written September 13th, 2009 · 0 comments

Fabiola Arias is a Cuban born (Miami raised) fashion designer who just recently graduated from Parsons and is showing her collection during New York Fashion week as an installation of still life models. I wanted to post some really beautiful images of her latest collections here and share some of her process and my thoughts.

Her Fall 2009 collection was inspired by the winter in New York, which includes designs that are beautifully textural and sculptural. Combining the contrasting images of fallen leaves and snow with broken glass and rubble from the streets of the city, Fabiola created a chilled palette of black, pine green and silvery beige. Her sculptural dresses are elegant and expressive and her pieces are formed by layers of bunched fabric in an attractively organic way. The fabric resembles an organism that has attached itself lovingly to the wearer’s body, which is what I admire about her work, that it is structural with a deep sense of the body underneath.

Her Spring 2009 collection shows traces of her love of structure and layering as well. She designed a lovely pink top that has bunched fabric clusters along the collar and sleeves, which gives it some weight and then the rest just drapes light as a feather and relaxed down to the waist (see pictures below). A simple yellow mini is transformed into a textural beauty by large stitches that curve around the hip area in a seductive and flattering way. She also worked with a very organic print on a lovely dusty rose colored dress, the form of the dress hovering between structural and amorphous in a feminine and charming way.

Fabiola’s line was picked up by the store Ikram in Chicago (a favorite of Michelle Obama’s) before she graduated and she will be presenting her Fall/Winter 2010 collection in Tokyo. So watch out for this rising talent!