One of the perks of my job is participating in Thesis Week at Parsons. It’s amazing not only to see the students’ creativity—but also their own getups. Yesterday, a panel of industry “judges” including Carolina Herrera, Vogue‘s Meredith Melling Burke, and John Bartlett gathered to see about a dozen collections (out of about 170). We saw accomplished hand-painted and draped dresses, fluoro swimwear, and a goat-fur coat, but everyone left talking about Julia Blum’s lingerie line called Ardor. The designer (who sported an Amy Winehouse-style beehive pinned with flowers) was inspired by Nabokov’s Lolita. Her workmanship was fine, and the conceptions daring—we chose one of the tamer looks for Style File.