Parsons Fashion 2014 - Part Three

Outrageous runway looks are great for editorial, but true clothing design is a much bigger challenge. There were several students at the Parsons Fashion 2014 show who tackled collections for career wear.  How do you make traditional fabrics in basic grey, black and white and make them stand out?  Can one redesign the wheel and make the standard suit unique? 

Yea Jin Song answered this challenge by cutting the separates in unusual proportions.  A cropped jacket with extended shoulders and front piece paired with asymmetrical shorts.  A sculpted, almost origami folded trench paired with a skirt of different lengths. A long draped vest that extends past the skirt and belted tunic.  

David Valencia reinterpreted the basic items of a corporate suit.  The pants are draped wide and folded over like a jacket.  The middle dress is draped like a skirt, but ends in a halter at the neck.  The different shades of cool grey and warm grey end up looking very colorful just because the fabrics are in different temperature groups.

Sara Hoopes took a very zen approach to her group.  Long, flowing dresses had a summery, kimono ease about them.  I love the abstract interpretation of a traditional tie by presenting it as a necklace or scarf.  The foldback half-collar is a nod to a lapel, but not quite.  You could get away with wearing these looks to most creative industry offices, but feel as breezy as yoga wear.

Bravo, Parsons fashion graduates, class of 2014!

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Parsons Fashion 2014 - Part Two

 The wide range of fashion design graduates at Parsons New School of Design wanted to make sure they stood out.  Women's wear is saturated category, so a new designer's collection needs to have details that make it difficult to imitate.  This group of designers went with highly sculpted shapes and artful rendered detail.  Not exactly the clothes you find on the street, but that is a good thing.

Mijia Zhang built up big silhouettes with a combination of natural and brightly colored fur. The quirky combination of sporty stripes and footwear kept the elaborate fur from looking too overbearing or serious.

 Kailen Todt took an artistic approach to her collection.  There were swirls of painted patterns on the fabrics, but then the intricate knits also echoed the painterly approach with crochet  pieces that mirrored the same look.  The result was a gorgeous, body as art canvas effect.

Justin Chu probably took the most risks in deliberate sculpture of the garments.  He built volume through draping, padding, built up swirls and very structured tailoring.  You could even say his models were up on pedestals that unfortunately were toppled over.  The architecturally built shoes they wore presented quite a problem for the models as two of them both fell on their attempts to mount the runway.  They were good sports though, and it brought extra spotlight to the clothes they were wearing.  Based on how interesting the shapes of the collection were, they would have received the attention they deserved anyway.

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Parsons Fashion 2014 - Menswear

 Congratulations designers, you made it.  The fashion design graduates of Parsons New School of Design held its first runway show in its new digs last night.  I'll start with the menswear designers.  As you can see above, there were some dapper collections with some retro intellectual styling by Jennifer Lee and Moon Kyung Hwang.  Another with very effective use of black and white to graphic effect by In Seop Keum.

You had your more artistic collection from Simon Li that played on big wide proportions and variations in dyes and textures.

Then there were these looks by Hye GIn Hamm and Young Ji Cho that mixed sportswear and pajamas.  I wasn't quite sure if this was meant to be humorous or ironic.  The security blanket and pillow made the theme clear.  The clothes themselves were well fit and too tailored to look like they were really meant to be slept in.  However, they do look mighty comfortable right now.

photos by Mariana Leung

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