NEW YORK — Russell Simmons got some help from Parsons School of Design students with his latest remix Thursday.
Simmons, founder of the Phat Farm clothing line, and Kimora Lee Simmons, founder of Baby Phat clothing, participated in The Style Remix contest in conjunction with Parsons. Students were asked to take preexisting collections of Phat Farm and Baby Phat and restyle them. Each student created six looks —three for the women’s collection and three for the men’s. Simmons visited Parsons to select the winner, Christopher Statham, from three finalists: Arthur Pogosian, Lok Lam “Lum” Yeung and Statham.
“We wanted to see how our students would reinvent and remix these collections,” said Timothy Gunn, chairman of the fashion design department at Parsons. “The challenge for the students was starting with something they didn’t make.” Gunn also noted that students had to employ both a women’s and men’s sensibility to their collections, something his students are not regularly required to do.
The three finalists presented their collections to Simmons, who deliberated for a few moments before shouting, “I got it!” to signify he’d selected Statham as the winner.
“I kept it urban, but made it sleek,” Statham said of his collection that featured a graffiti-inspired shorts set for men and supershort denim shorts for women, which prompted Simmons to say, “You’ll get arrested in those.”
Statham, 21, won $2,000 for the best women’s wear and men’s wear collections, which will be featured in the Phat Farm Store in SoHo here.
“These kids aren’t restricted by the marketplace, so it wasn’t stale,” Simmons said while Statham posed for photographers with an oversized check for his winnings. “We judged them on what feels good. There are a lot of subtle details here that I could do a whole collection off of.”