Parsons fashion students hope that the addition of junior year competitors will be enough to take back the title of “Best Overall School” this weekend at Fusion Fashion Show, after losing the annual design competition for the past three years to The Fashion Institute of Technology.

Until now, in its 16th year, the fashion design competition was only open to freshmen and sophomores. However, with the inclusion of juniors this year, Parsons has a good chance to claim their fourth victory in the past decade of Fusion, at the New School’s University Center this Saturday and Sunday.

“It should be our year. We’ve suffered enough,” said Daniel Levi, a Parsons Fusion designer from Israel.

Many believe FIT’s superior construction skills has led to their success. Rather than technical skills, Parsons’ curriculum focuses more on conceptual thinking. Its students don’t begin studies in their major until sophomore year, while at FIT, students begin with Fashion Design on their very first day.

“In about junior year, the technical ability reaches the concept level and that is when [Parsons students] reach full ability. Now that we have juniors mixed in, we’ll be able to win,” said Joshua Mudgett, a Fusion designer with a background in Haute Couture.

However, Parsons is down a designer this year— FIT has the usual 15 designers, while Parsons has 14. Two designers dropped out of the competition. One was replaced, but for the remaining spot, possible alternates turned down the offer to participate.

“It was very unusual,” said James Ramey, Fusion founder and director. “We had a couple of alternates who had personal conflicts and couldn’t do the show. Nothing dramatic…We are going with 14 at Parsons because it was just too late to add another designer.”

Designers for Fusion were selected from both Parsons’ AAS and BFA programs based on applications of sketched designs and concepts. Among the 14 designers, ranging from 18 to 28 years old, 8 different countries and 7 different states are represented. Designers’ experience levels range from no prior knowledge of sewing or design to learning the craft at age of four, “three hours a day, five days a week.”

Each designer must create a five look collection that is consistent with the original designs in their application. Some Parsons designers have estimated their costs of creation to be as low as $300, while others’ have been upwards of $3,500.

Ruchika Kabra, an AAS student from India, used around 28 yards of silk in just one of her looks. “If I had to buy [my material] from the US,” she said “I would have dropped out for sure.” Fortunately, her family owns a production house, so she was able to get her fabrics for free.

“I kind of describe it as like [the movie] Groundhog Day,” Ann Woodson Stone, a sophomore in the competition, said of the workload. “I’d wake up, make breakfast, sew, go to yoga, and go to bed. It was just the same thing everyday.” Stone is the only Parsons designer who incorporated menswear in her collection. The two menswear designers were the ones who dropped out of Fusion.

“I’m starting to fall asleep standing on the train which a whole new level of fatigue for me,” said Rio Kimura, an AAS student who was accepted as a replacement designer at the end of December. Once the semester began, Kimura would wake up at 4:30AM to go to school to work on his collection before class. Before coming to Parsons, Kimura was in grad school for Physical Therapy and had no idea what pattern paper was.

“A lot of money [has been] put into me to do what I want to do and  finally I found it,” Kimura said, “so there’s no excuse for me not to do the best I can.”

Parsons designers have particularly strong concepts this Fusion competition and the foundation of skills to support them. Included in the talent is a former Central Saint Martins transfer student trained in the art of Haute Couture since age four, a self-taught designer who was the only American to present a collection atop the Eiffel Tower, a second-timer Fusion contestant, and an experienced 3D printing enthusiast. On the other hand, some designers came from backgrounds of Economics, Physical Therapy, Programming, and Architecture before entering the field of fashion.

The collections are inspired by a vast array of things, including fine art and sculpture, the brain’s capacity for memory, octopuses, “MILFs,” and mathematical algorithms. Two in particular take on a darker concept derived from personal experiences.

James Chapman, a Parsons junior, spent 200 hours on one piece alone in which he shredded x-rays into 3,000 strips and then hand sewed them to a gown. The concept was inspired by his sister who diagnoses cancer for a living. Although focusing on the progression of cancer cells taking over healthy cells, for Chapman, it is emotional. He lost his grandfather and a close family friend to cancer and stresses that almost every person has been affected by it somehow.

Perhaps even more personal, Kate Walz, a Parsons freshman, created her collection based on the transition of her world view before and after her two friends’ suicides. Walz looked back at writings she did during those times and handstitched them into her couture collection. Sewing since the age of 8, Walz has created 16 collections in the past, but said, “this collection is different than anything I’ve ever done before.” She estimates she spent 50 to 100 hours on four of looks and over 200 on one hand stitched piece.

Tom Nguyen, a junior from Vietnam, “a very conservative and traditional country,” took inspiration from the movie The Graduate and created his Fusion couture collection to address ageism in society in a humorous but creative way, around the idea of the “MILF.” He aims to push barriers of tradition.
“My job is to make the word ‘MILF’ more expensive, more serious, more sexy.”