ChickSpeak

For up and coming fashion graduates, there is always stress and pressure to get a job in an industry that is notoriously hard to edge your way into. In an effort to hopefully relieve some of the stress, I investigated a selection of recent graduates within the fashion community from London and New York to see where they have ended up. The small selection that I have chosen were among the best in their classes and have had a wide range of experiences. 

The first graduate examples are from Central St. Martins, the London equivalent to Parsons in New York. St. Martins boasts famous alumni such as Christopher Kane, Paul Smith and Alexander McQueen. This prestigious university is located in Central London and fosters creativity and new concepts. Every year, the St. Martins fashion show displays the university’s finest talent: innovators, creators and designers that usually become very influential within the fashion scene.  

Alithia Spuri-Zampetti

The first of these young talents is Alithia Spuri-Zampetti. Influenced by the differences between Western and Japanese cultures, Alithia’s 2008 final collection combined striking contrasts between black and white colors as well as a draped dresses and very structured headdresses. The very structured headdresses grew from flower decorations on her dresses to small headdresses to headdresses that swallowed the models faces. They looked striking, geometric and innovative. According to an interview with Alithia following her graduation, she was headed to Valentino to begin a job. 

Kinga Malisz

Kinga Malisz is another fresh face that joined the fashion community from St. Martins in 2008. Kinga’s final collection portrayed an amazing array of tan bodycon dresses with manipulated tulle sewn on the top in various patterns and styles. Seen together, the entire collection displayed an amazing amount of creativity and fashion genius, as the same under shape was used with various tulle toppings.  Since graduating, Kinga was featured in the April 2009 Design Overtime- Eureka Night at the Design Museum in London. This exhibition featured new, innovative designers such as Kinga who was featured for originality in fabric manipulation. 

Felipe Rojas

Last but certainly not least, Felipe Rojas- Llanos is a very up and coming menswear designer. Rooting from Sweden but residing in London, Felipe also attended Central St. Martins. After a very inspiring collection entitled “Little Prince goes to Opera,” Felipe won a shared prize of best portfolio of the year rewarded from an esteemed London design agency. In November 2008, Felipe pursued his masters degree at St. Martins and was chosen out of 10 designers internationally to show a collection at Brussels fashion weekend. His collections have also been featured in fashion magazines such as Ponytail and Wallpaper. Felipe currently works as a freelance designer and maintains his own website. 

There are also many recent American graduates who have completed their education with great potential in the horizon. These include fashion photographer Jemma Evans. As a 2009 graduate from Parsons in New York City, Jemma has interned for Cosmopolitan and Gut magazine. She currently is pursuing her career in photography in the city and maintains her own website which has an impressive range of work.  

Tied for Parsons womenswear designers of the year in 2009, Julia Blum created a beautiful collection heavily inspired by lingerie and corsetry. Judged by a panel of A list judges, Ms Blum’s collection stood out because of her exquisite attention to the silhouette. This type of detail is particularly influenced by her fashion favorites: Christian Dior and John Galliano. As for future plans, following her graduation Julia was still available for hire and looked forward to gaining more experience in the industry. 

Though there is quite a lot of pressure within the industry to get a job, it is quite evident through these students that there are many options. As their decisions ranged from gaining more experience, working for a designer, pursuing their own work or acting as a freelancer, this writer is certain that they will all be very successful. 

Emily Olivieri is currently studying fashion design and loves finding out about new talent and budding designers.