Fashion: Fresh Faces in Fashion at NYFW

One of the most interesting events I attended during the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York was GenArt’s fashion event Fresh Faces in Fashion. Fresh Faces in Fashion is THE showcase for emerging fashion designers.

Every year the most promising new designers are chosen to be part of the show with their collections, and the event has brought to world’s attention some of the most exciting names in fashion today. Rodarte and Phillip Lim are among the hottest names in fashion today who both got started at Fresh Faces in Fashion, and showed their collections in this event and are now known worldwide.

This time the show featured six fantastic new designers. Danish Anne Sofie Madsen’s “S/S13 Cherrilee” collection was bold and very sci-fi inspired. I also recognized from her collection the inspiration from John Galliano and Alexander McQueen’s collections, Madsen used to work under these big names.

Two collections were my absolute favorites from the show. The first one was the by Gretchen Jonesin , the winner of the 8th season of Project Runway. Her collection “Any Day Now S/S 2013″ was filled with airy, light, luxurious and beautiful pieces one after another.

The Fresh Faces in Fashion also featured a Kenyan Katungulu Mwendwa, who was chosen as part of the GenArt Global program. GenArt Global takes promising designers around the world part of their program and promotes their careers. Katungulu Mwendwa’s collection “Journey of a Challenged Nomad pt 2″ was much more earthy and more ready to wear than the other collections in the show. The collection worked really nicely together with pieces that were cut well, made well and of high quality materials.

Amanda Lew Kee’s collection was probably the most what you would expect today. Jumpers, mesh-fabric combined with leather collars, printed bottoms and somewhat romantic yet very glam rock spirited dresses. All of the clothing in the collection was shown with biker boots giving it the perfect finishing touch. Very well done.

While the bold color trend has been going on for a while, or maybe because of it, it was the neutral colors in the collections that made the biggest impression on me. My other favorite collection besides Gretchen was Chloé comme Parris and her dreamy but very elegant S/S2013 collection. Stay tuned for a full post from this collection, but here are a few pictures as a sneak peek, isn’t it beautiful?

The sixth collection in the show was by COMEFORBREAKFAST, by a two men team, who also were the only men designers of the show, and appropriately they brought men’s apparel to the catwalk. The collection was sharp, yet relaxed, with a collection of shorts, baseball-type shirts, bomber jackets and geometric-shapes. Overall it was a thrill to see so many new styles and designers, and none of them disappointed.

Overall the Fresh Faces in Fashion event was unbelievably fantastic, and I was thrilled to be able to participate, it was one of my highlights of the Fashion Week. It’s rare to see so many talented upcoming designers, whom you know will be the next big names in fashion, at once.

Photos: Vivien Killilea /Getty Images
Photos 1, 2 ja 9 Nina Varis