Two 2023 Fashion Design MFA graduates—Lilach Porges and Zining Ye—have been named winners in the 2023 Global Design Graduate Show in the category of Fashion, Accessories and Textiles. The competition results, presented by ARTSTHREAD in collaboration with Gucci, were presented on October 25.
Porges was the winner in the category of Sustainable Fashion/Textiles with her collection called “Dress_Code,” which focuses on the intersection between technology and fashion. It combines looks that were 3D printed by a robotic arm through three methods: Random, Accurate, and Large-Scale with sustainable materials. Inspired by software engineering, the collection explores the aesthetics of the abilities and limitations of this technology. The thesis compares traditional methods, such as pattern-making and fabric sewing, to 3D printing by hand and by a robot, in which software becomes art and is translated into wearable objects.
Ye was named the winner in the category of Formal/Couture with her collection called “Fancy Inside.” Of this work, Ye said: “In Asian culture, restraint is a central theme. I began my collection from my curiosity about my grandmother’s generation and the social-cultural constructs of her era. Despite external suppression of individualism during that era, internal expression and freedom persisted. My collection, ‘Fancy Inside’ seeks to represent the friction of internal and external worlds by playing with the juxtaposition of fluidity and rigidity in form and textile and mixing traditional Eastern crafts with modern materials.”