Two formats were used to present the work of Pratt’s graduating class this year. Thirty-three students participated in an exhibition, while another 30 sent their work down the runway. Before that happened, Nicholas Daley, a British menswear designer marking his first decade in business, was presented with the school’s Visionary Award by GQ’s Will Welch.
Fittingly, the show opened with menswear by Haeone Son, who animated staples like shirts and pants by using a dyeing method that took trompe l’oeil in a sophisticated new direction. Details like pockets and seams were created with precision, using a stitch resist technique that, he wrote, “introduces subtle, unpredictable variations” which “reflect a balance between control and improvisation throughout the making process.” Fittingly, Son pulled his palette from jazz album covers. Xinjun Lu also took inspiration from music; her clinical white collection featured thread stitching.
Softness was another through-line. It appeared in the collections of Ruoshui Wang, Yunru Huang, Phobe Mang, Kylei Casmire, and especially Griselda Peña Candelario, who “blended two types of fabrics that don’t really go together” as a sort of metaphor for the way she navigates her Mexican/American heritage. Similarly, Yalei Fang mixed elements of the Chinese qipao with ’90s New York vibes.
Moving on to subcultures, one of Georgia James’s starting points was Kibbo Kift, a co-ed group of people focused on nature and handicraft that formed in rural England in 1920. Inspired by their togs, James said she used rather simple shapes to make interesting silhouettes, and kept things “green” by using natural fibers and creating cyanotype prints. Christen Lee challenged fashion’s elitism by tapping into outsider art, while Joy Qiu’s I’m A Punk Bunny collection was meant to show the many facets a person can have, from cute to creepy.
From there it was not a leap to character dressing, which is how Jihae Heidi Du approached her collection, opening it with her interpretation of “Drama Yoshiko,” a female spy. In contrast, Xin Gu drew on his real-life experience with autistic individuals, and skewed silhouettes in unexpected ways as, he wrote, an act of “quiet resistance—making visible the often-unseen cost of being made to ‘fit in.’” Noah Luca Weisberg drew on his own middle school experience as a misfit to create a cast of characters that also appear in a supporting children’s book he created. Among the jock and the homecoming queen, Weisberg is represented by the kid wearing anti-pantsing shorts, i.e. shorts that are already pulled down, doing the work of bullies for them. “I wanted to bring this story to life and also just be humorous because I don’t think there’s enough [of that,]” he stated.