Parsons MFA Spring 2027 Ready-to-Wear

The emotions and drama surrounding this New York Fashion Week seemed far away at the Parsons MA show, which was presented in the school’s cleared-out atelier, creating an authentic and homey environment for a stellar class of students. Fifteen graduate collections were presented on themes that were personal and political.

Starting things off was Elijah Turner, a menswear designer who was playing with the idea of “how you rebel against workplace dress.” One method, he said, was mixing casual and formal garments, another, he explained, was adding a comic element to the mix. One striking piece was as flat as the garments on view at Tom Sachs’s new “Chanel” store. “In the workplace, there’s this idea of having to sell yourself,” said Turner. That look is “kind of like a human billboard to sell yourself.”

From comedic elements the show continued to the cartoonish proportions of Cody Gallegos’s work, then sped up for Carolin Habermann’s zippy motocross-style performance looks. John Travolta’s Tony Manero from Saturday Night Fever danced around in Annette Levin’s imagination so much that she created a men’s collection although she studied womenswear. She was fascinated by the contrast between the femininity of the character and his machismo. There wasn’t a white disco suit in sight; the models, in flowing fabrics and headbands, had more of a glam rock vibe. “For my garment technique, I focus on taking aspects of womenswear and displacing them onto men’s bodies,” she wrote. “I worked with womenswear silhouettes using stretch fabrics to adapt the fit for men. In this way, femininity is not layered onto hyper masculine form as decoration, but built into its structure.”

Cilia Dahl, from Switzerland, took blended Victorian volumes with elements inspired by Tove Jansson’s Moomins for her charming collection. Melissa Rosales Parra came up with the fascinating idea of “border femininity” based on her study of photographers from her home town of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. She defines that as “the Disney princess ideal taken out of context.” “Ill fits,” she explains, are the methodology she uses to “explain this out of context ideal, a U.S. imported femininity.” She made magic with exposed underwires, plastic coating, and paper plastered on chamois.

We moved from methodology to mythology with Sabahat Javed, who made a collection using off-loom weaving. She rendered ravishing volumes, many inspired by the Mughal era, in black and white. “These garments are all inspired by these women who are often [described as] scary,” she said. “People are trying to tell us that these women are basically evil and there to hunt men, but I want to show them as these powerful, badass women trying to conquer the world.” Texture is also central to the work of Akylai Sydykova, who grew up in Kyrgyzstan. Her collection referenced the grandmothers who would sit and sew and gossip. The chenille bedspreads of her childhood informed some of the patterns of her beautiful garments. The designer said she merged her love of Soviet culture with that of Surrealism, which explains the outsized volumes of the clothes.

Closing out the catwalk was the work of Robinson Brown, who is named for the baseball legend Jackie Robinson, who was referenced in two of the designer’s four looks. The two others were inspired by Prince and President Barack Obama in his Internet-breaking tan suit. All of Brown’s characters are examples of Black excellence. As the designer put it, they are “pioneers of black culture in spaces that they’re not traditionally in.” Inspired by Virgil Abloh, Brown wants to open and expand the playing field “for the next generation of young black designers because I feel like there’s just so much talent in the world.” Indeed, and some of it was on view in this Parsons MA class.

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