Parsons Fashion Show: Graduating Designers Showcase Their Collection

With more than 250 looks on the runway, Parsons School of Design will be hosting an event called “School of Fashion: Runway & Graduation Exhibition Opening” on May 18 and 19. This event will feature graduating fashion designers’ thesis work throughout the University Center on 63 Fifth Avenue. According to The New School’s events page, the show will include “academic and fashion industry partners award presentations, a live fashion photo shoot, and street runway show exhibiting 250+ unique looks from the graduating BFA Fashion Design students.”

The New School Free Press contacted five students in the BFA Fashion Design program to talk about their collections, the inspiration behind them and their expectations for the show.

Emily Starobrat

@emily_starobrat

Emily Starobrat focuses her thesis collection around the theme of denim. From denim jackets to jeans, she combines fashion and nostalgia to form a relationship between the user and their clothes. “I used to wear a lot of Hawaiian prints as a little kid and it was just like a really big part of my life,” she said. “So I wanted to incorporate these little aspects of growing up like wearing the T-shirt over the long sleeve shirt. Changing and figuring out who you are in these phases you go through and using the textiles from that in order to blend it with everyday garments. So that all adds some sort of personal value.” Starobrat’s collection was sponsored by Calik Denim, one of the leading denim fabric manufacturers in Turkey.

Starobrat’s denim collection focuses on the combination of plaid or hawaiian prints onto denim material. She used a method called felting in order to achieve the look. “Basically, I took the Hawaiian print and [I] take the fabric and push it through and it creates like an imprint on the other side.”

When asked how she felt about the upcoming fashion show, Starobrat replied, “I think it’s really exciting to have this opportunity for everyone across Parsons to show their work. Because with panel and how it usually goes, it’s more exclusive. But I think this is a great way for the school to show off.”

Jo Shin

@johee_shin

Having done ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) and participated in the Mile-Long Opera on the High Line, BFA Fashion Design student Jo Shin was inspired to incorporate sound into her collection. “My collection is like, a surrender to this idea that there will never be silence. So rather than being consumed by all this exterior noises like the clothes, it’s kind of adding on and it’s [saying] ‘I exist. I am living,’” she said.

She 3D-printed her own buttons and added metal beads to create various sounds on her garments. Different elements of her clothing produce different sounds. For example, she created pants that sound like ocean waves. Most of the sounds can be activated through movement.

“I don’t know if this ever happens to you, but if there’s a hole in your jacket lining and then your keys fall to the bottom, at the bottom of your lining you start [having] this constant sound of your keys,” Shin said, “that’s kind of what inspired me. I dropped the lining of my blazers and I added zippers in the lining to make noise. So it doesn’t have to be metal beads. I added literal keys to the lining just so.”

Christine Evans

@christineevansart (art account)

@christineevans (personal)

Christine Evans’ thesis collection is inspired by the city she grew up in: Washington, DC. “My thesis [is] on patriotism in America, and how that’s been skewed in light of our political climate. There’s a lot of stuff to unpack with that,” she said. “Originally, I’m from DC. My dad’s a politician, my grandparents are involved in politics on both sides. And so I’ve kind of grown up with that experience of having politics around my entire life.”

Evans, in keeping with her theme of patriotism, had most of her materials made in America. “So a lot of my clothing was made using American products like fabric that kind of originated here. Like cotton, denim, leather, those are all staple fabric of American lifestyle clothing and everything was made in the US which is [what] I’m very proud with.”

In addition to her theme, Evans incorporated elements of the 1970s and personal nostalgia to impart sentimental value onto her garments. “I used a lot of graphic elements I designed myself using old family photos to kind of make these satirical images, using quintessential American photos of my family that’s been here forever. And then having statements that kind of course, allowed the viewer to question like, hey, what does that actually mean?”

Anna Benzin

@annalouisebenzin

Originally from the suburbs of Chicago, Anna Benzin focuses her thesis collection on sustainable fashion. “It’s based on looking at the fashion system and kind of critiquing it and seeing how we can use less,” she said. Benzin recycles most of her materials in order to bring awareness on the impact fashion has. “So my whole collection is called CoMade because it’s like community made. So all my pieces are old scraps and material from my like family and community.”

Benzin hand-made all of her garments through weaving, stitching, and knitting. According to her, the collection took almost 600 hours to make. “My family is really big into crafting and making stuff. I have a bunch of knitters in my family. I used all [of] their old yarn, scrap yarn and a wool jacket.”

Benzin aims to bring sentimental value into her collection, believing that there’s “this lack of sentiment in our clothing now because it is so cheap.” When she did a photoshoot of her collection for her lookbook, Benzin said that being able to work with her family and create her designs with their old materials is what CoMade is all about. “All the materials came from my family. The outcome of getting [my collection] to be able to be viewed and shot and everything was awesome.”

Joshua Bower

@joshrbower

23-year-old Joshua “Josh” Bower started his collection by creating a questionnaire catered to mothers and their needs. “How they shop, where they shop, how much they spend. So it’s about a 50 plus question questionnaire,” he said. Bower received over 300 responses. “Given the fact that there was so much data, I didn’t really know how to approach it. So I quite literally was taking these ideas with images of my own childhood and my mom and started to weave them together.”

Bower’s collection focuses on weaving and the ability to freely attach and detach each part of the garment, making them “cross-functional”. “So one of the questions I asked was, ‘if you can wear something more than one way, would you be more willing to spend the money on it?’ And you know, obviously people were like ‘totally, yes, of course’. So that was kind of what inspired making some of these pieces more convertible.”

Bower’s collection primarily targets mothers, but anyone can wear his designs. “I think there’s elements of it that meet the needs, the desires of moms. A lot of these pieces are very comfortable; very soft.” When asked what inspired the colors for his collection, Bower said, “I don’t use black. I try to avoid [it] at all costs, actually. So my substitute for black is navy [blue]. But the inspiration for the colors actually came from taking it back to my original concept and actually weaving it together.”