Michelle Marsh

Before the show, Parsons Womenswear Designer of the Year Stephanie Suberville described her starting point for her final collection.

"I wanted to show who I am, and a lot of who I am as a designer comes from my background," said Suberville, who grew up in Monterrey, Mexico and whose grandparents owned a department store. "I come from a French background, but I am actually Mexican. As a Mexican and as a woman I have always been very inspired by Frida Kahlo, but it was very important for me to not be the Mexican student doing Frida Kahlo. So instead of focusing on her paintings, I focused on her personal life. Frida always said that her whole life was based on two tragedies: Her back accident and her love for Diego Rivera. So it's a very dark, very romantic collection."

From corsets to pants to a wedding dress, Suberville brought a very light, ethereal touch to her thesis collection, which brimmed with intricate details like pleated layers of ombre-dyed organza that floated on top of one another like a towering wedding cake. The Kahlo reference was not literal, as Suberville promised, but more an expression of a life lived in pain like Kahlo's, where support hangs by a thread: The lace of a corset or the gauzy effect of being swaddled in raw white silk, as though bandaged.

Other students selected to show their collections - all designers to keep an eye on - included Boram Oh, Kirstyn Catlett, Nayeon Lee, Yoon Jeong Gee, Sunghiun (Seonghyun) In, Amira Marion, Judy (Yun-Chu) Lee, Hanmin Kim, Sarah Law, Samantha Aprea, Heezu Hwang, Dominique Cammaert, Spencer Phipps, Melissa Luning, Wen Shi, Sylvia Kwan, Andrew Rogers, Esther Marina Shimberg, Hye Seong (Clara) Yoo, Yoon Jung Ha, Grace Shin, Aiden (Seunghoon) Yoo, Bo Bae Lee, HJ Lee, Cullen Meyer, Sara Shahbazi, Rachel Rymar, Hernan Garcia, Woomi Pyo, Freyja Van Noort, Hyun Ah Choi, Jigon Son and Angela (Yang Zi) Gaoxia.