My Mind Is up in the Hair

My Mind Is up in the Hair

Mai Nanao
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Knitwear
  • Award winners
This collection explores various traditional African hairstyles as fashion elements. Hair holds significance for everyone. It can symbolize confidence, creativity, and depth. Many contemporary hairstyles, such as braids, cornrows, and dreadlocks, originate from Africa, where the styles can have great significance and, in some indigenous communities, are linked to protection and expressions of identity, status, and style.
Hand-Me-Downs

Hand-Me-Downs

Corinna Baker
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Knitwear
Hand-Me-Downs is a collection inspired by childhood nostalgia, domestic handicraft, and traditional women’s work, while exploring the line between fine art and craft. Unlike fine art, craft defies commodification. Works of craft as personal mementos can be simultaneously priceless to the owner and worthless to others, making them unfit for trade. Their value lies beyond price and instead in sentiment. The sentiment of craft is what I have strived to convey through the unifying theme of childhood nostalgia in Hand-Me-Downs.
Butchered

Butchered

Mariela Garcia Castro
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Knitwear
My collection’s purpose is to be a tool for self-actualization and empowerment for plus-sized individuals, who have long been marginalized and butchered by societal norms. Through fashion, I strive to cultivate a space of inclusivity and self-love, advocating for a redefinition of beauty that celebrates diversity in all its forms.
Endless Summer

Endless Summer

Yilei Qian
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Knitwear
  • Award winners
ndless Summer is the transcendental beautification of life and memory by filtering it through the boundless creativity of the brain. This project aims to celebrate the ordinary and the mundane — all the small moments that compound and transform into something that makes our lives worth living. Through vibrant colors, a range of textures, and sparkle, I aimed to depict the most impossibly beautiful memory created in my mind from the simplest, yet happiest, summer of my life.
Nile to Ganges

Nile to Ganges

Nazera Bhavnagari
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Knitwear
Nile to Ganges is an artistic confluence, bringing together the rich textures of Indian and Egyptian cultures. This collection serves as a reflective mosaic of the universal themes of identity, belonging, and the quest for transcendence, themes that connect every human spirit. It’s an exploration of intricate patterns from the diverse cultural experiences that have shaped me.
Fawn

Fawn

Riley Grossman
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Knitwear
Fawn is a quiet meditation on healing and comfort. It incorporates silhouettes and writings pulled from my mini book of illustrations, which explores topics of heartbreak and loss. The additional research imagery comes from traditional puppetry, trinket collecting, and stuffed animal repair. This project involved a process of making knit creatures and personifying them as large-scale garments in an attempt to turn the wearer into a creature of comfort.
dreaMEing !

dreaMEing !

JuYeon Kim
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Knitwear
We all might have had imaginary friends who protected our dreams and inspired us when we were young. They liberated us from the nightmares that enveloped us in anxiety and worry. They made our imaginations more vivid and colorful in the dream world, allowing us to explore and wander through it together. This collection is an ode to the memories of the imaginary guardian friends who accompanied us.
Pot Luck

Pot Luck

Olivia Masters
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Knitwear
Pot Luck is inspired by vintage recipes, food photography, my grandma’s casseroles, and memories of my grandparents’ catering business. It is rooted in the warm feelings that arise when you share a recipe or meal with someone. It is fascinated with our desire to encase things in gelatin. Food anchors us to our memories, be they spectacular or mundane. This collection translates those memories into knits.
Someday

Someday

Ava Torley
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Knitwear
Someday is a knitwear collection inspired by the delicate themes and illustrative beauty found in the children's picture books we grew up with. The books' beautiful scenes and simple yet meaningful sentences about everyday life perfectly capture my time at FIT. Someday is composed of precious handmade pieces that embody the hopefulness of childhood.
Heroism

Heroism

Hunter Oh
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Knitwear
My collection embodies the story of war victims and the heroes who rescue them, a narrative often found in ancient tales or books. Even now, wars continue incessantly, and there are always those who hope for heroes to emerge like Joan of Arc and rescue them. Therefore, this collection is designed with garments that embody Joan of Arc's courage, sacrifice, and love.
Knitwear - Duncan Livingston

Knitwear - Duncan Livingston

Duncan Livingston
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Knitwear
Program/Degree: Fashion Design BFA
Adorned

Adorned

Sarah Widmann
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Knitwear
Adorned marries the intimate feel of lingerie with the technical approach of knitwear. Inspired by the decorative motifs seen in wrought-iron gating, these garments embellish the body with complementary style lines and soft structures that accentuate the wearer's natural form.
Unbridled Art Deco

Unbridled Art Deco

Xinyue Rao
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Knitwear
This project arises from my aesthetic exploration. Inspired by architecture and interior design from the Art Deco period, this collection breaks the traditional image of knitting and the knitting technique. It is no longer warm and soft but cold and hard. Combining hardware and metallic yarns, my decorative knitwear designs create a feeling of luxury.
Break to Open

Break to Open

Andrea Maris
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Sportswear
Break to Open is a collection centered around my personal ongoing experience in eating disorder recovery. The greatest crippling fear of the eating disorder is weight gain. Recovering from any mental illness includes mental shifts, but an eating disorder also generally requires physical shifts. Experiencing both in tandem creates an inexplicable feeling of suffering. The silhouettes in my collection convey a sense of entrapment coupled with a desperation for comfort.
Amarrakech

Amarrakech

Allison Affenita
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Sportswear
Embracing the rich tapestry of Moroccan culture, texture, and color, Amarrakech illuminates a collection where the essence of Morocco is woven into every thread. Through a fusion of statement pieces and effortlessly chic attire, this collection invites individuals to infuse their personal style with the vibrancy and allure of Moroccan aesthetics, ensuring that a piece of Marrakech resides in every closet.
Queen of the Rodeo

Queen of the Rodeo

Benjamin Halunen
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Sportswear
Queen of the Rodeo is a narrative journey through the heart of the American West. Inspired by my family heritage of cattle ranching and farming, I unite the historical dress of the 20th century with contemporary dress sensibilities. Through the juxtaposition of the toughness of the prairie woman and the rugged nature of the cowpoke, my collection aims to construct a tale that captures the essence of Western Americana through a personal lens.
Letterman

Letterman

Grace Cooper
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Sportswear
  • Award winners
The Letterman collection takes us through the aesthetics of collegiate varsity sport and my personal experience of being a little girl who wears her dad's letter jacket, because she wants to be just like him. As I delve deeper into the world, everything that I thought I knew shifts and severs. Seams and silhouettes reflect memories and nostalgic feelings slipping away. So, I'll put on my dad's jacket like a shield and become a little girl again.
Full

Full

Emily Eanae Cha
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Sportswear
My thesis started off with a pair of blue tights and a broken frame. I stuffed, knotted, wrapped, and sewed the tights onto the broken frame. It reminded me of a balloon animal and the famous Jeff Koons balloon dog. It was this that started my design process and prompted me to explore the technical steps of making a balloon animal. The fullness of the knots represent my confidence and the connections that tie to my Korean and American cultures.
Macy's Bar III Capsule Collection Winner

Macy's Bar III Capsule Collection Winner

Irene Alexandra Cubides-Morales
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Sportswear
  • Award winners
Program/Degree: Fashion Design BFA
Macy's Bar III Capsule Collection Finalist

Macy's Bar III Capsule Collection Finalist

Tamera Dorcinville
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Sportswear
Program/Degree: Fashion Design BFA
Macy's Bar III Capsule Collection Finalist

Macy's Bar III Capsule Collection Finalist

Ashley Plasse
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Sportswear
Program/Degree: Fashion Design BFA
Macy's Bar III Capsule Collection Finalist

Macy's Bar III Capsule Collection Finalist

Mookie Sauers
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Sportswear
Program/Degree: Fashion Design BFA
Scar

Scar

HanGyeol Kim
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Sportswear
My fashion design thesis embodies the essence of awe-inspiring femininity, celebrating strength and courage. Drawing inspiration from the depiction of blood falling from wounds, I present a portrayal of unassailable fortitude, where scars bear no power to diminish, but rather accentuate the indomitable spirit of the women I dress.
Blooming

Blooming

Nuo Cheng
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Sportswear
This collection is born of my passion for both iconic historical silhouettes and contemporary art. The sophisticated, exaggerated, and elegant forms of rococo French fashion, personified by Marie Antoinette, meet the gestural, emotional forms of abstract expressionism, exemplified by Cy Twombly. Fused together, these traditions bloom as a new flower that is delicate yet powerful, raw yet elegant, intelligent yet expressive.
My Heart-Kalbim

My Heart-Kalbim

Neslihan Ezgi Kavakkoru
  • 2024
  • Fashion Design (School of Art and Design)
  • Image
  • Fashion shows
  • Sportswear
My Heart-Kalbim is an embodiment of my deepest feelings and experiences, centered around the motif of the human heart. Through intricate embroideries, I convey the essence of my soul, unveiling vulnerabilities and emotions in every stitch. This collection serves as a reflection of my innermost journey, where each piece speaks volumes about the complexities and depths of the human heart.