Pratt's 2024 Student Fashion Show Honored Marni's Francesco Risso

08/05/2024

In the fast-paced world of fashion today, it seems surprising that anything could be 123 years old — but such is the case with Pratt Institute’s annual runway show, featuring work by those graduating from the school’s BFA Fashion Design program.

For its 123rd outing on Friday night, “The Show” presented everything from the thought-provoking and tongue-in-cheek, to the ultra-wearable and highly conceptual. All in, it proved to be a fascinating insight into how Gen Z is taking established ideas and spinning them on their head to better suit tomorrow.

The celebration of next-gen talent took place against the industrial backdrop of Powerhouse Arts in Brooklyn, where some 350 guests gathered as the sun set. It was a fittingly beautiful way for Pratt Fashion Chair Jennifer Minniti to sign off from her role after 13 years. Minniti is taking a “much-needed and well-deserved” sabbatical, she told the audience, before she returns to the classroom as an educator to oversee “the magic” that’s being prolifically created each year by the Institute’s stars in the making.

Said magic on display this time around brought together debut accessories and footwear collections by graduating designers Shayna Block, Sean McGiveney, Nyta Brace, Junxuan Guo, Jeff Guangxhou Cai, Lu Luyao Tang, Scott Junjie Wang, Zoe Knaack, Anna Felton, Lavender Naduo Luo, Madison Newcombe, Dayeon Jeong, Malek Rasmussen, Shuyan (Jane) Jin, Jen Sohyun Park, Eiligh Orff, Isabelle Shin, Zhouyi Wang, Brendan Sheerin and Emilio Pompetti. Echoing the protests taking place on campuses across the country en masse, many students who walked the runway arm-in-arm with their models for the finale wore Palestinian pins, badges and scarves.

Ahead of “The Show,” Marni Creative Director Francesco Risso visited the Pratt Fashion campus back in April to spend time with the class of 2024, offering mentorship, words of advice and encouragement to them as he reviewed some of their thesis collections. The Italian designer (whose recent work can be seen at the newly-unveiled Costume Institute exhibit from Friday) was also honored by the world-renowned design school with the 2024 Pratt Fashion Visionary Award.

Due to scheduling conflicts, he accepted his award virtually via a video message from Italy. Vogue’s fashion news director Mark Holgate took to the podium to deliver a speech about Risso’s significance and influence, recalling the first time they met in 2016, along with his boss Anna Wintour, when they paid him a studio visit. He remembered being fascinated to meet an animated designer who jumped energetically between stories, anecdotes and references. It was immediately obvious that “his Marni would be very different and very exciting, and I was intrigued to see where it would go,” Holgate said. “Seven years later, I’m constantly in awe of his fearlessness, his audaciousness. He sees [Marni] as a playground for experimentation, and he doesn’t do things in a conventional way.”

The longtime editor also spoke of his admiration for how Risso champions collaboration — something the designer had urged the Pratt students to do too during his visit. “Francesco is someone who’s very centered in his work, but it’s not about his ego, it’s not about being a star,” Holgate remarked. “The fashion industry, as we know, loves its stars and it loves a hierarchy, for better or for worse, and here’s somebody, to me, [who] is always about his work in relationship to other people, which I think is an incredibly valuable lesson for us all to think about in our daily work and practice.”

See each collection from Pratt’s 2024 student fashion show — including that by Pompetti, who was announced as this year’s recipient of the Christopher Hunte “On Point” Award, which includes a major early career boost in the form of a $10,000 cash prize — below.