What does the future of fashion look for the class of 2026? It’s not one without obstacles: the traditional retail landscape is wary at best, and the luxury sector’s AI dam has seemingly begun to break. And yet, for the Fashion Institute of Technology’s graduating class, the answer seems to center on adaptive conversations rather than reactive opposition. “We are not sitting on the sidelines as the industry is happening,” said Jason S. Schupbach, who assumed the role of FIT president just four months ago. “We’re going to go through the transformation with the industry at the same time.”

This manifests in dynamic business classes and in sitting down to understand how to incorporate AI into the classroom and creative process in genuinely productive ways. “[AI] creates new jobs, other jobs go away—that’s all typical, but we want to be part of the conversation,” Schupbach said. However, as he also notes, a humanoid algorithm isn’t what’s sending a finished product down the runway; it’s the students’ ability to physically execute a garment that is.

Despite the relatively muted color palette displayed by many of last night’s almost 80 designs, an undercurrent of hope glimmered through much of the students’ work. A sense of polish shone through, too, as also demonstrated by the delightfully airy silk chiffon scalloping of Hye Ji Jo (look 26) and Naïma Naas’s “hunchback” tailored coat that turned to reveal a striking red ruffled backside (look 3). The latter’s steampunk aesthetic likely sums up the retrofuturistic attitude taking hold of much of the creative industry as of late (see: Meruert Tolegen’s Rococo renaissance or Colleen Allen’s subtle Victorian bustle-backed gowns). Tyler Mervine, who won the school’s Critic Award, spoke of the immortality of human memory and creation, and manifested that idea through his charcoal coat’s infinite draped loop (look 17), taking inspiration, in part, from Gabriel García Márquez’s novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold. AI may be popping up in global luxury ateliers, but ChatGPT isn’t sewing Mervine’s fringed corset—yet.

Levity was brought in via the children's clothing interlude, when the student fashion show-appropriate bass thud was swapped out for The Jackson 5’s “ABC,” a hopeful planting of the seeds for a next generation of designers, photographers, and stylists. Brightness continued more clearly through knitwear—a notably difficult class to master, as some students jokingly lamented. Many of the category’s designers—including two other Critic Award winners, Beatrice Xuan Mak’s homage to the vibrancy of her home country, Malaysia (look 61), and Rachel Marino’s felted bulbous sculptures (looks 55 and 58)—chose to demonstrate the textile’s lightness, a counterpoint to the heaviness of world events we see on all fronts these days.

The evening was presented in partnership with Macy’s. The winner, Marina Malkhasian, whose pleated garments spoke of a warmer remembrance of her childhood in Russia before the war (looks 2 and 18), will see her pieces produced and sold in select Macy’s stores come next spring. At the flagship in Herald Square, last year’s winner sold out the first night it was available. It’s a hopeful indication that the world still values young designers—and their physical craft, too.