Eleven Parsons students presented the MA collections they completed for their graduation last spring. “They’re all so individual, ” said Ben Barry, dean of the school of fashion, when asked if there were through-lines among the students. Form your own conclusions, he suggested. When reviewing the portfolios of the bachelor’s program in May, I had noted an interest in post-humanism. That’s too strong a description of the preoccupations of the master’s students, but almost everything, including the human form, was exaggerated. We saw some cubist distortions at the fall 2024 couture, and they were also present here, often in the form of jutting triangular shapes. For the most part these clothes created a distance between the wearer and other people.
The anthropomorphism of Sijia Lyu’s work, which included clothes that resembled garment bags and chairs, called to mind a literary genre popular in the 18th century, it narratives, in which stories were told from the perspective of objects. Especially clever was her cable-knit sweater—the cables made of coiled telephone cords. Yue (Cassie) Xu, was similarly interested in home objects; note her leather “Chesterfield” skirt. Segueing into the realm of fiction was Yunhao Liao who created stuffed animal mascots to accessorize his tailored looks. Ziqi Zhen, who collects ball-jointed dolls, softened her futuristic/armor like silhouettes, complete with arm joints, with giant, 3D-printed flowers. Murder She Wrote could have been the title of Jiaying (Kaei) Wang’s menswear line up. The designer is also an illustrator and her garments featured bull’s eyes, “bullet holes,” resin-blood-spattered shoes, and a bleeding heart. Liying Zheng brought her training in oil painting to play in tulle dresses in delicious color combinations. More literal were paint-stained pants and a coat featuring a functional slot for an oil paint brush as well as a 3D zippered box at the back.
Moving in a more political direction was Margarida Feijão, whose pieces exaggerated the hourglass silhouette, often in plaster. In her bio the Portuguese designer said that her practice is built on “merging wearable art with critical social commentary.” Photographs of nature collided with silver metallic lacquered leather in Nan Yu’s collection, the starting point for which was her upbringing “in a steel city surrounded by forests in China.”
Of particular note were three menswear collections that dealt, respectively with ideas of play (Patrick Taylor), streetwear, and queer culture (K.S. Tehara), and streetwear (Mohan Li). The latter completed her undergraduate at Beijing Institute of Fashion and Technology, and has written that she is interested in capturing Chinese youth culture. Post-show she stated that her aim with this collection was to meld sports and streetwear. She used her pattern-cutting skills to create five-point star shapes on casual jackets and pants. One pair of jeans had detachable knitted legs, another track-style pair came with matching zip on/off shoe covers. Using word graphics is a signature of her work, a way, she explained, to play with the idea of “statement dressing.” Taylor, a knitwear designer from London, approached play with a kind of childhood innocence. He used foam to create silhouettes of almost comic proportions that referenced skiing and sailing. The idea was to almost freeze the body in motion, for example, a pair of tartan knit pants had the appearance of bent knees even when the model was standing tall. Charming indeed was a sweater with toy soldiers. Perhaps not intended for audiences of all ages were Tehara’s penis bags, made by 3D printing with wood scraps. The designer, who got his BA at Central St. Martins, made his entire collection from existing materials, and all of the pieces, he said after the show, were produced by himself and friends over a few bottles of wine. Highlights of his collection include a crochet T-shirt made of sari fabric and a waxed, upcycled doublet jacket worn with hand-felted shorts. Tehara wanted to speak to the importance of crafting spaces for queer culture to thrive in, he said.
The show format was unusually inclusive: for the sight-impaired there was an emcee who described the room and the particulars of each look, from material to silhouette and style of shoe, using write-ups provided by the students.
