With social distancing guidelines still in place, more than three million seniors will not have a traditional graduation ceremony this year. To support the class of 2020, we partnered with PAPER magazine to provide five graduating fashion design students with increased exposure and industry mentorship.

We jointly selected five schools to highlight – Academy of Art University, Fashion Institute of Technology, Parsons School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, and Savannah College of Art & Design – and asked each university to nominate their top students.

Mickey Boardman of PAPER then selected one student from each school to spotlight as the next generation of fashion, and the graduates were then paired with an established CFDA designer who reviewed the student’s thesis collections via Zoom and offered words of encouragement for fashion’s future, plus tips on how to navigate from graduate to employee considering our new normal.

The participating CFDA designers included Brandon Maxwell, Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Panszczyk of AREA, Christopher John Rogers, Jonathan Cohen, and Stacey Bendet of Alice + Olivia. And we are so excited to introduce you to PAPER and CFDA’s class of 2020: Justin Chi (FIT), Kenneth Brody McCasland (AAU), Kyra Buenviaje (RISD), Max Condon (SCAD), and Samantha D’Iorio (Parsons)!

“The CFDA and Paper share the common value of supporting creativity across the fashion spectrum, including all the students who worked so hard to complete their thesis collections, and who are now graduating without commencement ceremonies and celebrations of their immense accomplishments,” said Sara Kozlowski, CFDA’s Director of Education + Sustainable Strategies. “The 2020 fashion graduates are future change champions – they are big on creativity and ingenuity, and brilliant thinkers – and masters of their chosen craft, with a unique voice within sustainability, innovation, and inclusivity.”

“PAPER has always been dedicated to introducing and empowering the newest names in talent, and fashion is no exception,” PAPER’s Digital Director, Justin Moran, told CFDA.com. “Under quarantine, fashion students are unable to show their final presentations, so we felt it was crucial to support them right now in a meaningful way.”

Christopher Rogers Shares Advice with SCAD ’20 Graduate Max Condon

Alice + Olivia’s Stacey Bendet Shares Advice with RISD ’20 Graduate Kyra Buenviaje

AREA Share Advice with FIT ’20 Graduate Justin Chi

Jonathan Cohen Shares Advice with AAU ’20 Graduate Kenneth Brody McCasland

Brandon Maxwell Shares Advice with Parson ’20 Graduate Samantha D’iorio

Check out each of the graduate’s work including a short video featuring highlights of their virtual meeting with their designer partner on papermag.com and CFDA.com.