UDIT's ‘Parallel Worlds’: Young fashion talent takes centre stage at MBFW Madrid

Spain's leading fashion platforms continue to champion emerging talent, dedicating a space each season to showcase the future stars of fashion design.

This season at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid, students from the UDIT school of design, innovation and technology once again opened the event, presenting their collective graduate collection.

A cohort of 29 young designers from the official university degree in fashion design explored ‘Parallel Worlds’, a collection delving into profound themes such as nostalgia, the transition from childhood to adulthood, and contemporary social issues.

Their work demonstrated a fusion of creativity, innovation, and social consciousness, marking them as ones to watch in the future of fashion.

FashionUnited spoke with some of these students about their debut runway experience, a challenge that, despite its complexities, resulted in deep personal satisfaction as they witnessed their ideas come to life.

"This has been the most ambitious project I've faced so far," shared Alisson Camila Jiménez Neuman, one of the participating designers. "I enjoyed and learned so much throughout the process." For Alisson, transforming abstract ideas into tangible garments was an exhilarating challenge: "The satisfaction of seeing the finished work is unparalleled."

This transformation of abstract concepts into functional pieces was a shared challenge, from adapting traditional techniques to new applications to integrating innovative technologies into their designs.

While Alisson explored nostalgia and the perception of life at different stages, fellow student Alicia Romero Faus drew inspiration from childhood as a time full of possibilities.

Other students tackled themes like the fleeting nature of time and dystopia, contributing to the conceptual diversity of the collection.

María Fernández Pérez, for instance, crafted a narrative of a world ending due to the peak of selfishness. She utilised fabrics from a studio in Malaysia to depict how Haute Couture and elegance might appear after three days of surviving an apocalypse.

Technical innovation and craftmanship

Technical innovation was also a hallmark of Parallel Worlds. Javier Sánchez Sánchez, for example, experimented with blown glass to investigate the duality between the familiar and the unknown.

Meanwhile, Carmen López-Ibor Segimon created a parallel world where craftsmanship reigns supreme. She employed traditional techniques like pleating and natural dyes, striving to preserve cultural heritage and highlight the individuality of each garment.

Carmen has already defined her short-term career path: "I plan to research and design digitally, combining craftsmanship with technological innovations.”

The young designer continued: “For me, technology is a tool that complements artisanal work, merging tradition and modernity." In the long term, she aims to lead textile and digital design projects, pushing the industry towards a more conscious and responsible future.

Launching their own brands is a shared long-term ambition for Alisson, Alicia, and others like María, who, like Javier, seek to integrate sustainability and technology into their work, responding to the current demands of the fashion industry.

However, some students have their sights set on international experiences in the immediate future. Alisson, for example, aims to return to London, a city where she lived and discovered "her passion for fashion thanks to its vibrant culture and diversity." Alicia, on the other hand, seeks to continue her growth as a designer, perfecting new techniques.

Determined to further explore abstract narratives, Javier plans to collaborate with visual artists and designers to continue experimenting with conceptual fashion.

This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.ES, translated and edited to English.

It was translated using an AI tool called Gemini 1.5.

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