5 Collections We Loved From The Raffles Design December 2025 Graduation Fashion Show

Raffles College of Higher Education presented its second graduation show of the year earlier this month, yet the vision of this cohort of budding designers remain fresh as ever. Fantasy was the common language not just across the collections inspired by childhood tales and pop culture, but also in how far the graduates pushed textiles like silk and leather to their limits. It was an evening of escaping into a world of fashionable wonder, where elephants could exist on jackets and animals like wolves and rhinoceroses paraded around in business suits.

Below, the five standout collections from the show.

1. Circus of Curiousities by Stephanie Gabrielle Pagarisi

Stephanie Gabrille Pagarisi’s collection sports a circus theme, where jackets with elephant heads (trunk, tusks, ears and all) in pink printed fabric were attached to the shoulders of an otherwise unassuming black coat, and separates composed of diamond pieces of fabric that emulate the harlequin print were paired with basics like a button up and a skirt, reminding us that there can always be a little whimsy involved in everyday life.

As the opening ‘act’ of the evening, Pagarisi’s fantastical runway made us dive headfirst into a world where fashion acts as more than adornment, it also functions to communicate its creator’s message on its own.

2. The Veiled Reflection by Vincy Carleta

At a time when there’s a growing interest in Asian culture on platforms dominated by Western users such as TikTok, Vincy Carleta’s collection, a reflection on viewing the aesthetics of Orientalism through a Western lens, is more relevant than ever. Can traditional clothing retain its unique essence if we were to modernise it for the contemporary individual on TikTok? What does modernising traditional wear entail? Carleta’s graduation collection is a line of costumes inspired by Chinese heritage by way of pastel silks, Chinese button closures and embroidery, but each outfit features trendy silhouettes in the form of mini shorts and tailored trousers, clear influences from the West.

While each piece, from the pink overshirt to the blue sashed shorts, is undeniably exquisite, a closer look reveals that parts of the traditional costumes’ cultural significance have been lost when they are fused with contemporary shapes—a commentary on the trend of romanticising Chinese culture and adapting it to a Western audience.

3. Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast by Khan Aafreen

Khan Aafreen’s ‘Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast’ is a fashionable retelling of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, set in the age of AirPods and A.I.. Alice’s famous blue frock and white apron have been given a fashion-forward, futuristic treatment in the form of a pale blue gown, cinched with a white corset with pointy edges that evokes the spacesuits and costumes worn by otherworldly beings as seen in sci-fi films, and her headset disguised as a flower crown. Inspired by the use of virtual reality and technology to create immersive experiences even for the everyday, Aafreen sees being in the digital age to be akin to Alice falling down the rabbit hole—all-consuming and near impossible to escape. With the use of A.I. being the hot topic of discussion in the art space in recent years because of how it capitalises off the work of real life artists, her graduation collection asserts her stand that AI should be used to aid creatives, and not replace them.

Related article: How AI Is Changing The Future Of Fashion

4. Manimal by Deng Tingwei

For a species so advanced we turned rocks and water into the internet, our instincts when it comes to attaining power and prestige remain remarkably animal-like. This idea, backed by pop culture references such as The Wolf of Wall Street, informs Deng Tingwei’s graduate collection, a line of tailored menswear in muted colours that wouldn’t be out of place in a busy street full of successful businessmen. It’s the details that set these pieces apart—a jacket with a large collar made to look like wolf fur, leopard printed shirts, laces or zips on each piece that further hint at the hidden animal lurking behind them and within the wearer.

At the show, each look was modelled with animal ‘heads’ (specifically of a wolf, rhinoceros, a bird of prey and other similar animals) that at first glance reminded onlookers of the masks worn by the wealthy and powerful in Eyes Wide Shut. This dramatic display further clarified Deng’s intention with his collection: these primal instincts we have toward success aren’t tendencies we should hide, they’re part of our nature—we’re really just animals in suits.

5. Celestial Temptation by Sharon Liandro

Sharon Liandro shrouds desire and temptation in a glamourous light in her collection. Biblical references to symbols of the snake and fruit in Genesis were incorporated through colour, texture and chains that trail across the torso of a jacket. Some outfits were grandly finished with a flurry of black iridescent feathers in the shape of a bolero sculpted to create pronounced shoulders and a floor-sweeping cape, as if the ugly duckling had grown to not just embrace but become obsessed with its unique appearance. With each costume being so over-the-top, the models seemed to have moulted their human skins and turned into physical embodiments of typically taboo concepts like temptation.