It’s new generation! The Supima Design Competition returned to Manhattan for its annual runway showcase, featuring the work of six incredible graduate designers. Each utilized Supima fabrics within unique five-piece capsule collections, with guidance by host Phillip Lim and mentor Bibhu Mohapatra. Following an insider-filled judging panel, the group presented their designs to the public for the chance to win a $10,000 grant to kickstart their careers. Below, we got the inside scoop from this year’s creatives on their inspirations, new techniques, and more!
Emma Joan Foley, The New School, Parsons School of Design
When designing with Supima fabrics, did you use a new technique or skill you hadn’t explored before?
I work a lot with leather outside of this. That was the one thing I was trying to figure out how I wanted to incorporate. Every look is the five fabrics that we had to work with, and I had developed different coatings for each of them to mimic leather and different paneling of the garments. That was new for me and all new developments for all the fabrics. I feel a lot more comfortable working across cotton now.
What inspired or influenced your collection?
The collection is titled “Orifice,” and it centers around body schema and fashion in the psyche. So, thinking about how our mental perceptions of our own forms will reflect shapes and silhouettes. I looked at historical silhouettes—like 15th, 16th century—to inform spots of extreme tightness and volume to form the shapes. and then looking at the grotesque form in modern art, to inform the color palette.
Why did you enroll in the Supima Design Competition?
I was wanting to work with cotton, but the scale of my thesis at Parsons, the scale of my garments, ended up being out of budget for the cotton fabrics I wanted to use. My professor suggested maybe looking at Supima. They knew my shapes and how I constructed things, and when I learned about it, I wanted to apply.
Emma Joan Foley’s capsule at the 2024 Supima Design Competition.
Jules Gourley, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
What inspired or influenced your collection?
I continue to work with the body and architecture for this. It was inspired by Gothic architectures and the arches and the spires that come through it. Then, melding that with the body, trying to create an authority of presence through the clothes, focusing on shoulders and design lines that mimic the human body.
What did you learn about Supima textiles when creating your collection?
Each fabric has its own hand to it. My goal with each look was to highlight the best way to use a fabric. That’s why I chose, velveteen to denim for the suiting, a tight-fitting dress for the jersey. The twill was also made into a beautiful dress, just because it had a nice, soft hand to it. Then finishing with shirting, because it was the best choice for me to be able to do a look with a corset, and also a dress at the same time that would be a little bit more unconventional.
What is the theme of your collection?
Key themes for me are the body changing for metamorphosis, Gothic architecture, and a commanding or authoritative presence through the clothes. Something that feels empowering to wear.
Jules Gourley’s capsule at the 2024 Supima Design Competition.
Henry Hawk, Rhode Island School of Design
What is the theme of your collection?
It’s deeply inspired by early work with denim, playing with ideas of decorative versus functional—and how it can make an essential pocket elaborately decorated in a way that is practical.
What did you learn about Supima textiles when creating your collection?
I had a lot of fun with the releasing of indigo techniques that I was doing, like pleating the fabric and then rubbing wet denim on it to get an abstract blue stripe. I learned the most with the velveteen, because that’s really hard to iron. There’s some weird techniques for how I would do that. Some of my favorite techniques were with the denim. I had a hunch of how they would work because I wear jeans every day, but then actually making it happen was really fun.
Why did you enroll in the Supima Design Competition?
It seemed like a really exciting opportunity to be able to make a collection right out of college and show it on this amazing stage that we’re standing in. I also love cotton, and denim is my favorite fabric. 20 yards of Supima denim, American-grown cotton, is awesome to me. I’m very happy for that. It just seemed like a really cool challenge. I mostly have made menswear in the past, so interpreting my collection into womenswear [was] a really cool challenge.
Henry Hawk’s capsule at the 2024 Supima Design Competition.
Mina Piao, Fashion Institute of Technology
What inspired or influenced your collection?
Umbilical cords. You’ll see that in the first knit look, especially with the big puffer—that big, puffy yarn. I talk about my mental health and how my family has supported me through that. You see a lot of the abstract-looking texture, like the crochet and the knit, and also I used algae bioplastic. It’s these anxiety drawings that I do, and I’m anxious. I make messy scribbles, and it helps me release my anxiety. I used a lot of layers, because it’s the idea of community supporting each other, family supporting each other, and building each other up. I also use flowers that symbolize resilience in different cultures [and] that symbolize resilience in Korea. You’ll see some flower motifs throughout as well.
What is the theme of your collection?
The collection is about radical community-based love. It’s about community supporting each other and coming together and providing mutual aid. I talk about the idea of human connection, and how our struggles are all connected with each other. I use knitwear to evoke that theme of connection. It’s inspired by umbilical cords as the earliest form of human connection. A lot of other themes I weave in, like the story of my family as well, and my own personal struggles with mental health.
What did you learn about Supima fabrics when creating your collection?
This is my first time working with so much cotton fabric. For me personally, since I did specialize in knitwear, I haven’t worked with woven cotton fabric in a while. That was really cool, learning about the fabrics and working with them. I did a lot of pleating with the cotton shirting. It’s really hard to pleat natural fibers like cotton, but it came out really beautifully. They provided yarn for the first time, so I was able to do a fully fashioned knit dress with the cotton yarn that they gave.
Mina Piao’s capsule at the 2024 Supima Design Competition.
Lizzy Truitt, Kent State University
What is the theme of your collection?
I explore the evolution from girlhood to womanhood, and how through time the women in my life have impacted me. I explored that through line art and pixel art through quilting, as that’s something all the women in my life have done.
What inspired or influenced your collection?
I have quilts made by my great-grandmother and grandmother by hand. You look at every single stitch on there that’s by hand, and I think about all the women in my life and how they’ve impacted me. I really wanted to pay homage to how they shaped me.
When designing with Supima fabrics, did you use a new technique or skill you hadn’t explored before?
The newest technique I did was the reverse applique quilting, which requires at least two forms of fabric where you completely sew the two together and cut away the top layer. That was a really interesting process, because I would do pixel art on the base layer and then cut away the reverse. It’s a really big trusting process on making sure those two layers really interacted well and laid well together. I had to cut away to make sure that end result was there. It was a big leap of faith, for sure.
Lizzy Truitt’s capsule at the 2024 Supima Design Competition.
Marina Lamphier, Drexel University
What inspired or influenced your collection?
My whole collection is based off of sailing. That’s my first love in life, and passion. I found fashion a lot later in life, and so I was intertwining the two, which is symbolic in all of the rope, which is just [an] iconic nautical theme. It’s also a lot of sail shapes, because that’s my first experience with trimming fabric and really manipulating fabric to do what you want. I found that flowing into fashion really easy, and m happy that I got to make it into a full collection that everyone else can see.
How would you describe your collection?
Very vibrant, lively, abstract, and vaguely nautical. If you’re not a sailor, you still know that you’re getting this sailor theme. You don’t have to be in the culture to know.
What were some new techniques or skills you experienced when using Supima textiles?
The fabric is so soft and amazing, and it takes the color so well. I really wanted to highlight that with the vibrant colors and how well it moves with all the silhouettes, but also very comfy and cozy.
Marina Lamphier’s capsule at the 2024 Supima Design Competition.
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