Parsons The New School for Design hosts an annual benefit fashion show where senior students present the fruits of their labors, their theses, and in the process raise a lot of money. This year the benefit raised nearly $1.7 million worth of scholarships at Parsons.
Arguably one of the best design schools in the world, Parsons boats amazing new talent each year (including guests and alumni Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler.) This past week was no different. Let's take a look at the event's outstanding participants and the inspiration that drove their collections.
1. Womenswear Designer of the Year Harim Jung.
"The collection started from the designer's idea of objects being able to accumulate experience and memories, creating a force that takes the consumer back in time."
2. And the other Womenswear Designer of the Year, Kaye Applewaite.
"The collection was driven by a search for identity. It's an individual critique of the process of design from an initial idea to the final garment."
3. Yunxiang (Sharon) Zhou, Menswear Designer of the Year.
"Based on the idea of worker’s garments and tools, I developed a collection of aprons that celebrate utility."
4. Children's Designer of the Year award winner, Diana Flavio Woodside.
"This collection is inspired by an imagined future rooted in nostalgic imagery associated with the sci-fi sub-genre of Steampunk."
5. Ilhye (Carla) Yoo
"I was inspired by fencing, a sport which I believe best represents my design aesthetic."
6. Francine Frohlich
"The collection is based on a vivid nightmare that I had, ultimately settling on the gothic cathedral from my dream as the main source of inspiration."
7. Isabel Simpson-Kirsch
"My collection is inspired by the rapper Lil B. The prints I designed combine images of his face on the bodies of various Hindu gods."
8. Dina Tarrab
"The collection is based on the concept of squares of fabrics with cut out holes. This woman is like an Amazonian hero, strong and magnificent in the contemporary urban world."
9. Flora J. Lee
"My collection started with my obsession for collecting objects; fragments that are reminiscent of specific times and moments. For example, I like to stick flowers between pages of books and put them back onto my bookshelf. "
10. Jarvinia Jinying Li
"The conceptual idea expresses how pieces of shadows were transformed into a collection, through an evolutionary journey with a loom and eclectic assortment of materials."
11. Meghan Marylyn Spielman
"The collection focuses on traditional handicrafts associated with women and working in the home, especially the craft of weaving."
12. Patrick McCabe
"Inspired by the venerable English playwright Sir Noël Coward. Sir Coward who has many well-known quotes, but my favorite is, 'Why am I always expected to wear a dressing gown, smoke cigarettes in a long holder, and say "Darling, how wonderful"?'"
13. SoHee Kim
"The collection is about exploring the depth between the body and garment as if exploring a cave. "
14. Julia Passafiume
"It's inspired by the time I've spent nannying and how we've whiled away our whole summer digging for squirmy bugs in the dirt in the backyard, and the wonder in a 3-year-old's face when he finds the world is a whole new place to discover."
15. Josh Tafoya
"My thesis is based on Cholos and Cholas (Chicano culture,) and looks at what has defined this iconic style."
16. Jasmine Plantin
"This concept challenged the traditional western idea of gender in the form of a unisex collection."
17. Maisie Schloss
"I was inspired by artists Louis Wain and Yayoi Kusama, whose obsessive tendencies not only inspired their bodies of work, but also eventually consumed their lives."
18. Madeleine Provost
"The collection focuses on the relationship between craft and sustainability, and how this relationship can produce luxury design."
19. Sharon Yumeng Wang
"My collection is inspired by Bauhaus photographer László Moholy-Nagy. My thesis is an exploration of scale, placement and material, and innovative ways to use pleats."
20. Sandy Liang
"My thesis collection is a visual autobiography, shaped by where I am from, how I was raised, and what I see every day in my current neighborhood, the Lower East Side."
21. Yoonsun Choi
"Inspired by my own oriental painting, this collection represents a study in contrasts."
22. Taylor Brechtel
"I drew my inspiration from the American art house film, Pink Narcissus, directed by James Bidgood in 1971."
23. Soon Il Kwon
"This collection expresses my passions in both automotive and fashion design. I transferred some of the details of automobiles into feminine and sophisticated looks."
24. Harin Yang
"The collection is a journey from two-dimensional design to three-dimensional construction, into what she calls the 'fourth dimension.'"
25. San Pham
"I wanted to go back and explore the childhood interests that have defined my design aesthetic. It is a way for me to connect reality with fairytales."
All images courtesy of Parsons New School for Design.