NYFW – The Art Institutes A/W 2014 showcase

The runway lit up with 12 brand new designers from The Art Institutes this week. In capsule collections of six looks for each designer, there was a broad range of talent and innovation. These 12 students come from all over the country: San Francisco, New York, Portland, Philadelphia and overseas. There was an incredible amount of energy for this show; the “too cool for facial expressions” attitude of New York Fashion Week was temporarily abandoned as these designers showed off their ideas.

Some were more tamed than others. The womenswear collections felt a bit more theme-y, if you will, while the men’s felt more of the moment. Christopher Maracha’s menswear collection in particular was the most successful by combining typical hoodies and pants with delicate, sheer mesh fabric and sturdy leather. Each womenswear designer seemed to have a successful, to-die-for piece out of the six looks: a long, magenta silk cape (Joshuan Aponte), a black lace gown (Gustavo Alonso), and a flared, fur skirt (Rie Yamamoto) among them.

While these collections were not the most innovative, high fashions, they most certainly show potential for some great thinkers and future designers.

Katie George