New York Fashion Week: The RCA Graduates of 2016

Amongst the brewing excitement of New York Fashion week, the stunning creations from graduates of the Royal College of Art were also showcased and admired on board of the Queen Mary 2 with the key RCA students parading their beautiful talent through innovative craftmanship.

RCA Graduates who participated

Niels Gundtoft Hansen
Niels grew up in Denmark skating the cold and wet streets of Copenhagen. With his final collection and design aesthetics his vision is to create the perfect balance between the raw edge and the romantic beauty of the city. The raw edge reflects the way the cold weather of Denmark affects how its inhabitants think and behave, which Niels’ collection intertwines with concepts inspired by the fairytale-like architecture of Copenhagen.

Niels was nominated to be a part of the prestigious ITS competition in Italy where he won the OTB award, winning an internship at Diesel of Margiela. Niels has recently had his own show during Copenhagen fashion week and is set to show his collection at Berlin fashion week later this year.

Stefanie Tschirky
Stefanie is originally from a small village called Heiligkreuz, in the eastern part of Switzerland, surrounded by beautiful mountains. In 2009 she moved to London for her Foundation Course at Central Saint Martins and the following year started her Bachelor in Womenswear at Kingston University, ultimately graduating in July 2016 from the Royal College of Art Lodnon.

Stefanie is currently working as a Freelance Fashion Designer/Artist and is just about to start working for a fashion brand in London. In the future she sees herself having her own design studio with interdisciplinary design and art work.

Laetitia Berthier
After achieving a Bachelors in Fashion Design at the University for the Creative Arts in Rochester, Laetitia completed a Masters degree at the Royal College of Art. Originally from France, it was extremely valuable for her to combine in her work both the eclectic and diverse influences explored during her studies as well as her French heritage.

Laetitia’s work was influenced by social codes, values and symbols of power within menswear across decades. Throughout the collection she intended to create trans-spacial and trans-generation clothing that could be part of multiple eras that portray a unique and contemporary identity.

Oksana Ani
Royal College of Art graduate Oksana took a shine to innovation and is merging fashion with innovative materials, science and technology. By collaborating with people that work in an array of disciplines, she became aware of the potential of technology and science to empower the fashion industry. Focusing on both technicality and aesthetics, Oksana aims to push her limits, experimenting until she is satisfied with her direction of design.

Oksana collaborated with MIT Media Lab on a ‘bioLogic’ project Lab where fashion was empowered by the living bacteria in order to create new transforming garments that become a second skin responding to body heat and perspiration. She is also working with Microsoft research on the new Autonomous Pixel project that challenges conventional notions of what constitutes a display that becomes a flexible fabric.

Sophie Schmidt
Sophie Schmidt grew up in a family of architects, in an environment where design had to be approached holistically with deep roots into Scandinavian values. Brought up in a Rudolf Steiner School where the curriculum were based on Anthroposophy - the meaning of life, the human body and soul - has inspired her when working with design in order to give it a human angle, a deeper meaning. She passed the Foundation year at Central Saint Martins and a Bachelor from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. In July 2016 she graduated from The Royal College of Art with a Masters in fashion Womenswear.

In the future Sophie wants to contribute with her original ideas and ways of working to make a difference and bring new initiatives to the fashion industry in Copenhagen, Denmark.