“Studying fashion was a huge challenge and a huge decision, but my mother is very respectful and supportive of my choice,” says the Chinese designer, who’s strongly inspired by the work of Martin Margiela and Rei Kawakubo. For her collection ‘Gallop’, she has skilfully dismantled vintage silhouettes and details to overlap them in reconstructed equestrian garments. Kristen Xiaolin Wu’s collection aims to “explore the fusion between Western and Eastern equestrian cultures” through the study of 1940s western breeches and the Chinese Mamianqun skirt.
FIT MFA 2022: An unbound creative spirit
Dive into the designs of the 13 graduates from this year’s FIT MFA in Fashion Design
In a world that’s still unsure about whether to keep producing fashion videos to present a collection or throw an in-person fashion show instead, the Fashion Institute of Technology opted for the coveted in-between. Pre-recorded videos showing the garments in context preceded a rather old-fashioned show staged at the college’s theatre. This way, the audience could have a glimpse at the designer’s creative vision before appreciating the clothes’ textures and movement in the much more general context of the fashion presentation.
As with most graduate shows, collections were extremely varied. Sean Patrick’s Rococo-inspired hyper-feminine clothing followed Kristen Xiaolin Wu’s fusion of Western and Eastern equestrian cultures before a unique ensemble of socially-critical collections hit the stage, with Wenwen Leire reinvigorated traditional garments in between. The show offered an open platform for designers to show off their individual talent through their respective work.
“Everyone has a unique story, and I think that has a lot to do with the identity crisis we are facing,” says He Zhu, one of this year’s FIT fashion graduates. Each one of the 13 graduates was able to tell that very own distinctive story, all linked through a shared unbound creative spirit that acted as a common thread for such an eclectic fashion display.
Escapism and feminine fantasies are the central axis of Sean Patrick’s designs, always curated through a queer lens. “Merging hyper-feminine aesthetics with cultural referencing, I work to elevate stories of my past and present to new heights,” shares the Irish-American designer. His collection ‘The Allegory of Femme’ is inspired by Marie-Louise O’Murphy, a young, Irish mistress who lived in the Palace of Versailles, at the centre of femininity and luxury during the Rococo era. By intertwining contrasting influences – Irish conservative traditions and the glamourous aesthetics Patrick’s attracted to – the designer has arranged a sensual display of Gaelic art that features exquisite, reinvigorated 18th Century corsetry as the main element of his designs.
Even though her mum’s “tainted idea of beauty” made Plymale feel subjected to the male gaze and sexualisation, as well as fearful of revealing her own body, she has gained confidence through the development of ‘Reflection’ – A graduate collection that explores the dynamic relationship between mother and daughter and how it informs fashion. “Raised in the traditional South, my mother has been instrumental in my development into womanhood and how perceptions of fashion, beauty, and dress came to be,” says the American designer. “But now I’m walking away from the program with the idea that I deconstruct what I find wrong around me and rebuild it, creating a new from it.”
‘Cloth: square: white’ is a collection that experiments with patterns and silhouettes to create clothing as an extension of the spiritual body. “The collection projects the ancient East Asian view of the body into contemporary fashion through light and shadow, and geometry,” shares the Chinese fashion designer. White squares have been modified and combined to alter the body’s natural silhouette, which also allows for every single garment to be folded in rectangular shapes. A unique take on what being sustainable is.
It wasn’t an easy start for this batch of graduates, especially considering the first semester began in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. But Mengyao Lin found her way to stay positive in such challenging times, developing a much-needed, joyful collection – ‘Sweet tooth’. “In such a depressing and stressful time, dessert is the only food that brings happiness and delight to people,” says the Chinese designer. Through unexpected textures, boning and 3D fabric transformations, she endowed the brightly-coloured garments with a powerful feeling of armour and a cheerful aura.
Diala Dabbous is all about experimentation and transformability. By incorporating new methods and techniques as well as pushing their boundaries, she has created a unique design identity that focuses on the human body and what it means to her. “I’ve always questioned how clothes can comfortably sit on the body, move with it and garnish it, giving it its utmost capabilities and enhancing it without necessarily restricting the physique,” she says. Her collection ‘The (h)yoomen bädē’ is the ultimate representation of such identity. Through self-weaved fabrics, contrasting lines and alternative silhouettes, the designer produced a collection of futuristic designs that fit well into today’s streetwear fashion scene.
The boundaries that separate masculinity and femininity are more blurred than ever. For her collection ‘The freedom of confinement’, the Chinese designer has played with techniques like gathering and binding, creating voluminous tulle ruffles that “disturb the masculine silhouette” with their “engraved femininity”. A gender-bending collection that draws on Shumeng Zhang’s own experience with clothing and gender and delves into “the distortion of our second skin and the contrast between disclosure and concealment of one’s body”.
Born in Germany, Johanna Orlowski immigrated to Ukraine when the Iron Curtain fell. A life-changing event that has not only impacted the way she lives but also the way she designs. Informed by vintage images of German and Soviet settlers coming to the US, her collection ‘Homeland is just a memory’ serves as a symbol of what those immigrants carried in their suitcase. “Every single garment is only the piece of a puzzle in the collection, so it gets interesting when you combine all these pieces together,” she explains. After graduation, and with a horrifying war between Ukraine and Russia in progress, the designer felt paralysed. However, she has now adopted an active role and has founded a knitwear company that helps Ukrainian refugees who currently live in Germany.
Light meets darkness in Sarah Maazouz’s graduate collection ‘The observer’, which reflects the American designer’s own confrontation with death. Lace, pleating techniques and diffraction gratings unite in an array of black, shimmery dresses, fitted long-sleeve tops and voluminous garments that wrap the model’s body to transform its shape. But this collection contains some hidden gems that you can only appreciate under specific lighting. “It requires people viewing the collection to take a second and pause to see the hidden beautiful moments within the garments,” says the American designer. “It requires the observer to be observed. It requires curiosity to be appreciated.”
“It will take something unique for the Class of 2022 to be noticed,” says the Taiwanese designer. “We are competing with double the number of graduates, all trying to look for the same jobs in the industry.” Despite her concerns about after-graduation life, Stephanie Yu-Hsuan aimed big with ‘For her’, a collection for her own definition of women – soft and gentle but with strength embedded in their personality. Through delicate fabrics and draping techniques, Stephanie Yu-Hsuan Chen developed a fluid and feminine collection for “sophisticated warriors”.
Wenwen Lei’s collection ‘彝 Yi’ serves as a breath of fresh air. By combining Eastern elements with Western silhouettes, the Chinese designer has incorporated strokes of modernity and futurism into a collection of traditional silhouette and geometric elements found in Yi silver jewellery, embroidery, lacquerware and architecture. “I’m willing to bring such a unique 6,000-year-old culture to a bigger stage,” she says. “The beauty of intangible cultural heritage should not only be displayed in museums, but also in modern daily life.” The chosen colour palette also adds to the recurrent contrast of the designs.
Probably one of the most captivating collections from this year’s batch, ‘Their crystal palace’ exposes the worrying “systematic gender inequality in multiple aspects, ranging from basic birth and living rights to societal engagement and to self-realization rights”. Shine Sang’s work is all about that – reflecting on societal issues. To bring in more depth of detail, the Chinese designer incorporated three-dimensional headpieces handmade by Brooklyn-based artist Jessica Müller. Moods were exquisitely translated into vibrant colours and compositions, while the texture was skilfully added through hand pleats and beads.
‘Sapiomatica’ is just the tip of the iceberg. Stephanie Kim has imagined a whole new dystopian world as a context for such an interestingly crafted array of large puffer jackets, oversized plastic jumpsuits and long radiation shielding coats. An ideal wardrobe for the Korean designer’s self-inspired sci-fi character – a slave labourer living in a futuristic factory who is trying to escape from her reality. Kim’s goal now is to extend this narrative into a short film that explores other inhabitants of this new world. “The idea is to keep working on one small part of it at a time and ultimately create a full feature-length sci-fi film,” she explains.
