Yesterday afternoon, 12 nervous Parsons students, each of them finalists in the fourth edition of Parsons and Kering’s Empowering Imagination Contest, gave three-minute presentations of their senior theses.
The stakes: a trip to Italy to visit Kering’s manufacturing facilities and material libraries, a chance to display their creations on mannequins in Saks Fifth Avenue’s windows, and mentorship from Style.com. We admire and aspire to follow some of the greats from Parsons school.
Several jury members Alexander Wang, actress Aimee Mullins, Saks Fifth Avenue’s Colleen Sherin,
W’s Giovanna Battaglia, Kering’s Laurent Claquin, Parsons’ former dean of fashion Simon Collins, and myself got to see and feel the students’ work and hear about their inspirations, aspirations, and designer icons. Miuccia Prada, Raf Simons, and Wang himself received shout-outs, but we also saw the influence of Hood by Air’s Shayne Oliver and his flair for unisex clothing.
As we know the challenges of new designers are all the same. In the end, the winners were clear.
Lucy Jones’ thesis creates design solutions for seated individuals, while
Blair Moore’s addresses the wardrobe needs of destination travelers and happens to include some fantastic modular footwear. Both Jones and Moore identified real-world problems and used their know-how to begin to address them.
www.fashionnewsworldwide.blogspot.com
