Christina Yi Shows No Fear For Snakes With First NYFW Collection

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We delight in seeing young designers take flight, so when recent Columbia College Chicago alumnus Christina Yi flew the coop to New York City we were eager to see how she would take on the Big Apple. Upon transplanting to NYC Christina landed a gig with designer Gemma Kahng. Along with her work on Gemma Kahng's design team Christina just showed her own collection during NYFW for the very first time.

Christina may be a NYFW virgin but she is no stranger to mounting fantastic presentations of her own work as she has collaborated with Akira and the now defunct LaundryMagazine here in Chicago. For her new FW13 collection, inspired by her fear of snakes, Christina tamed her avant garde leanings (and her fears apparently) to create a more ready-to-wear collection.

Although the collection referenced the serpentine with scaly textures and some body hugging silhouettes the inspiration was not obviously reptilian as it seems that Christina drew more on the emotional aspects of her fear, channeling it into the dark mood of the pieces. With both men and womenswear in the collection we had a phantasmagoric moment of imagining a couple in head to toe Christina Yi in a sort of romantic nightmare. Christina is definitely on our young designer to watch list as she continues to move onward and upward. -Samm Mackin
· Christina Yi [Official Site]