This Parsons MA class of 15 come from 11 different countries. “It’s the most diverse group we’ve had in international representation,” noted co-dean of fashion design Fiona Dieffenbacher. In addition, she said, two of the students hold BAs in subjects unrelated to fashion (English and engineering). Four main themes emerged from the student statements. They believe fashion has the power to both preserve and advance cultural/gender identities; that it can be a way of working through, rebelling against, or honoring their upbringing; that they must work sustainably; and it is important to sustain other makers through their work.
The show started off with a bang, thanks to Jontay Kahm, a Plains Cree designer from Saskatchewan, Canada, who used an all-Native cast. His starting point was Indigenous women’s ribbon skirts, which represent resilience. Not only did he want to “play with the single ribbon and see how far I can take it,” but to push traditional dress into a place beyond gender. Yingdi Xiong’s mission was to reclaim traditional Chinese wedding attire and to make use of “Chinese flat-pattern logic, instead of draping in the Western sense.” All of her crochets were made using leftover fibers from a Chinese cashmere company.
Kimberly Ortega, from Ecuador, made her ethereal collection using upcycled materials. Her family owns a junkyard and she sees this way of working as an extension of her upbringing. Ortega showed her ethereal, genderless designs on male models who wore Panama hats (which, she explained, originated in her home country). She crafted in collaboration with Ecuadorian artisans. Dina Mahrouz, from Tehran, made lemonade out of lemons. “Inspired by the ill-fitting garments from my teenage years,” she wrote, “I transformed constricting secondhand clothing into sculptural silhouettes,” incorporating shapes from Iranian art. Chi-An Yu was not present to take a bow with his classmates because he is doing his military service in Taiwan. The designer bonded tracing paper and fabric to create an all-white collection of menswear that was both fragile and unexpectedly solid. A native of China, Effe Qi He described her clothes, which incorporated upcycled elements, as being “hyper-feminine but never fragile—elegance with teeth.” Among these were bras with sharp points.
