This year’s graduating MFA class started their program in 2021. Unlike other cohorts, these students returned to “everyday life” right after lockdown, which Interim Dean of FIT’s School of Graduate Studies, Brooke Carlson believes influenced their support for each other. The theme for this season was the word UNI/VERSAL, to represent each of the students’ different personalities and their ability to be cohesive.
Skin and geometric shapes were among the consistent themes in the collections this season, including Lilach Porges’s offering. Her minidresses were structural thanks to 3D printing, and she showed hints of skin through patchwork pieces. Student Deborah Won engineered her garments to enhance movement in zero gravity. Meanwhile, Morgan Cardwell created dimension by layering pieces of fabric to create a bulkier shape. Kuai Li used sheer geometric face coverings on models to create space between the wearer and the outside world.
Kaylie Haueisen and Youna Jin also explored genderless clothing. Haueisen, who primarily works with upcycled garments and accessories, wanted to question toxic views on gender through her collection. Jin wanted to find the perfect intersection of gender norms and wanted to highlight the body. Her pieces included deep, revealing cutouts on skin-tight pieces, and she utilized cylindrical shapes for some added dimension and structure.
Students also explored themes relayed to their backgrounds in their collections. Anthony Oyer, Catherine Tang, Luna Zining Ye, and Valeria Watson incorporated ideas that related to growing up in the American Midwest, China, and Mexico. Others used their interests as inspiration. Yitong Liu merged her fondness for athletic wear with formal wear. As for Vasundhra Dhamija, whose interests include geometry, math, and energy fields, she used 3D shapes to bring her vision to life. Xinyue Maggie Tao explored how a woman facing the end of the world would wear her clothes. She left her pieces slightly wrinkled, with intentionally deconstructed ball gowns and loosely draped shoulders.
Tom Zhendong Wen, who described himself as a “socially conscious designer,” wanted to create a collection to capture the spirit of the people who would wear it. One was Carlson, who commissioned Look 79 for herself: She wore it with the back zipper facing the front. “Wearing Tom’s outfit changes the way I feel,” she said. “Something about it makes me feel different, special, and unique. And one of the themes I saw from this year’s class was that clothing can change how anyone else feels.”
