RIT Alum Returns For A Second NYFW Feature
After a journey in business and a dream of clothing design, Chrystel Anne Clasicas has broken into the fashion industry. She is celebrating her second feature in New York Fashion Week this weekend.
Clasicas, an RIT business management alum, has always been surrounded by fashion design and production. She grew up in a family of seamstresses who inspired her to take up sewing. Despite having the practical inspiration of fashion, she was urged to take on business management in hopes to start her own fashion brand one day. After graduating from RIT in 2018, Clasicas attended fashion school. Then, partnered with her sister and other RIT friends to launch her own fashion brand, Chrystel Anne Fashion.
Upon beginning her own brand she expressed her feelings of preparedness, especially coming from her degree in business management, which helped her launch her career.
Chrystel Anne Fashion focuses on creating body-positive and zero-waste clothing. In order to achieve this, the brand offers made-to-order clothing, which a difference from fast fashion. The process of made-to-order supports sustainability and zero-waste as it cuts down waste from mass production, allowing each garment to be perfectly tailored to the customer, creating that unique and well-fitted outfit. Through Clasicas’ commitment to body positivity, the brand also provides sizing sheets and instructions on the website to guide the customers in taking their own measurements for their pieces.
The brand’s major takeoff into the fashion industry was in 2020 when she designed and sold face masks to audiences. After breaking into that mold, she turned to more fashion design and the build-up of her brand. This lead her to debut a collection at New York Fashion Week in 2021, only a year following her major breakthrough. The collection reflected a more modern take on Regency Era designs, naming the pieces after Greek goddesses in hopes to provoke an empowering feel to those who wear her designs.
Chrystel Anne Fashion makes her second feature in New York Fashion Week in 2022 this weekend, celebrating her new collection which is in collaboration with engineering alumni from RIT Dubai. Moiz Naeem, Gilles Gandia, Paul Suansing, and Laith Alshuha were the engineers on the team that helped inspire Clasicas to crossover more creativity into her designs. The new collection represents an emotion surrounding society during the Coronavirus pandemic while also showcasing the collaboration of engineering and fashion, a relationship that Clasicas admires.