Boston’s fashion design students celebrate graduation with designs on the runway

Can everybody hear me? So someone was just asking, how do we know when your, when your number’s coming up? Well, we start at 1 and we go to 45. So you’re gonna hear numbers, but I can’t yell. Right now it’s like I can’t believe I’m done. I, I, I’ve been here really early. I expected the pressing to take *** lot longer than it did mostly just excitement I for me I’m, I’m not down to the wire the way some people are, and I gave myself more than enough time so I feel. Really good. They’re really excited. Then she’s going to DFC. So right now we’re making sure that all the ducks are in *** row. We have all the garments with who’s gonna be wearing it. Every single garment is labeled with *** number and then next to all of the garments for that one model there’s like her name and everything so everyone knows where they’re supposed to be. It’s just so intense. And it’s backstage and especially for *** school fashion show you want it to be the best it can possibly be for the students, their parents. Yeah, I think the energy here right now is *** little bit of everything uh *** little bit of *** little bit of nerves, *** lot of excitement. Uh, nervous. I should be nervous probably. Exhausted. Oh my god I’m first. This has been *** wonderful evening and we’re ready for the runway. See how it looked like it was pushing the fabric and it wasn’t gonna work, but it’s once you turn the corner, it’ll lay down. I’m Daniel Fauche. I’m *** senior instructor here at the School of Fashion Design. Mass panic is occurring right now. It’s very calm right now, but if you were here at 9 o’clock last night, every room was filled and everybody was very tense and edgy because we were telling him 20 minutes to the closing, 25 minutes to. Closing 15 minutes to closing. Some students have everything done and hanging on *** hanger. Other students are still working, and that’s just always the way it has been always. Uh, I’m really excited that this is coming together. It’s been *** burden on me for *** lot of this semester, but, uh, it’s coming together well and. Uh, I’m glad I, I’m glad I do *** lot of the prep work in the, the muscle. So that’s what we’re hoping for with, with the end result. I’m Phineas Rasmussen and I’m *** student here at SFD. It takes *** lot of work and dedication, and I didn’t really have that aha moment and figure out everything until it I had to click when it actually all started to make sense just *** little bit earlier in the semester, um, so it took *** good year of practice and focus on it until it all started to make sense. I’m really proud of this because it was definitely *** challenge to get the seaming right. The fabric that I picked is very thick. Um, my name is Alexis Keslin and I am graduating from the School of Fashion Design. I felt zero direction in what I wanted to do with my career, but I knew I was gonna work so hard, so I might as well do something that I love. It moves me too to see something that I know someone poured their heart into because it’s like someone took the time to do that they cared about that it gives something meaning. We don’t follow trends. So our what we’re known for is our deep dive technical expertise and that never goes away. Hi, I’m Jennifer LeClaire. I’m the executive director here at the School of Fashion Design in Boston. Many of our students come to us never having sat at *** sewing machine, um, and then by their second semester in level 2, they have garments going down the runway, so we’re that’s something we’re really, really proud of. They’ve watched the Met Gala, they’ve watched the Oscars, and they see that moment of like, 00 my God, that’s amazing. And I think they want that moment. I had to wet it, steam it, and then stretch it to get it to be as drapey as possible for this. I’m gonna applique silk butterflies on the inside, but we still have *** week to go. There’s still lots, there’s still lots of time. It’s mayhem. It’s mayhem. And I think that’s the main thing is people probably feel like, oh no, it’s not gonna get done, it’s not gonna get done, but if you wanna get it done, then you will. So I’m just safety pinning some nude colored straps and hopefully when the model tries it on, we won’t even need them and we’ll just unpin them and take them off, but at least we’re ready for *** worst case scenario. And that’s what fashion shows all are planning for the worst case scenario. It’s very exciting. It’s *** little nerve wracking, but I’m mostly excited because the fashion shows just so fun and I’m just mostly excited for everyone to experience it because it’s such *** unique opportunity to be able to go to *** fashion show, I feel like and just to see what it’s like and it really just is about having fun and you know glamour I guess fast paced it’s so fun there’s like this buzzy energy uh it’s it’s unlike anything else. So it’s got some revealing white sections. And then it’ll like when it bounces it’ll reveal those. And then her last number is 54. Each model gets assigned *** certain amount of garments and the garments are then put onto *** rack with that model. So whoever’s dressing that one model will stay in that area. So the rack has like the first thing that they’re gonna wear, then the second thing, and it’s all numbered. I wish it weren’t this close to the wire still working on it just *** few hours before the. The show, but it’ll be done and it’ll go down the runway and that’s what matters. Um, you’re about to see, um, our sort of parade of garment racks come down the hallway. This is the moment every year during fashion show production day that to me is the most exciting moment. It sort of signals this like moment where we’re ready to go and the show is about to happen. They take everything upstairs and and get ready for the show, so it’s very exciting. And if you could come in and dress Een and Kylie, OK, neither one of them have tight changes or fast changes. She does. She has some quick. Turn around. I’m *** dancer. I’ve done 30 seconds. We’ll we’ll be good. This will be her fastest change. She’ll be coming out of my troublesome side. This year we will be honoring Daniel Fauche with *** lifetime achievement in fashion design award. It’s one of the awards that we give out for our alumni. Daniel has been in the couture business here in Boston. He’s renowned here in Boston. And it’s been in business for I think nearly 40 years um we are incredibly incredibly lucky to have his unsurpassed talent here. You want to see it come off and be successful for all of them, for everybody who’s involved, for everybody to feel like they’ve achieved something at least taken *** step forward that’s really all you can ask for in the program, you know, to be able to end your 15 week semester at *** better place than where you started. Um I wanna, I’d like to welcome everyone that’s here, the friends and families, and invited guests to join with our faculty staff and of course our students in celebrating this evening. Thank you so much. I’ve just been so blessed with the instructors starting from the very first day here at SFD as *** 17 year old, uh, bright-eyed bushy tail. Not much of that’s left is there? To our graduates and students on the runway tonight, this is your night. We are so proud of you. Your garments speak not only to your creativity, but to your courage, resilience, and the countless hours you’ve dedicated to refining your craft. You represent the future of fashion and the future is bright. And these past 5 months have been the most creatively fulfilled I’ve I’ve felt in my life, I think so it’s *** really good sign for me that I’ve chosen the right path forwards for my career, um. And moving forward into more artistic work is really exciting for me. My whole spiel is that clothes are the most intimate thing that we carry on our person and all day every day they touch our bodies. We like and they are who we are to people before we before we open our mouths. Um, and, and yet at the same time they’re so foreign to us like we don’t know how they’re made, we don’t really know what it what it takes to make them, and I think that what happens here is not just learning how to make them but learning how to make them well, and that’s yeah it’s really cool. It’s surreal, um, seeing it on the dress form, you know, it’s stoic, but seeing it on *** person, it’s like real it’s moving you can see how it moves, how it fits, how it. You know, accentuate certain features and it’s, I can’t comprehend it but it’s the best feeling ever. Allowing somebody else to build on my artwork and allow it to really flourish and be lived in and it wouldn’t it wouldn’t have the same effect without those people in it so I think it was wonderful even the glimpse that I got through the like the crack between the screens back there uh was fantastic. I see these garments come down the runway that I know they’ve worked on for *** really really long time but um they just completely come together at at the end um and it really year after year it’s like magic for me it’s great. All your dreams work hard. Oh my goodness, if it can happen for me, it could happen for anyone honestly believe in yourself. I think of that 17 year old that. You know, wanted to make *** dream come true and want to make *** beautiful gown for some gorgeous bride somewhere. It, it happens, it does actually happen.

Trading caps and gowns for couture, these Boston students celebrate graduation on the runway

Boston School of Fashion Design’s annual runway show celebrates 90 years of fashion instruction.

Updated: 12:33 AM EDT May 30, 2025

Closing out the spring semester means a walk across the stage for most of Boston’s graduates but some mark the achievement with a runway, strutting models and something a little more unique than the traditional cap and gown.”It’s fast-paced, it’s so fun,” said student designer Norma Hellstein. “There’s like this buzzy energy. It’s unlike anything else.”The School of Fashion Design in downtown Boston closes out spring classes with a fashion show that showcases student projects made throughout the year. Before the garments hit the runway, school board members and administrators celebrate graduates and alumni and award scholarships. This year’s show was particularly special because it marked 90 years of fashion instruction for the school. “Mass panic is going on right now!” joked alumnus and instructor Daniel Faucher the week before the fashion show. Faucher, class of 1982, said the goal of the fashion show is to give students the special experience of bringing a garment to life. Up until an hour or two before the show, he and students are still working on perfecting the garments. “They’ve watched the Met Gala or the Oscars, and they see that moment of, ‘Oh my God, that’s amazing.’ And I think they want that moment,” he said. Watch the video above to see those behind-the-scenes moments and watch how the show comes together.

BOSTON —

Closing out the spring semester means a walk across the stage for most of Boston’s graduates but some mark the achievement with a runway, strutting models and something a little more unique than the traditional cap and gown.

“It’s fast-paced, it’s so fun,” said student designer Norma Hellstein. “There’s like this buzzy energy. It’s unlike anything else.”

The School of Fashion Design in downtown Boston closes out spring classes with a fashion show that showcases student projects made throughout the year. Before the garments hit the runway, school board members and administrators celebrate graduates and alumni and award scholarships.

This year’s show was particularly special because it marked 90 years of fashion instruction for the school.

“Mass panic is going on right now!” joked alumnus and instructor Daniel Faucher the week before the fashion show.

Faucher, class of 1982, said the goal of the fashion show is to give students the special experience of bringing a garment to life. Up until an hour or two before the show, he and students are still working on perfecting the garments.

“They’ve watched the Met Gala or the Oscars, and they see that moment of, ‘Oh my God, that’s amazing.’ And I think they want that moment,” he said.

Watch the video above to see those behind-the-scenes moments and watch how the show comes together.