Luxury bedding brand Boll & Brand held its first design competition with the Fashion Institute of Technology, featuring co-creative directors of Monse, and formerly of Oscar de la Renta, Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia as special guest judges.
Held at the New York City fashion school on Tuesday, the competition invited students from its Fashion Design and Technical Design programs to transform the brand’s signature organic cotton fabrics, which are all ethically sourced and fair trade, into ready-to-wear garments. Last year, Boll & Branch hit a milestone of $2 million in fair trade contributions.
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The competition, created by Boll & Branch to empower the next generation of talent and encourage those who prioritize the company’s shared values of ethics, sustainability and craftsmanship, featured five senior year students including Ji Yun Lim, Jiaying Xie, Wajeeha Hassan, Doriean Jackson and Latecia Lester, who were chosen from an initial 30 participants. Additional judges included Boll & Branch’s cofounder Missy Tannen, chief creative officer Kristen Deyko and vice president of brand marketing Danielle Sih.
“With the partnership we did with Prabal [Gurung] at the Met Gala, it was a really neat way to surprise and delight — even our own imaginations, let alone our customers and the people who are using our products. With FIT, it was an extension of that,” Tannen told WWD.
In 2024, the bedding company partnered with Gurung on a custom gown, worn by Maria Sharapova for the Met Gala, crafted in its 100 percent organic Supima cotton; his following spring 2025 collection featured looks crafted from Boll & Branch’s Summit Supima fabric. These partnerships inspired the company to expand their creative vision of how their fabrications can be showcased.
“Getting to work with FIT — here’s the next generation of designers and technical designers,” Tannen explained. “We had that idea of, ‘How can the students play with our fabric and create something extraordinary out of it?’ For us, it’s really inspiring to see what they could dream up, what their concepts were and how they provided their own storytelling. We have ours, and it was neat to see them shine through their garments.”
Throughout the competition, each of the five FIT students presented their custom look and were judged on their originality and creativity of design concept and storytelling, as well as design appeal of their finished garments.
Yun Lim took home the first prize for her silver draped, sculptural minidress, inspired by the concept of capturing draped fabric and the idea of a fleeting moment, which Garcia noted the judges were inspired by. In addition, Xie was awarded runner-up of the 2026 competition for her shirred and draped cropped jacket and maxiskirt, which featured custom Boll & Branch tags with detailed fabrication information.
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