Award-Winning FIT Grad, Margaret Smith

“All my life,” Margaret Smith said, “I’ve been reminded of the chaotic mornings I put my family through as they struggled to get me dressed for kindergarten. I never accepted what my mother picked without a fight. I only wanted to wear what I chose. Sometimes that meant a sparkly princess dress layered over a mix of whatever else I could find, but it always had to be my decision. I’ve been dressing myself for as long as I can remember, and that sense of freedom through fashion has stayed with me ever since.”

Over the past five years I have interviewed dozens and dozens of designers, academics, conservationists and curators, a wide range of fashion professionals. Inspired by work I did with Jonathan Joseph, I always make a point of asking the person I am interviewing when they understood that clothing meant something special to them. Often it is during childhood or adolescence that a future mondaine with understand that clothing means more to them than it seems to mean to other people. Margaret Smith was no exception.

“By the time I reached high school,” Smith told me, “the question of what I wanted to do with my life became a constant, daunting thought lingering in the back of my mind. It wasn’t until I began branching out from simply sewing into designing that something clicked, I finally felt, “I can really see myself doing this.” When I shared my aspirations to pursue fashion design, my father immediately searched for programs and experiences to support me. Always one to aim for the top, he discovered FIT and its Precollege courses. That’s where I first fell in love with FIT and NYC.”

Fashion can be a lens, a way to look at the world. Probably most of us remember a soccer kit, a Halloween costume, a sweater knit by a relative. For some of us, those memories are like foundation bricks, because learning what could be done with clothing felt like throwing curtains open in a dark, stale room.

There are many excellent fashion schools around the world, but the Fashion Institute of Technology, in New York City, is consistently rated the best in the United States, and earlier this year it was crowned Best Fashion School in the World by CEO Magazine. So it makes sense that Margaret Smith’s father thought it was the right school to try for.

“At 16,” the recent graduate told me, “I had never felt as inspired as I did after that experience. I was also drawn to FIT’s study abroad programs, especially FIT in Florence and Milan, because I knew I wanted to explore different cultures and educational perspectives while studying. But ultimately, it’s FIT’s well rounded education and focus on a wide range of practical skills that made me truly confident in my choice.”

Each spring, at the close of the semester, the best work from graduating students from the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Fashion Design Bachelor of Fine Arts program is chosen to participate in The Future of Fashion. The showcase is a professionally staged runway show and the presentation, representing designers who are sportswear, special occasion, knitwear, and intimate apparel majors, and is judged by a blend of FIT faculty and figures from the fashion industry. At this year’s show, which was back in May of 2025, Macy’s presented two graduates with awards. Margaret Smith’s collection, Golden Plains of Grain, received the Empowered Design Award, which is given to “celebrates one student who deftly articulates their inspiration and brings it to life through their final design.

Smith’s capsule collection, she explains on FIT’s webpage for her work, “aims to connect with the vast landscapes of America and pay tribute to the resources this land has provided for all its inhabitants. Drawing inspiration from land artists and the integration of natural materials into art, I have explored the use of raw fibers and organic matter in my work to express this connection.”

At a time when America feels very divided, probably is very divided, I really liked that her inspiration was so iconically Americana, but without taking any sides. Smith is only asking us to imagine the beauty of our nation’s incredible landscapes. There is little common ground right now, but her argument is irrefutable. I think we all can agree that the natural beauty of our landscapes are incredibly inspiring. But it’s a ton of work, and I needed to know how Margaret Smith made certain quality was achieved.

“When I first designed this look,” Smith explained, “I immediately knew I had to bring it to life. I am so proud of the jacket, from its powerful shoulders and sleeves, which took time to perfect, to the many hours I spent hand knotting each strand of raffia into the jacket. This piece is one of the most faithful translations from sketch to finished garment that I’ve ever created, and it remains a work I’m incredibly proud of.”

The weaving, the traditional handicraft techniques, are a design element we see less and less because of the costly time such work requires. Schools like FIT, and teaching museums like FIT’s, make certain that the designers of tomorrow have a complete understanding of the ways fabrics can be manipulated, and in doing so, they prevent skills and techniques from falling into disuse and dying off. Historically, these highly specialized skills have almost always been seen as “women’s work,” an idea which infuriates ad much as it inspires Margaret Smith.

“At my core,” she explained, “it’s women’s stories that drive me. With every collection, I hope that by embracing a certain craft or drawing from a source of inspiration, I am in some way, honoring the women who came before me and those who stand beside me. I care deeply about the untold stories of women and strive to share them through my work.”

There are a lot of people; women people of Color, Indigenous people and those who identify as Queer, who made important, history changing contributions to culture during their lives. But, after death, too many were written out of history because of ridiculous reasons like skin color, gender or who they loved. Margaret Smith, a lady as well as an artisan, is not about to put up with that sort of nonsense, and this passion comes, in part, from a longing to connect with the women from her own family that she never got to meet.

“I never had the chance to sit with my grandmothers,” Smith told me, “to hear their stories, or to learn firsthand about their love for the crafts that have now become my own life’s work. Women and textiles are so interconnected, I believe it’s impossible to love sewing, craft, and textile without feeling the presence of the women who came before you.”

I asked the young designer, someone who obviously has no qualms about agonizing over a project for hundreds of hours, or making endless tiny stitches or folds by hand, what it was she loves most about this work she’s bound and determined to dedicate her life to.

“My favorite part of creating apparel is the craft itself,” Smith told me. “I love the long, laborious nights spent bent over a garment, fully bringing my design to life. There’s something deeply rewarding about looking at a finished piece and knowing every bit of work and skill that went into it, especially when that knowledge is something private, for only for me to know. As a young designer, my biggest challenge has been finding my own style, that core thread that will run through every future collection of mine. While I’m still solidifying that identity, I can now clearly see how I’ve grown into both myself and my design aesthetic.”

This response was so composed, so thorough. My regular readers will know I had to ask about her process, especially when I understood how intellectually Margaret Smith approaches her work. Fashion and costume design prove every day that there is no such thing as a single solution. I was very curious about how she, so recently a student, had been trained (slash-created-for-herself) a system that worked well enough to attract so much professional attention from industry insiders. Attention is lovely and all, but plenty of it gets passed around without much progress. But when the work was executed with this much precision, so much that it received multiple awards… [This is me avoiding writing something trite, to the effect of, ‘the kids are alright.’]

“My process always begins with a desire to say something,” Smith explained to me, “whether it’s an internal reflection or a response to social conversations around me. From there, I seek out elements that can help translate those thoughts into a visual form, often turning to historic and contemporary artists for inspiration. Textile exploration also plays a key role.”

My own adoration for the history of haute couture ensured that I asked if there were any particular designers from history that Margaret Smith looked up to. Given the quality of the work I was looking at, I knew that if she looked back to earlier eras for inspiration, she’d likely mention idols whose work would be described as ‘sculptural’ or ‘architectural.’

Please know, I mean that in the best way. This writer very firmly believes that there are times and places when apparel is an art form, and there is no one on earth who would spend weeks weaving raffia without knowing who did so and why during the Second World War and during the era immediately after.

I was not let down, again, FIT is probably the best fashion school in the world. Of course its award-winning students are as equally as prepared to discuss the intricacies of fashion intellectually as they trained with the skills most needed by the industry they are joining.

“Cristóbal Balenciaga has always been a designer I deeply admire,” Smith told me, “his use of volume and line is something I constantly look to emulate in my own work. Elsa Schiaparelli is another designer who really resonates with me, and I know exactly why. Her bold collaborations with artists and her seamless blending of art into fashion have always been a source of inspiration for me.”

Looking at her work (like the oversized jacket which managed to still feel light) and considering those two Big names and the wonders both couturiers created, I could easily see connections with Smith’s designs. Not “borrowing”, nothing as cliche as a full-strength homage, but it was obvious this young woman had studied these great designers, distilled the lessons from their triumphs and applied them to her own work. Its rather glorious to watch, but I was very curious about how the designer sees her own work.

“I would define my aesthetic as geometric,” Smith said to me, “with a focus on clean lines and voluminous shoulders. Attention to craft is important. Every collection I create must include a crafted element as a way to honor the women who came before me, to honor them passing down their skills and artistry through generations.”

Margaret Smith, like Khoboso Nale another FIT grand I wrote about last week, is starting her professional life, and in 2025 there are considerations and challenges that earlier generations, including millennials like myself included, simply did not have to navigate.

I asked Smith how all of this mish-mash felt, a world-class education, accolades from fashion business people who don’t exactly make a point of handing out compliments to students, awards and then a potentially terrifying job market.

“I truly valued the feedback I got from both my critic and professor,” Smith told me. “They placed strong emphasis on the forthright realities of the design world, the unfiltered truth about the standards and expectations that await us beyond the classroom. One of the most important lessons I took away was learning how to critically assess my own garments, their quality, how they fall on the body, and how to problem-solve and refine them. It taught me how essential it is to stay hyper aware of your work while also not letting setbacks paralyze you. I’ve had to remind myself of this balance often.”

Haven’t we all? Balance is so hard to achieve and perpetuate. But these aren’t words one might expect to hear from an ingenue designer, more proof that FIT is committed to producing graduates of unquestionable quality, educationally and psychologically prepared for the realities of entering one of the most competitive industries on the planet.

But during our conversation, Smith said something to me that makes me certain we will be seeing a lot of fabulous work from this young woman over the coming years. People like Smith and Nale, probably most of FIT’s student body, and the same at Parsons (I love you Parsons, long story, another time) or Central Saint Martins. People do not go into fashion or costume design careers because they think it will be easy, and if they do think that, they wash out of design school like one might in the Marines, though hopefully completely differently than poor Leonard Lawrence, aka Gomer Pyle.

The point is, fashion or costume are rarely jobs, they are almost always vocations, and the people who work with clothing tend to really love what they do. What we do. And it’s wonderful to have meaningful work in one’s life. I think it helps any of us be better versions of ourselves.

“At the core of my work is a deep connection to women’s stories,” Margaret Smith said to me, “both the untold narratives of the past and the stories yet to be told. From the sources of my inspiration to the way I want my clients to feel when wearing my designs, everything I create comes back to honoring women. To give space for their voices, whether they were never heard or are still finding their place in the world. A key focus for me is finding a brand that aligns with my style, values and mission. I have to continue to experiment, especially with incorporating organic materials into my designs, and exploring new elements and techniques that can push my work. I want people to be compelled to touch my garments, to experience them through their hands.”

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