“Beyond” was the title of the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Master’s program show. Chosen collectively, the theme, the students wrote, “explores the limitless possibilities where creativity knows no borders. Drawing inspiration from our unique heritages, each garment transcends traditional norms, embracing fluidity in silhouette, texture, and identity.” Thirteen students participated in the show, and from look one, it was clear that this was not fashion as usual. It wasn’t just the exaggerated proportions and angular or otherwise exaggerated silhouettes, but the decentralization, in many cases, of the natural body.
Up first was Bryan Barrientos’s all-white collection, and an opening gown with a full, buoyant skirt, followed by a more slender, heavily corded, leaf-like wrap. Though not at all bodycon, these garments had organic shapes. Urvi Selarka, who describes herself as a “3D artist,” created undulating sculptural body surrounds. Of particular note was a semi-sheer scalloped dress with horn-like extensions at the top of the sleeves. From Natalia Robles Oteíza there were sheer, boned “cages” worn over simple sheaths. Alongside her keep-your-distance designs were close-to-the-body dresses with fabric flowers that literally hung from threads.
Fossils, rather than florals, were the starting point for their physicality and quality of preserving time and memory for Eunhae Cho’s collection, which, despite its inspiration, was quite fluid. Her button and loop closures allowed for customization. Cubist shapes defined many of Qi Yun’s pieces, yet there was also a sense of delicate movement in the overlong pant hems, the asymmetric fall of pleated fabric, and the loops falling from slashed sleeves on a sophisticated black coat. Practicing a gentler form of decon was Ziling Dong, whose line up was well-named Harmonious Collision. Soft sculpture might be the best way to describe Brunela Ramirez’s blown-up designs. Winsome was a padded, hooded coat and huge pants, a high fashion take on Frozen, perhaps? Evoking a different landscape were the lizards that were incorporated into the work of Yoon Seo Lee, including one trapped in what looked like gaffer tape over a trash bag, but which was a 3D printed belt and recycled nylon. In her bio, Lee wrote that she “finds inspiration in the overlooked details of everyday life and in the things that happen behind the scenes.” The title of her collection? Smuggler. Cindy Qianqian Dong also made use of that new technology to craft the looks in her lineup that looked like jewelry-garment hybrids as they featured bold silver “jewels” supported by invisible string and satin and chiffon bodices.
There was nothing hard-edged about Yixuan Nie’s whimsical collection. It was based on characters that she imagined taking part in life in her native Beijing. There were elements of the kind of hyper-femininity associated with designers like Simone Rochas in Nie’s work; she made use of twisting and knotting, most impressively on a yellow leather apron dress inspired, she said post-show, by the traveling knife-sharpeners in the Chinese capital. In contrast to that fairytale-like narrative, Yixuan Apple Zhao engaged with politics. She took on gender, size inclusivity, and queer culture. One of her models wore a look that served as a placard, it read: “Ban guns, not drag.”
Representing opposite ends of the spectrum were the collections of Ashleen Tuteja and Talia Abbe. The former, inspired by her father’s trucking business in India, showed a solid lineup of menswear/streetwear (that could be worn by anyone, Tuteja added). Taking into account the “everyday needs” of workers, she explained she focused on “waterproof fabrics, functional fabrics,” which she then dressed up with reflective prints. It was one of those collections you could see walking off the runway and onto Seventh Avenue and beyond—with the exception of the final look, a kind of armor/sculpture made from a pile of backpacks.
Bubble Wrap was the title of Talia Abbe’s fantastical and playful inflatable latex looks in Crayola colors. You wouldn’t guess that this project was rooted in the designer’s own mental health issues. “My whole topic is about the positive and negative stimuli in the world and how people experience and respond to that—what we see, and how the brain and the body responds to it. I almost wanted this protective bubble,” said the designer. Asked why there continues to be such a preponderance of protective looks, Abbe replied, “I think protection can mean a lot of different things, but for me it’s not as much about protecting yourself from things in the outside world, but almost protecting yourself from yourself, and from your own mind.” Not everyone, it seems, is living in a post-Covid world. Students seem to have been inordinately affected. And yet, said Cathleen Sheehan, the professor and chair of the fashion design MFA program, in “this class there’s a courageousness about what they’re doing no matter what it is. They all want to make a positive impact on the world, but to be true to who they are.”
