September 11th, 2021 (New York City) — Fashion is an industry where new points of view are celebrated. On the evening of Saturday, September 11th, fashion had 9 new reasons to celebrate when Albright College made its NYFW debut during the 9 Collections Fashion Show. Every designer shown had two things in common none had previously shown during NYFW before & all of them have graduated or are current students of the venerable fashion program based on the Albright College campus in Reading, PA.
Found in the collections of the 7 recent graduates & 2 current students shown on the Albright runway, was a wide range of collections ranging from Rose, a modern, graphic luxe swimwear collection by Josh Polk, to an equally at home by the sea contemporary collection by Jess DAlessio entitled Tul Resort Wear inspired by the beaches of the Mexican Resort town of Tulum, & even a resort collection that would prove more at home on the streets than on the beach, Whispering Wings, by recent graduate Luisana Batista.
Designer Josh Polk and model
Designer Jess DAlessio and a model
Designer Luisana Batista and model
Several collections were more conceptual than not like Versailles XVI by Stephanie Vargas Hemmings who channeled the extravagance of French maximalist design & mixed it with her Puerto Rican cultural eye, as well as the architecture inspired collection by Mandy Boandl who cited modern birds nest architecture & the Eiffel Tower as her design touch points. The minimal side of conceptual was being explored by Kaleb Murdock, whose collection, entitled Dissolved Girl sat at the crossroads of music, break-ups, & rust, of all things. Rounding out the conceptual section of the show was a collection by recent graduate Ashley Hillegass, that was born from the growth of the Agricus Bisporus mushroom.