What the IFM BA 2025 Show Really Told Us

This summer, Paris Fashion Week Men’s didn’t open with an established house, but with 30 names you’ll want to remember. Graduating students from Institut Français de la Mode’s BA in fashion design took over the school’s campus with a show that read as both a debut and a series of personal manifestos. Selected from over 70 final-year collections by an industry jury, the 30 featured designers offered a glimpse into fashion’s future. Global in perspective but grounded in Paris.

Founded on the belief that fashion is as much a cultural act as a commercial one, IFM’s BA program, led by Thierry Rondenet and Hervé Yvrenogeau, bridges technical mastery with artistic inquiry and social critique. The result: designers who are precise, fearless, and fluent in the now. 

That spirit ran through the runway. Victoire Pédron’s “Dressing the Room” transformed her grandmother’s lace curtains and porcelain into sculptural silhouettes, blurring nostalgia with irony. Raphaël Ignazi’s “Les Voleuses” imagined elegant art thieves who steal not out of need, but for the thrill. Clémentine Smith softened the 1950s American male archetype, using tailoring to unravel myths of power and masculinity. Ore Atowoju’s “Clonette” turned a plastic childhood doll into a haunting metaphor for cultural inheritance and self-authorship. And Ken Gongyuan Xie asked why adulthood must be so restrained, pairing inflated tailoring and balloon-filled dresses with unfiltered, childlike joy. 

As for the rest of the class? Scroll on.