Image via Complex Original
Parsons School of Design in New York is consistently ranked among the top fashion design schools in the world. Industry website Business of Fashion recently placed it as the eighth best program for fashion design globally, which makes sense, since a Parsons alumni directory would read like the receipt from a very expensive Barneys shopping spree—Tom Ford, Marc Jacobs, and Alexander Wang have all walked the school's halls. So, when the institution stages its regular runway show during New York Fashion Week featuring the work of MFA students (as it did earlier this week), it's an ideal place to scout for the next big name in style. We caught up with this season's four menswear designers from Parsons' MFA program to learn more about what they hope to bring to your closets sometime soon.
Jahnkoy
Age: 28
Hometown: Novosibirsk, Russia
Description of Collection: The Displaced: Due to social and economic pressures, diverse cultures of the world are slowly disappearing. New generations are raised into a consumer culture that grows distant of ancestral knowledge and see ethnic dress as worthless and obsolete. Communities and countries with a rich heritage of craftsmanship are now flooded with counterfeits of famous brands and “donations” of secondhand fast fashion clothing from the West. By using secondhand sportswear as the primary material of the collection, “The Displaced” emphasizes that the very symbols of fast fashion can be reworked towards the reconstruction of the values and identities broken by globalization.
Design Inspiration: Observation of everyday life, history, and inner voice.
Muse: Fela Kuti
Favorite Designer: John Galliano
Most Inspiring Thing About New York: The people
Goal After Graduation: Launch my label, collaborate with Puma, have an exhibition, work with artisans, and revive traditional craftsmanship worldwide.
Gahee Lim
Age: 27
Hometown: South Korea
Description of collection: Love child between traditional tailoring technique and layers of colorful tulle fabric. The construction of the suit is the same throughout, but each look is made of different color combinations and tulle, which creates variety in shape and feeling. Because of the characteristic of tulle, every detail had to be engineered to create the shape of each suit.
Design Inspiration: Gender blending in society now. It was visualized by combining two contrasting metaphors: tailored suits and tulle fabric as the representation of masculinity and femininity. Also, layering different colors that are stereotypically associated with masculine or feminine characteristics depicts how people are freer to embrace both tough (masculine) and soft (feminine) sides now.
Muse: Georgia O' Keeffe
Favorite Designers: Martin Margiela, Raf Simons, Massimo Osti
Dream Client: Kristen McMenamy, Bjork
Most Inspiring Thing About New York: Not knowing who's around the corner.
Goal After Graduation: I have a few projects starting with like-minded mates. Also, a freelance job and internship; I want to explore for a bit.
Kozaburo Akasaka
Age: 31
Hometown: Tokyo, Japan
Description of Collection: Brut-Sensitivity: The starting point of this collection was an image of a broken porcelain vessel mended by staples called Bakouhan. As the story tells, the aesthetic of Bakouhan was created when a warlord in Japan found a crack on his favorite tea bowl and ordered it to be replaced with a replica. When another bowl of identical quality couldn't be found, the original bowl was returned to him with the crack fixed with staples. The warlord found beauty in the fixed bowl, which he cherished. I found this story resonating with my personal aesthetic sensibility and felt compelled to interpret this concept.
Design Inspiration: The story of Bakouhan, the idea of Mottainai [a Japanese term for regret about waste], visual references of Kintsugi [a Japanese technique of repairing ceramics using gold], and crust punk.
Muse: Secret
Favorite Designer: Carol Christian Poell
Dream Client: Neil Young
Most Inspiring Thing About New York: History
Goal After Graduation: Being an independent designer.
Ran Bi
Age: 29
Hometown: China
Description of Collection: My collection is about garment's re-changeable components. For example, how sleeves can be applied to multiple types of garment to get a new look. I start developing my pieces library to make the versatility elegant, but not sporty. I want to make a difference, since there seems to be so much sport reference around. I consider the shapes when they are not attached. Fragments hold their own beauty as well as when they’re joined in the sum total.
Design Inspiration: I used to be curious about engineering stuff when I was a kid. I took things apart and put them back and changed some units to make them in function differently. I take the idea to my work and found if a garment can be taken apart, and then can't be put back together, they can be attached on another garment.
Muse: I kind of like the movie Interstellar.
Favorite Designers: Massimo Osti, ARC’TERYX VEILANCE
Dream Client: Someone who likes my stuff.
Most Inspiring Thing About New York: A lot of different people.
Goal After Graduation: I kind want do my own label, but also want to go to a brand like ARC'TERYX VEILANCE, Nike, or Stone Island.
