Bringing awareness to these young designers, the show reflected on the beauty of treasured relationships and ancestral identity.
Acknowledging the talent and craftsmanship of its twelfth generation of graduate students, the Parsons School of Design presented “WE DEM KIDS,” an activation for the newest cohort of up-and-coming designers during New York Fashion Week.
The Parsons School of Design at The New School is advertised as one of the leading institutions for art and design in the world. This year’s activation was at the Brooklyn Museum, New York City’s second largest museum, and included the work of 15 graduates from Parsons’ Fashion Design and Society MFA program. With the future of the fashion industry in mind, Parsons describes this program as being “centered on the designer’s role, agency and power to impact society and the planet.”
An activation, in this context, is orchestrated to increase awareness of one’s brand and create engagement amongst the public. Creating a campaign, event or interaction through which one’s brand generates awareness is crucial for the career launch of new designers, helping to cement a place for them in the already overly saturated fashion industry.
The designers featured included recent graduates Anna Roth, Chang Liu, Fabiola Soavelo, Hsiao-Han Kuo, Mel Corchado, Nan Jian, Natsum Aoki, Pipenco Lorena, Ren Haixi, Siri, Story, Sunny Ning, Yamil Arbaje, Ying Kong and Yu Gong.
According to Parsons, each of the designer’s selected works was created to reflect on “the beauty of shared experiences, the resilience of heritage and those unshakable bonds of life that tie us to the past and propel us into the future.”
The show presented fashion through a new lens, one that emphasized creativity over functionality. “‘WE DEM KIDS’ invites viewers to rethink the times and places where fashion is experienced; an invitation to engage with fashion as a visual and art performance,” said Parsons in a statement.
Styled in oversized and abstract silhouettes, the models were adorned with colorful garments that represented each designer’s ability to craft fresh, innovative and cohesive looks in relation to a common theme. Many of the pieces shown disregarded the human form and were instead structured sculpturally around the body. This, in addition to the range of textures provided by a selection of unconventional materials, created a truly unique show for viewers to ogle at.
With each graduate showcasing their unique take on the craft, Parsons’ students have demonstrated what it means for young designers to break the boundaries of style and create something exceptional.
Homepage image of Pipenco Lorena. Above images left to right: Fabiola Soavelo, Hsiao-Han Kuo and Siri All runway images courtesy of Aleksandr Karjaka.
