School’s out and some of fashion’s newest designers are on the prowl. Here, some highlights from student fashion shows at three of the city’s fashion schools: Parson’s School of Design, Fashion Institute of Technology and Pratt Institute.
FASHION INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Fashion Institute of Technology students displayed their creativity last month in the college’s Haft Auditorium. More than 125 Fashion Design majors graduating this spring presented their designs in seven categories: children’s wear, current scene, eveningwear, intimate apparel, knitwear, sportswear and tailored garments. The runway show featured fall fashions and marked the culmination of an intensive two-year associate’s degree program.
Featured on the runway was eveningwear influenced by “birds of paradise” in a range of bright colors. Students in the knitwear specialization went with the theme “007 Bond Girls,” where models walked holding toy guns. Intimate apparel had an aristocratic flair with undergarments of brocade and toile fabrics.
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Fashion designers have been working with the students in the classroom to critique their designs and help them create the garments presented in the show. David Dalrymple of Patricia Field, Nanette Lepore and B. Michael were some of the guest critics this semester.
Each designer honored a student in a specialization with a “Critic Award” at the show. This semester’s winners included: Aimee Riesenberger’s khaki corduroy jacket with a pink skirt and boy’s army vest and jeans in the children’s wear category; Jennifer Cho’s aqua felt cape over an appliqué skirt in the sportswear division and Zebulon Hounsela’s ivory dress with a red leather belt and brown trim in the knitwear category.
PRATT INSTITUTE
It might have been a student affair, but the feeling in the air at Pratt’s 104th fashion show was professional. Among the nearly 1,500 people crowded into the Hammerstein Ballroom on May 13 were photographer Patrick McMullan snapping away in the front row, and Heatherette designers Richie Rich and Traver Rains cheering for their former intern who was among the grads.
Pratt president Thomas Schutte presented Stephen Burrows with the Excellence by Design Award, an honor previously bestowed on Pauline Trigere and Kal Ruttenstein.
“His name bubbled up through the students and faculty,” said Schutte. “It came from the heart, which was rather nice.” For his part, Burrows pronounced the show “Superb!”
Juniors showed one or two looks inspired either by the Middle Ages or their vision of the future, while the five-look senior collections ran the gamut of inspiration from Dominican music to “Alice in Wonderland” to Marc Jacobs.
PARSON’S SCOOL OF DESIGN
Parsons School of Design’s two-year AAS fashion design program held its annual end-of-the-year fashion show — dubbed the Trunk Show — last month in a jam-packed reception at the school’s Greenwich Village campus. This was the first time the school picked a select number of students to show. So, off-site, more than 70 Parson’s graduates showed their fashions at what they called “The Collective.”
The looks were sent out on a catwalk that extended through the main doors of Parson’s building at 66 Fifth Ave. and onto the sidewalk.
Highlights of the event included Katie Zorn’s beige cape coat worn as a dress and her pink suit; Eunha Lee’s orange balloon pants with sea-blue bustier; Haydee Contreras’ beaded silk-screened Indian cotton top with satin skirt and organza and Indian cotton ruffled details, and Shweta Jaggi’s red embroidered maroon silk dress.
The two-year program is geared at students who are making a career change, but already have an undergraduate degree, according to Deborah Spiroff, a design professor and Trunk Show coordinator.
“Our graduates tend to have a pretty good placement rate mainly because they’re slightly more mature,” said Spiroff. “What is taught and what is expected is really on a graduate level, but it’s an associate degree program because we’re still teaching basics, even though the amount of work and level of quality is really high.”