New York Fashion Week: The Art Institutes FW’16 Livestream

Students and Graduates from The Art Institutes to Debut Fall/Winter 2016 Collections this Tuesday at Fashion Week.

Live from New York Fashion Week on Tuesday, February 16th at 8:30PM EST/ 5:30 PM PST we’ll be livestreaming The Art Institutes’s Fall 16 Runway show live!  This is one of the most amazing shows at New York Fashion Week because it showcases emerging designers.  This year’s show will feature 13 up-and-coming fashion designers from the The Art Institutes system of schools.  This show is a real life Project Runway! Watch the show here on The Recessionista on the embedded player below , by hitting the play button.  After the show, you can watch the replay.

Check out the list of designers in this year’s so and their diverse cultural influences.  Featured designers in this year’s show include:

Sebastian Cubides is participating in his second New York Fashion Week runway show. In 2015, he presented the collection “Architectural,” inspired by renderings of a research lab in the Ukraine and a commercial center in China. This year’s collection is inspired by getting away from it all and finding peace in the forest.

David Marquise Seward credits fashion with providing a sense of symmetry and tidiness in his life. “Fashion design formulated the precise and pleasant person I am today. I find beauty in architecture and awkwardness.”

Stephanie Castanon was born in Los Angeles but grew up in Spring Hill, Florida. She first explored her creativity by painting landscapes in high school. “I became moved by the idea of taking this [painting] concept and creating wearable artwork with fabric as my medium,” she says.

Venezuela native Zenia De Sousa chose to study fashion in Miami because of its strong connection to the fashion world. “[It’s in the] middle of one of the most exciting retail and design areas. I [believe that] living in Miami and watching the trends on the streets gives me a sense of [what customers want],” she says.

Peruvian born Tatiana Cochagne will debut her collection, “Eterna,” at New York Fashion Week. She gained her love of fashion from her grandmother, who created clothes for Tatiana and other family members. “[My grandmother] showed me how to hand stitch and hand embroider. She [also] introduced me to the craft of making my own thread from the cotton raised on her farm,” Tatiana says.

Alejandra Insunsa, an Arizona native, joined the United States Marine Corps after high school and served for four years in North Carolina. “In my younger years, I dreamed of being a fashion designer. I would share it with my classmates when asked. I am not sure if the idea was funny or [if] nobody believed in me—[but in my small town] everyone would giggle about it,” she says.

Kimberly Richardson, creator of the “Kimber” brand, has a vision to create a fashion lifestyle that goes beyond bridal. She utilizes luxurious, modern artistic design in her sophisticated, feminine, and glamorous garments. She learned from her mother and grandmother, seamstresses who inspired her love of lace, denim, and eyelet fabric. Kimberly spent most of her adult life as a hairstylist and is now pursuing her goal to become a fashion designer.

German Madrigal’s gender-neutral collection for New York Fashion Week is his second trip down the runway. In 2014, he showcased a collaborative collection with a fellow student. German recently won the Emerging Designer Competition at FashioNXT in Portland, Oregon.

 Lavan Chxeidze is no stranger to New York Fashion Week. This is his third time on the runway, the most recent being Fall 2015. He is a recent graduate of The Art Institute of New York City

 Nhi Nguyen believes that she was destined to become a fashion designer. Growing up in Vietnam, Nhi watched her mother, a seamstress, turn patterns into beautiful dresses. “I was so fascinated. This passion fueled my childhood aspiration to become a fashion designer. At the age of 17, [I left] my family and friends and came to America to fulfill my dream,” she says.

Haitian-born D’joone’s Demar Lee Altenor moved to the United States in 2010 to attend high school in Florida. As a child, he loved to express himself through drawing. He later discovered that he could unleash his creativity through fashion and clothing. He graduated early from high school, and at the age of 16 moved to New York City to study fashion design at The Art Institute of New York City.

Working alongside D’joone’s on their New York Fashion Week debut is Christopher Leveille. Also a native of Haiti, Christopher moved to Brooklyn, New York in 2008. He first studied liberal arts at Kings Borough Community College before turning his focus to fashion design. He’s currently working toward an Associate in Applied Science in Fashion Design at the school.