On May 4, guests at the Met Gala were called on to interpret the “Fashion Is Art” dress code, specifically as it relates to different body types. Sounds like a design student’s senior thesis, no?
That could’ve been the case Thursday as many graduates from the Fashion Institute of Technology explored similar themes during their annual Future of Fashion showcase.
Sebastian Matus opened the sportswear section with a black zippered dress featuring winged cap sleeves and squared-off hips. It was followed by Naïma Naas’ pin-striped bustle coat, which the critic award winner padded between the shoulders, turning her model into a hunchback.
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Later on, the intimates section put the body on full display, but more surprisingly, knitwear completely transformed it with an eye toward surrealism. The highlights were a hoop-skirt reimagined as a circus tent and a blue duster cardigan with hand motifs knitting a red scarf.
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It certainly wouldn’t have been out of place at the Met where superfluous limbs were one of the night’s biggest (and oddest) trends. Elsewhere, in children’s wear, a toddler carrying an American Girl doll in matching purple velvet brought to mind singer Maria Zardoya, whose porcelain mini-me wore Matières Fécales up the museum steps.
This year’s show christened FIT‘s swanky Joyce F. Brown building named in honor of the former president’s nearly three decades of service. During his opening speech, Jason Schupbach, who took up the mantle from Brown in mid-January, described the last four months as the “most magical” in his career. “People ask me, ‘Do you like the job?’ And I say ‘It’s like being in Willy Wonka. I got the golden ticket,’” he added.
On the runway overlooking FIT’s Chelsea campus, 80 students presented 91 designs, each selected by a distinguished panel of judges, including The New York Times staff photographer Simbarashe Cha, Halston creative director Ken Downing, and Fern Mallis, founder of New York Fashion Week.
Also a member of the FIT Foundation Board of Directors, Mallis unveiled a “Shanghai Experience” initiative in partnership with Chinese fashion investor Andrew Yu. The pair selected two students, Andres Guerra and Julia Endecott, who will travel to Shanghai to learn firsthand about the supply chain and what goes into manufacturing a collection overseas.
Mallis said if all goes well, the students will have the opportunity to design stage costumes for the K-pop boy band Big Ocean. Gesturing to the three members seated in the front row, she crowned them, “the next BTS.”
For the fifth time, Macy’s returned as FIT’s leading sponsor, presenting two awards tied to its charitable platform Mission Every One. The Empowered Design Award, which recognizes one student’s ability to clearly and creatively articulate their inspiration, went to Moscow native Marina Malkhaslan.
Her gray scarf coat worn over pleated white layers combined military and school uniforms, paying homage to young draftees in the Russian army. Malkhaslan said she chose to work with dead-stock fabrics, “that basically got thrown away because it resembles how those young boys’ lives got thrown away, too.”
Athmiha Saravanen received the Macy’s Capsule Collection Award for her day-to-night denim set, which will be produced under the department store’s Bar-III private label. Saravanen said her design took shape while she was riding the above-ground subway to Queens where she buys groceries. “You can see into all the apartments, some people just coming back from work, some leaving for a night out, some watching TV.…And when I think about Bar-III, it’s about a woman who embodies all of these personalities and wants to be able to transition between them.”
Post-graduation, Saravanen already has her sights set on working for one brand in particular: Sacai, saying, “I love anything to do with structure and volume.” Told she’d have to move to Paris to join founder Chitose Abe, her response was, “I speak French, so maybe that’s a start.”