On a brisk Wednesday evening in Manhattan's Meatpacking District - a neighborhood once thick with butchers and cold storage, now a shrine to fashion's rawest edges - the High School of Fashion Industries (HSFI) staged its 100th annual student fashion show and fundraiser. The event, held at Gansevoort Plaza in partnership with the Meatpacking Business Improvement District, is a testament to the enduring power of hands-on education in an industry often obsessed with the new. For a school whose alumni have shaped everything from evening gowns to the delicate architecture of lingerie - where fit, fabric, and engineering converge - this centennial runway was a quiet revolution in itself.
Honorees included principal Daryl Blank, who received the Legacy Award after 29 years at HSFI (16 as principal), and Sharifa Murdock, chief impact officer at Kith - a brand that, like early 20th-century corset makers, understands that structure and streetwise comfort can coexist. Murdock's Visionary Award recognizes her work expanding access to fashion's inner sanctums, much as the early lingerie ateliers of Paris once opened doors for women to design their own silhouettes.
The graduating senior class presented a runway of designs, styling, and choreography before an audience of 200, with passersby catching glimpses of the future. Proceeds fund scholarships, continuing a legacy that dates to an era when the first brassiere patents were reshaping women's wardrobes. Blank noted, "For a century, HSFI has been where talent is discovered and futures are shaped." In lingerie history, that same ethos transformed undergarments from hidden necessities into statements of selfhood. This show proved that the next generation is already threading that needle.
Originally reported by WWD