[soundslides width=”620″ height =”533″ id=”3840″] Earlier this month, the annual Fashion Fusion show provided the perfect occasion for two rival schools, Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and Parsons the New School for Design, to compete against each other. Fifteen designers from each school, most of whom are freshman and sophomores, go head to head for the title of best designer within their school. An award is also given to the school that has the best overall collections. 

The competition, which is in its fourteenth year, creates a platform for these young designers to get their work noticed by some of the biggest names in fashion. This year, the judges included Mary Kate Steinmiller (Teen Vogue), Todd Thomas (Victoria’s Secret), Peter Davis (SCENE), Anne Slowey (Elle Magazine), and Kooan Kosuke, (past Fusion designer).

The Parsons designers were Corinna La, Theresa Henceck, Joan Kao, Emily Francis, Raymond H.V. Natale, Frances Suria, Blair Moore, Sebastion Bee, Dianna Lee, XueWei Wang, Trey Denis, Natashia Al-Badoui, Emilia Novitzky, Maria Van Nguyen, and Qieenie Luo.

For FIT, the designers were Jose Camacho, Lydia Sukato, Danielle Hershco, Glenys Nadia, Mathew Hardwoodstone, Michael Fausto Oliu, Carter Kidd, Ahra Gho, Yuhee L Kim, Eun Seok Lee, Ting He, K’Luu, Yeju Suh, Kevin Tung, and Peter Do.

FIT took home the prize of best overall with K’Luu winning individually for FIT and Maria Van Nguyen for Parsons. This win evens out the total of past best overall wins to seven for both schools, making the rivalry even more intense.