Parsons Fashion Show 2016: The Textile Artists

Today's Parsons School of Fashion Design show spotlight is on the masters of textile design. Ezra Xia was born and raised in Shenzhen, China, an area that excels in this area of production. She followed in her mother's footsteps of fashion design. Her collection for her thesis involved simple silhouettes, but highly graphic printed fabrics. The fabrics also had a trompe 'loeil effect. Individual motifs within her prints popped out in a 3D quilted effect. Unfortunately, it was a little tough to show that with the runway lighting.

Zuoyu Shi drew from a scientific muse for her graduate thesis. The beautiful prints are actually a result of studying coding, 3D modelling and surface design. Her approach to design is more calculated with the approach in fit and practicality. Her fabric prints have a mathematical look to them. Her collection also explored constructing his garments in a circular, modular system to lengthen their lifespan. As calculated as the backend design was, it takes nothing away at the aesthetic appeal of the final runway look.

all photos by Mariana Leung

It 's hard to ignore the overall influence of the tech world on fashion design. Ace Seongmin Kim took that influence literally in his collection. He likes to use his sense of humor and storytelling in his overall design aesthetic. His menswear incorporated various symbols of tech companies and recognizable Microsoft imagery as a motif in his textile designs. There were printed and beaded suits that incorporated punctation. There was a witty jacket that looked like it was created with overlapping leaves of post-it notes (reminiscent of the post-it war of Downtown NYC) with sporadic prints that look like Windows error messages.

Making your textile prints a signature part of your collection is very smart legally. As I am currently learning in my Fashion Law Institute class, up-and-coming fashion designers have very few protections for their work except to copyright two-dimensional art.

I'm not sure if the graduating fashion design class of Parsons The New School of Design had future legal proceedings in mind when they created their collections. Considering how savvy they all seem to be, I wouldn't be surprised that they have made it and many other decisions as part of their strategy.