The Future of Fashion Critic Awards are given each year by the industry mentors who work alongside students in their final semester of study. Each critic is a leader in one of our areas of specialization, and many are alumni of FIT’s Fashion Design program. Work selected by the critics is considered the best of the best.
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Explore All Student Portfolios
Children’s Wear
Guziyu (Tiffany) Yan
Awarded by Halla Elias
In nature, nothing can escape the life cycle. Life will end, but with the end comes new birth. Time may leave marks on the surface of every object in nature, but the inner remains original forever. Just as a tree would eventually wither and rot, new flowers would bloom from it one day.
Intimate Apparel
Devin Olguin
Awarded by Flora Backer
My thesis project is inspired by the fantasy of a high-end woman living in a luxury 60th-story apartment in Manhattan. From that perspective, the dirty, hectic city appears beautiful and glamorous, with all of the city lights shimmering like diamond embellishments in the night sky.
Knitwear
Claire Greidanus
Awarded by Jason David Mahler
In the Absence of a Body is influenced by introspective thoughts and the process of coming to terms with one’s self. Drawing inspiration from organic matter, thought, and movement, this collection is a joyful reference to self-awareness and intuition. This is translated through the play of volume and negative space, with the aim of distorting the body in unconventional ways. Tone-on-tone colors are further used to emphasize proportion, texture, and silhouette.
Amy Eisenstein
Awarded by Stacey Tester
Human/Nature is inspired by our connection to nature and other people, combining influences from woodblock stamps by William Morris and the physical act of being interlocked/twisted.
Special Occasion
Yawen Chen
Awarded by Andrea Pitter
Walking out of a classical Romanticism oil painting, the concept is focused on grasping the shape of the flowers and sealing it eternally. The elegance and color serves as a wistful symbol of the beauty of nature. The mood of my thesis is extreme Romanticism with pink. Recreating the shape of a flower gives life to a still-life object. Elegance and feminine beauty is pushed to the extreme.
Jiawen Hou
Awarded by Keith Lissner
In this collection, I was inspired by the feelings of alienation, avoidance, and deception in an intimate relationship. People always tend to focus on their sensory experience, and they tend to ignore the emotional connection. We can receive and transmit information through our senses, meanwhile, it can also disguise our true feelings. Real love is like an invisible pull to connect to each other. It is destined, not triggered by our five senses.
Sportswear
Allison Ko
Awarded by Mary Ping
Inspired by my lifelong love of skiing, this collection references mountain textures, technical skiwear, and the array of emotions felt. Mid and base layer fabrications are brought to the forefront and combined with upcycled outerwear performance pieces. Details that enhance the wearer’s experience add functionality to dramatic and oversized silhouettes. Two different ski resorts are focused on with their unique qualities and specific associated memories highlighted.
Monica Palucci
Awarded by Danielle Elsener
This project is a practice in and exploration of mindful recreation and re-creation as mutually inclusive, inspired by personal narratives and the progression of my relationship to the natural world, beginning with childhood. I juxtapose elements of technical design with traditional techniques and vintage materials to create in a way that considers reciprocity with nature and mirrors the way I benefit from and interact with it while questioning how we narrowly represent this interaction.
Shahira Shokrat
Awarded by Jeffrey Dodd
Alone with Memories explores the concept of fading memories. When there are people and places you love but cannot go see in person anymore, the only way to remember them is through your memory.Single-panel and zero-waste patternmaking are developed into various pieces to achieve a less-waste production process. The embellishments and the silhouette are inspired by traditional Uyghur atlas textiles and my childhood memories, which are traced back by drawing and experimenting with color.
Karisma Hishkawa
Awarded by Jacky Marshall
L I G E I A takes inspiration from a gothic romance short story of the same name, written by Edgar Allen Poe. The collection draws comparisons between the character Ligeia and our planet Earth, both being wrapped and buried in cloth upon death. The clothing is maximalist and entirely upcycled in nature, emphasizing and bringing attention to the amount of fabric and garment waste we have on this planet, as well as providing a practice to reduce such excess.
Yuna Seki
Awarded by Kimberly Gordon
In Japan‚ informed by Shinto beliefs around notions of animism‚ soul (reikon) lives within all existence and phenomena. This connection between the natural and spiritual worlds creates a complex understanding and respect for the everyday. This continuity with life, death, and afterlife teaches us about the supernatural in our everyday lives: how to better understand one another, the environment around us, and perhaps even to comprehend the incomprehensible.
Marie Louise Kurrer
Awarded by Sally LaPointe
Inspired by my childhood memories of playing dress up and doing outdoor sports, this collection is about the mix between dreaming of a fantasy and wanting to explore nature. Contrasting feminine princess-like silhouettes with elements of weatherproof sportswear, it expresses the feeling of dressing up and fantasizing about fairytales while still being protected from the weather. The collection expresses a childlike playfulness and captures the feelings of freedom, magic, and exploration.
