“At this point, [Karla, Mariana, and I] are quite telepathic. We’ve been around each other for so long. You just know when someone’s struggling and you’re like, ‘Let’s take a break, get some coffee, go for a walk,’” Venkatsewar said. Keeping each other in check, especially with the jury fast approaching, while offering a shoulder to lean on kept the trio going.
The Final Stretch
As the school year and its many deadlines were wrapping up in May, the three prepared for a quiet summertime lull: a sudden, albeit well-deserved, pause. “What do I do next? I always feel like that when I go home over the break, but I’ve realized I can just sit and relax,” Robledo says, though she still wonders what exactly it means to be still for a moment, especially after the monumental runway and rush and the push of her last few months. “I’m going to try to get my sleep schedule back to normal,” Venkateswar answers, laughing a bit. Both she and Robledo are most looking forward to resuming their pre-senior year routines and regularly spending time with friends, especially as the summer ensues and early-career job searches lie ahead.
Sanaa Venkateswar, Karla Santiago, Mariana RobledoSkyli Alvarez
With a clearer vision of their design aesthetics and workflow, they’re certainly not the same designers they were that fabled winter night in junior year, but some aspects remain the same. “It’s funny to see how things have evolved from concept. I still see hints of each other’s [ideas]: Sanaa was already playing around with pleats, and Mariana with her beadwork,” Santiago reflects. Each designer has a signature detail setting her apart from the other, but across all three, an exploration of heritage and one’s childhood self are as strong as ever. Venkateswar has her muslin-blends, shells, and seaside treasures from her hometown in Oman; Robledo’s design sketchbook looks more like a family album rich with childhood photos; and Santiago has a new, growing assortment of crochet swatches from her aunts in Mexico.
For many of the 52 designers on the runway, the show was a rare moment for them to design for themselves — a testament to what a young designer can do, if only given the time and resources. For Robledo, Venkateswar, and Santiago, it has allowed them to reconnect with rich histories both personal and familial, invented and inherited. Perhaps that’s what the final collection comes down to: Returning to the past as a way to move forward.
