Fashion Accessories Design Graduate Honored in CFDA Graduate Showcase
July 2, 2019Alumna Kayla Donaldson (2019) displayed her CCS senior thesis accessories collection to fashion industry insiders and influencers in prestigious showcase, June 17–18.
Fashion Accessories Design alumna Kayla Donaldson was one of 50 graduating seniors chosen to participate in the Fashion Future Graduate Showcase 2019 by the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). The annual two-day showcase, this year from June 17–18, introduces the work of exemplary fashion graduates to industry, talent acquisition/HR, editors and influencers. The CFDA chose the young designers from among 11 participating art and design colleges, including the College for Creative Studies, Rhode Island School of Design, University of Cincinnati, School of the Art Institute Chicago, and Pratt Institute.
A member of the Fashion Accessories Design program’s inaugural graduating class, Donaldson displayed her CCS senior thesis collection, “Connected Consumption,” in the showcase. Her collection, which focuses on how consumption connects yet controls us, foregrounds sustainability — by repurposing wires and electronics — and speaks to Donaldson’s interest in repurposing waste to make beautiful handbags, shoes and garments.
As Donaldson told the CFDA: “Over-consumption of both physical and immaterial content is interwoven into the fabric of society, therefore having a tight hold on us before we are even born. Subcultures eventually trickle into mainstream consumer culture and many subcultures feature many of the same ideologies as mainstream cultures just repackaged, thus creating a connected system of the same ideas.
According to the CFDA, more than 600 industry professionals attended the Fashion Future Graduate Showcase last year, and graduates were subsequently placed at such global brands as Reebok, Thom Browne and Ralph Lauren and featured in editorials in Vogue, Vogue Italia and Women’s Wear Daily (WWD).
