Fashion Design MFA Showcase 2024
Play the Runway Show (aired on September 10)
FIT’s MFA in Fashion Design program students conduct rigorous research that culminates in creating eight-look collections, thesis papers and presentations, videos, lookbooks, brand business plans, and portfolios. Graduates leave the program prepared to make a positive impact as industry professionals by working within existing fashion companies or launching their own brands.
The Fashion Design MFA 2024 graduating class presented their thesis collections in a runway show on September 10.
Designers' Statement:
Welcome to the culmination of our journey, BEYOND, where FIT Fashion Design MFA students from diverse backgrounds and cultures converge to redefine boundaries and celebrate unity in diversity. BEYOND explores the limitless possibilities where creativity knows no borders. Drawing inspiration from our unique heritages, each garment transcends traditional norms, embracing fluidity in silhouette, texture, and identity. Our collections are testament to the richness of our individual stories, woven together into a tapestry of innovation and inclusivity. We invite you to experience fashion that speaks a universal language of beauty and resilience — from the vibrant hues of South Asian embroidery to the minimalist elegance of Scandinavian lines — where every stitch tells a story of courage, heritage, and the boundless spirit of creativity that unites us all.
— FIT Fashion Design MFA Class of 2024
The Graduates
Ashleen Tuteja
Indian-born designer, Ashleen Tuteja, holds a BFA from the National Institute of Technology and an MFA in fashion design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her work, which seamlessly blends conceptual art, monolithic structures, and technical functionality, is rooted in the values of progress, empathy, social responsibility, and innovation. Passionate about menswear, she believes in the equation: Design + Form + Emotion = Good Design. Her creations center around human emotions, emphasizing core principles to evoke meaningful connections through fashion.
The “Wheels of Honour” collection is a creative journey that pays homage to the distinctive culture of the Indian truck-driver community. The collection’s designer grew up in a family that owned a trucking company in India, and she drew from that experience to create garments that fuse practicality, safety, and style while also addressing the unique needs of the trucker. The pieces–with their truck-inspired colors, fabrics, and silhouettes–are more than just clothing. They are a bold, wearable tribute to the unsung heroes of the road.
Brunela Ramirez
Brunela Ramirez is a Peruvian multidisciplinary artist and fashion designer who incorporates digital design, technology, and sustainability to generate new alternatives in construction, printing, and textile making. She uses her work to explore her curiosity about life’s mysteries, humanity, and gender expression. Ramirez makes research an integral part of her creative process and draws on references such as philosophy, film, and visual media. Her interest in unconventional aesthetics and art influences and defines her work.
"Collection 0" is centered around interpretation—merging art, philosophy, and observation to explore individual growth. The designer crafted this collection with the goal of visually interpreting various ways that humans are shaped by their experiences, the environments they inhabit, and the individuals in their lives. Inspired by film and photography, Ramirez employed digital design as a tool, resulting in garments that visually represent the ongoing evolution of each individual.
Bryan Barrientos
Bryan Barrientos is a Peruvian American designer who is redefining modern evening wear by challenging conventional barriers while also focusing on couture techniques and celebrating individuality. His brand is inspired by history yet offers a contemporary aesthetic for the modern woman. Barrientos earned his BFA and MFA from the Fashion Institute of Technology and has received industry recognition from Supima. His work has been featured in various prestigious editorials including Harper’s Bazaar.
Barriento’s mother, Juana, a Peruvian immigrant, illegally crossed the Mexican border into the United States at the age of 18. Her untold story is particularly relevant at this time in history. Her sacrifices, which include leaving behind her lifelong home and risking her life, were made in hope of a brighter future. This collection narrates the journey of migration, portraying the experience via shapes, techniques, textiles, and silhouettes.
Cindy Qianqian Dong
As a passionate and innovative fashion designer, I merge art with style to craft distinctive pieces. Inspired by nature, culture, and human emotion, my designs express a profound appreciation for life’s beauty. Through meticulous craftsmanship and my unique design language, I create fashion that resonates with the wearer and empowers them with confidence. To push fashion boundaries and embrace innovation, I frequently integrate cutting-edge technology into my creative process, resulting in visually stunning designs. I am also expanding the possible uses for 3D printing in my work. I earned my BFA in fashion design from Savannah College of Art and Design and my MFA at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
I am entranced by water’s dance and its intimate interplay with the world. Its fluidity and adaptability are constant sources of inspiration. With each encounter, I am compelled to capture these fleeting moments, to immortalize their beauty in wearable art. Through my collection, I seek to weave together the essence of water with the human form, forging a symbiotic bond and a new perspective, one that challenges the conventional boundaries between water and couture.
Eunhae Cho
Eunhae Cho is a Korean designer who was raised in a multicultural environment across Korea, Canada, and the United States. Passionate about community enrichment, Cho is committed to nurturing diversity, inclusion, and cultural heritage and to creating meaningful connections through design. Through her work she celebrates individual stories and personal histories within her community. Cho’s professional experiences and honors include a Volvo x CFDA collaboration and Swarovski sponsorship, and in 2023, she was selected as a CFDA Geoffrey Beene scholarship finalist. Cho has worked with Gucci, Ashlyn, and R13, and she is proficient in research, illustration, patternmaking, and sewing, with additional expertise in jewelry crafting.
This collection is inspired by fossils: born of nature and formed uniquely over time, their appearance offers clues to their provenance and history. I translated this theme into garments via modularity, which represents the idea that no two people wear a garment in the same way, just like nature crafts no two stones alike. The pieces in this collection invite the wearer to interact with the garment’s seams and cuts via buttoned closures, allowing each individual to modify the piece into a shape that is uniquely their own. And with the connected panels, each individual wearer can craft a layered story—their own memory fossil. The buildable, interchangeable garments in my collection allow the wearer to live artfully through the everyday act of getting dressed, tapping memory and experience to give us a peek into their ever-changing inner life.
Jiajie Xu
In my perspective, pragmatism holds a pivotal role in the realm of design. A commendable design should be firmly grounded in practical, real-world utility while simultaneously possessing the ability to break free from existing constraints. As a designer, my inclination leans toward working predominantly with tangible materials as my initial point of focus. I draw my creative inspiration largely from palpable, physical aspects of the world, highlighting the significance of sensory experiences and tactile interactions in informing my design endeavors.
My thesis collection "Phantom Limb" draws inspiration from the concept of metamorphosis, where the environment changes and prompts a profound transformation. Just as organisms and bodies adapt to new surroundings, my designs adapt and mirror the resilience found in nature’s processes. This collection explores the intriguing connection between the natural world and our bodies. Blurring the boundaries between species allowed me to create clothing that mimics the regenerative abilities of our bodies, seamlessly fusing the realms of fashion and science to craft a truly transformative experience.
Natalia Robles Oteíza
Natalia Robles Oteíza is a Chilean fashion designer who focuses on sustainability, technology, and storytelling through design. Natalia has worked across various areas of fashion and textile design, ranging from hypoallergenic children’s wear to highly technical uniforms for female automotive technicians. In her personal work as a designer, she is focused on combining zero- waste patternmaking techniques with 3D modeling and printing technology.
"Tessellated Resistance" was inspired by Chile’s long tradition of social resistance through art and craft. As a way to visually represent the unity and combined strength of ordinary people acting together, the collection uses geometric tessellations to create zero-waste garments. These tessellations are found everywhere in nature, from the micro level of our skin cells to the macro level of land-erosion patterns. They are a testament to our intrinsic connection to our environment and to each other.
Qi Yun
Qi Yun is a fashion designer from Beijing based in New York. She studied fashion design for six years at the Fashion Institute of Technology. By integrating her cultural background and her understanding of fashion design, Qi’s designs tell unique stories and create a cultural tapestry that transcends borders, showcasing the beauty of cultural synthesis.
In the context of this thesis collection, Chinese calligraphy and its meticulously imperfect strokes act as a basis for the textile motifs and manipulations, the asymmetric shapes, and the raw finishing. These details weave together the elegance of traditional Eastern craft with contemporary silhouettes, bridging the cultural gap of East meets West.
Talia Abbe
Talia Abbe, a native of New York, earned her Bachelor of Science degree in textile and fashion design with a certificate in entrepreneurship from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She then pursued a Master of Fine Arts degree in Fashion Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Abbe’s personal struggles with mental health inspired her to make a positive impact on others facing similar challenges. Her work centers around creating an inclusive and welcoming environment. While cognitive abstraction influences her prints, her voluminous designs and vibrant color palettes exude childlike playfulness.
"Bubble Wrap" explores the positive and negative stimuli of an environment and how that affects an individual’s mental health. Cartoonlike shapes and neon colors derived from brain scans reflect the juxtaposed highs and lows of a manic episode. Areas where stressors affect the body are symbolically mapped with latex. Tight tailoring and bubble shapes coexist in a garment, much like the smothering nature of anxiety—the way it builds up and releases. This collection’s hyperbolic visuals seek to destigmatize mental health through humor and playfulness.
Urvi Selarka
Urvi Selarka is an Indian women’s wear designer. All her creations are a kaleidoscope of sensorial experiences. She is a 3D artist who fuses the worlds of art and fashion. Her work heavily involves innovative patternmaking and technical draping. And with their unconventional materials, Selarka’s designs take you on a journey through her creative universe.
NEBULA embodies the essence of distilled fluidity. The collection is a testament to the harmonious coexistence of sacred geometry and fluid lines. It represents a delicate balance between the structured and the fluid, offering a unique perspective on the beauty found in our world’s duality.
Yixuan Apple Zhao
Yixuan (Apple) Zhao wants to change the fashion industry to be more inclusive. Originally from Harbin, China, she has studied in North America since age 14, and her creative work combines all the cultures she has experienced and her fascination with fashion. With their emphasis on size, gender, and cultural inclusivity, her designs help others discover new identities.
"Seika" raises awareness of the drag community from a fashion design standpoint. The collection is a tribute to alter egos and fantasies. It embodies the spirit of drag performances, as well as the punk movement, the lowbrow, aestheticism, and body hair. Seika pushes the limit of societal norms and gender expression with clothing that can be worn by anyone.
Yixuan Nie
As a designer from Beijing, China, Yixuan Nie draws inspiration from her hometown. In her design, you can see many traditional Chinese elements integrated into modern clothing through printing, flocking, and handcrafted sculptures. She hopes to use the beauty of silhouette to convey what she has seen in everyday life on Beijing’s old streets. She deeply loves the joy that colors bring, so in her work, vivid colors reflect her sense of a relaxed atmosphere, presenting a contemporary China that combines modernity and tradition.
In this thesis, "YAN XIA", Yixuan Nie has gathered different character images and everyday scenes from her personal photography to create vignettes that show the day-to-day lifestyle, aesthetics, and social norms of people in Beijing and also to depict the ways that past and present collide on a Beijing street. Images of objects and street interactions juxtapose ancient Chinese traditional culture and contemporary Beijing. These images were translated into prints and seaming details that highlight the often overlooked yet precious details of ordinary reality in China today. Yan Xia offers an alternate, personal, and novel image of contemporary China that contrasts the stereotypical Western focus on its archaic roots.
Yoon Seo Lee
Yoon Seo Lee, a South Korean streetwear designer, finds inspiration in the overlooked details of everyday life and in the things that happen behind the scenes. She aims to uncover hidden narratives and spark connections through clothing. Her designs blend contrasting elements, embodying duality, and her innovative approach integrates 3D printing into garments and accessories, pushing the boundaries of creativity and craftsmanship.
Yoon Seo Lee’s collection "Smuggler" draws inspiration from individualistic approaches to packing luggage, highlighting the diverse methods people use to organize their belongings. Inspired by her own childhood experiences of hiding personal items (like her pet lizard) from her parents during travel and intrigued by the tactics that smugglers employ, she incorporates elements of concealment into her garments and prints, while exploring personal narratives and clandestine motifs.
Ziling Dong
Ziling Dong is a women’s wear designer whose specialty is finding harmony in contrast and conflict. Delicate insight often leads her into contradictory thoughts, prompting her to strive for a balance between reason and sensibility. Stylistically, she is influenced by the orderliness and fluidity of industrial aesthetics. Through exquisite and structured fabric, a minimalist silhouette, and the flowing divide, a feminine image of hardness and tenderness is created.
My thesis collection explores women’s slow fashion, focusing on woven materials, flowing structures, elegance, and comfort. The inspiration includes body meridians, anatomy, and creative woven furniture. In a harmonious way, the collection expresses the contrasting beauties of body science, furniture design, and industrial aesthetics. Through a combination of softness and firmness, structural silhouettes, and geometric fluidity, "Harmonious Collision" shows women’s wisdom and grace.
Sponsors
Thank you for the generous support from our sponsors:
