“There wasn’t a theme for senior students to respond to; it is all about their individual voices.” So said Gwen van den Eijnde, associate professor and apparel design department head at RISD, about the class of 2024’s final projects. Freedoms aside, a good number of the students’ thesis statements revealed they are both sensitive to the chaos in the world and resistant to authority.
Gene Suh thrives on disorder; his deconstructed work retains a kinetic energy. Abandoning restraint, Hasti Hosseini crafts ivory knits that reveal the body, while Ace Yin looks back at her conservative religious upbringing through a soft-focus lens in an attempt to turn grief to joy in order. “A crucifix blurred is a star,” she writes.
The line between “the monastic and masochistic” is the preoccupation of Abraham Hsu, who titled his all-black collection cults cults cults. The restraint of his soft shadowy dress was contrasted by the surprise wantonness of another number that, when the model turned, revealed her back and backside through belt straps. Glory Lee’s gentle exploration of corporate garb, meanwhile, is more SFW.
Anya Norstrom leans into the glitch, via clothes designed with the aid of technology that nonetheless retain a sense of hand, especially a crushed dress in bright pink. Like Nordstrom, Sue Sima uses the CLO program, which enables 3D design. Her own pole dancing informs an armor-inspired collection with futuristic touches.
In the sci-fi story Sofia Zhuk-Vasily.
