NEW YORK, July 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The New School’s Parsons School of Design and PROJECT announces its 4th edition of "Next In Class", a juried selection of menswear and dual-gender designers who have recently graduated as a part of the MFA and BFA programs.

The program is designed to introduce directional new talent into the fashion retail marketplace to support their growth as designers.

Men’s Fashion Director of UBM Fashion, Tommy Fazio states, “We are always finding opportunities to leverage our platform to support the growth of new breaking talent. After having had four successful seasons under our belt, we are excited to welcome four innovative menswear designers into the ‘Next In Class’ program.”

Four designers will join the roster to present their SS’19 collections to luxury retailers, buyers, and e-commerce vendors, gaining exposure and insight into the wholesale marketplace.

"Parsons is proud of the four designers who have been selected to showcase their unique and innovative designs at PROJECT this year. These designers represent the future of the fashion industry, and I'm thrilled they are being given the opportunity to expand their brands," shares Burak Cakmak, Dean of Fashion. Designers within “Next in Class” will include:

  • NIHL | Neil Grotzinger’s NIHL Spring 2019 collection derives its inspiration from male figures throughout history that build their reputation out of a fictitious sense of supremacy. Through various textile manipulations, and couture embroidery techniques, this collection taps into a grey area that challenges what it means to be male. It explores qualities of borderline ephemerality and downright queerness, yet still maintains its reference to masculine culture.  
  • RU JIN TSAI | The main idea of this collection is making the invisible visible-reveals the documentation of manufacturing process of garments and shows the conflict between makers and wearers. By combining the menswear and women’s workwear of clothing factories in developing countries, each look stands for one of the five largest clothing exporting countries.  
  • ANNE LI | Anne’s SS’19 collection SANCT is a commentary towards bicultural confusion; a statement that it is okay to not completely fit into one culture or another, but that it is important to choose elements of each in order to create your own version of an identity.  
  • JEONGMIN CHO | One Being as Twins and Two Different Beings as Man and Woman. The collection is noted as genderless collection which focuses on blurring the boundaries between genders. The first attempt to approach the idea of genderless was made through her thesis collection based on life experience and curiosity in the relationship between her twin brother.

PROJECT New York runs from Sunday, July 22nd through Tuesday, July 24th at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

For more information please contact: Jesse Smiley at project@PRConsulting.net

About UBM Fashion | UBM Fashion is organized by UBM, which in June 2018 combined with Informa PLC to become a leading B2B information services group and the largest B2B events organizer in the world. To learn more and for the latest information visit www.ubm.com and www.informa.com.

About PROJECT | Held bi-annually in New York and Las Vegas, PROJECT is the world’s preeminent contemporary fashion trade event, encompassing men’s, women’s, accessories and footwear brands within PROJECT Vegas, PROJECT Women’s, THE TENTS, PROJECT New York and PROJECT SOLE New York. Bringing expertise and relevance to the global fashion industry through a highly merchandised approach, PROJECT creates destinations where innovation, commerce and service converge. For more information, please visit www.projectshow.com.