. I felt that this soft but tough fabric fit well with my overarching theme. I mixed multiple colors of ultrasuede in each garment much like a field of wildflowers would have a mix of species. My dress features a pleated fabric that I strategically hand painted to give a bold but natural finishing look.
Vanessa Hui
School: Parsons The New School for Design
Year: Class of 2018
What do you love about fashion?
Fashion is a way to express oneself. We are raised in this world being told how to act and what to say, to fit in a certain norm. I remember when I was young, I would want to dress and act exactly like everyone else in order to belong. I felt like we are all robots. When I got older, I realized how important it is to have your own personality and style. Fashion became a way to express myself.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
I got interested in fashion after I moved back to Hong Kong 9 years ago. Most people in Hong Kong put in effort on how they present themselves every day. I started noticing many different fashion styles on the street and I began finding my own style. I started designing clothes in my mind, as I couldn’t find what I like in the stores. That’s when I realized I have a good eye for fashion and I decided to learn design officially in Parsons.
How would you describe your design style?
I was inspired by the Absolute Towers in Toronto, Canada where I grew up. Most buildings are rectangular and straight but these two buildings are curvy and twisted which stood out from all their surroundings. I decided to use these buildings as the inspiration of my graduate collection. I was mesmerized by the curves and the twists of the buildings and I wanted to create similar 3-dimensional shapes on the garments. The unusualness and twistedness of the buildings also reminded me of how twisted our world is now — the unusual climate change due to global warming, the increase in natural disasters across the globe, and the increase in terrorism and mass shootings. Images of these phenomena have impacted the mood and color palette too.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Twisted. Inspired by the Absolute Towers, my designs will have curves and twists using both 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional techniques. This collection will also play with shapes and volumes similar to the buildings. My love for contrast will also be shown in the fabric selection — the softness of see-through polyester contrasted with the stiffness of faux leather, the lightness of organza contrasted with the heaviness of wool. The color palette will be black, shades of grey, blue-grey and white — derived from the twisted phenomena in this world.
Tinrey Wang
School: Parsons The New School for Design
Year: Junior
What do you love about fashion?
Fashion, for me, is the best way for me to merge my wildness and insanity with the reality of the world.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
I fell in love with sewing when I made my first barbie dress.
How would you describe your design style?
The more I combined myself with my art, the more I realized I could maximize the expression of my imagination and emotion on the “second skin” of people, since I consider fashion the form of art that appears closest to the human body.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Schizoegoia. Schizo/Skhizein means “to split” in Greek, so “Schizoegoia” means the split egos.
This project started from a dream where I became a distorted wild creature. It made me begin to think about my alter-ego and how sometimes I wanted to escape from my world and become somebody or something else.
Several characters with their alter egos are created in this project:
1. a man who lives in the past but sometimes thinks he is from the future
2. a man who sometimes is also a woman
3. a man who thinks himself as a distorted wild creature
For fabrics, I mainly used wool or cotton fabrics with a houndstooth pattern and metallic organza in this collection. And in every single look I used double-sided interfacing to bond these two fabrics together to create a new type of fabric. I adopted this “odd” combination in order to show the character of the man who lives in the past but sometimes thinks he is from the future.
In this collection I have another character, a man who sometimes is also a woman. So in this menswear collection I also incorporated feminine details, for example: the leg-of-mutton sleeve, gathered cuff, skirt-like shorts, bra, corset, lacing etc.
In this collection I also manipulated the shapes of the pants in order to give the effects of the man who thinks himself as a distorted wild creature. I made a pair of shoes with steel and leather to exaggerate the effect.
EJ She Yang Jin
School: Parsons The New School for Design
Year: Junior
What do you love about fashion?
I believe that fashion design is full of possibilities, it isn’t just about vanity, it is an expression, an expression of one’s personality and it is an expansion of the body.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
I have been interested in fashion ever since I was a eight-year-old girl, and first saw a fashion show on TV. Throughout my three years studying at Parsons, I’ve realized the biggest concern of design students is how their future careers affect the world’s environment. I deeply understand that it is our responsibility to consider the consequences of our decisions. Each step we choose, affects the environment of the planet that we are living. Fabric waste, for instance, is one of the biggest environmental problems.
How would you describe your design style?
All the garments are one hundred percent sustainable.To create my fabrics, I collected second-hand/recycled clothes and fabric, cut them into many pieces, and sewed them together randomly. I believe, although I am still experimenting, this is a good start for the fashion industry and the future.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
Self-Destruction. This project is based on a story that I made up, a story that expresses my anxiety and my dark fear of the world’s environment. This story is divided into seven different scenes; each scene includes one to four looks. At the center of this story is a person who nobody knows. This being was a scavenger, who traveled through nights, lived in the shadows. One day, he/she found himself/herself striped naked in the middle of the road, a light shined on him/her, and set him/her on fire. He/she burned for days and nights; finally, this being turned into a pile of ashes, flew into the thin air. It is a story about self-destruction, the light embraced him/her, and he/she embraced it back.
Bensaihanzhi Zhang
School: Parsons The New School for Design
Year: Class of 2019
What do you love about fashion?
Over the years I’ve explored multiple design experiences and have developed a better understanding of handling subtle but specific design details.
What/who inspired you to become a designer?
As an optimistic learner, I am passionate about developing new skills and to that I an excited to participate in The Collective 2018 and showcase my designs.
How would you describe your design style?
Unconventional fabrics and details.
What is the name of your collection and the inspiration behind creating it?
The Fire-Retardent Serie. This collection explores fire-retardant fabrics and the uniforms of construction workers and firemen, reinterpreting them into elevated silhouettes.
What are your next steps and ultimate goals for the future?
Showing my designs directly to consumers is my major goal.
