Teen Vogue is proud to announce our Generation Next 2024 class! These incredible designers hail from all around the world and are current college students or recent graduates from across the United States. This year we asked designers to show us the creative ways they think about fashion and demonstrate how that will lead to a better industry in the future and our winning seven truly delivered on another level. From their incredibly innovative designs to the use of sustainable and upcycled materials, to the way they incorporated history and personal stories into their work, each winner is leading fashion forward.
Out of over 100 applicants, this group was chosen by our incredible panel of judges, Creator and Entrepreneur Emma Chamberlain, Fashion Designer Bach Mai, Celebrity Stylist Jared Ellner, Revolve Fashion Director, Divya Mathur, Designer and Environmentalist Frances Fafa Mensah, Designer Brandon Blackwood, and Teen Vogue Editor-in-Chief Versha Sharma.
Ahead meet all seven winners, Echo Gu, Imran Alifu, Rakee Chen, Elle Gailey, Sedona Scott, Jacqueline Picard and Robyn George, and read about how they got into fashion and their hopes for the future.
Echo Gu
Teen Vogue: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Echo Gu: My name is Echo, a name I chose to reflect my aspiration to leave a lasting impression on everyone I meet. My passion for art was first discovered by my kindergarten art teacher and soon nurtured by my mother. From drawing and painting to crafting 3D forms, I’ve always had an unquenchable desire to create. To further pursue my dream, I came to America alone as an exchange student at the age of fifteen.
TV: When was the first moment you knew you wanted to work in fashion?
I still remember a fashion show we had in primary school where art students were tasked with creating garments from recycled materials and modeling them ourselves. I was thrilled and had so much fun transforming shopping bags into a tube top and using blue plastic wrap to create a cloud-like puffy skirt. Even though I was nervous walking across the stage in front of hundreds of students wearing my very first fashion piece, the experience was exhilarating. It was at that moment I knew—I was in love with fashion and I would love to become a fashion designer.
TV: What does the future of fashion look like to you?
Fashion will continue to be a platform for self-expression, political statements, and cultural storytelling, helping unite people together. Sustainability will not only be a trend but forever be an integral part of the fashion industry.
Imran Alifu
Teen Vogue: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Imran Alifu: I’m Imran Alifu, I’m a fashion designer and I just graduated from SCAD. I have a huge passion for blending cultural storytelling with modern design. Coming from a Uyghur background, I really value using fashion as a way to represent underrepresented cultures and challenge ideas around sustainability and creativity. For me, fashion is more than just clothes, I think it’s more about starting conversations, celebrating diversity, and offering new ways of seeing the world.
TV: When was the first moment you knew you wanted to work in fashion?
IA: I realized I wanted to work in fashion when I was in middle school. I used to order American Vogue to my small town since we didn’t have many resources on high fashion. There was nothing more exciting than when my dad brought that magazine home each month. I would flip through every page, completely fascinated by the visuals and editorials. It made me feel very inspired so I had a dream to be a tastemaker. Now, I feel like I’m getting closer to that dream, especially with the incredible opportunity to share my story in a magazine that I once dreamed of being in.
TV: What does the future of fashion look like to you?
IA: To me, the future of fashion is all about identity, world-building, and adapting culture in ways that reflect the diversity of our global society. It’s no longer just about trends—it’s about creating entire narratives around who we are and where we come from. Fashion will be a space where people can see themselves represented and celebrated, no matter their background.
Rakee Chen
Teen Vogue: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Rakee Chen: I’m Rakee Chen, the chief designer of the streetwear brand SCHNABBIT. With a background in product design and fashion, I specialize in 3D design and have won several awards in digital fashion, such as the Rookie Awards and the CLO Digital Fashion Week competition.My design work blends 3D technology with storytelling, often inspired by movies and character creation.
TV: When was the first moment you knew you wanted to work in fashion?
RC: My interest in fashion began while working in costume design for films. I realized how closely fashion and film are connected, and this relationship inspired me to explore fashion more deeply.
TV: What does the future of fashion look like to you?
RC: I think the future of fashion is a fusion of physical and digital realms. I see fashion evolving with the integration of technology, virtual environments, and digital garments, creating more immersive experiences for consumers. Sustainable practices will also become more central, with designers focusing on using new materials and technologies that minimize environmental impact.
Elle Gailey
Teen Vogue: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Elle Gailey: I am a New York-based textile artist and fashion designer focused on creating textiles based in traditional and hand-crafted techniques. My work mainly consists of hand knitting, quilting, and embroidery, coupled with photographs and fabric prints. My practice is grounded in a yearning to capture, archive, and appreciate moments; both moments in time and visual moments in the textiles I make. Much of my inspiration anchors back to my childhood in Northern California and the memories of people and places I love. I am fascinated by the way that these memories and the feelings they hold inevitably change over time.
TV: When was the first moment you knew you wanted to work in fashion?
EG: I have always loved fine art and textile-based craft. I am inspired by the act of making and the learning that comes along with it. My fashion practice is an amalgamation of making and learning; it melds fine art and craft work in a way that invites other people to interact with my work.
TV: What does the future of fashion look like to you?
EG: I am really excited about craftwork in fashion. There is a resurgence of appreciation for process and craft that I am eager to be a part of. It feels important to be able to slow down and look closely at the things we are making and how they are made in today’s world.
Sedona Scott
Teen Vogue: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Sedona Scott: I was born and raised in Cape Coral, Florida. Growing up on the coast of Florida surrounded by nature and the ocean, has greatly influenced my design aesthetic. I am a recent graduate from the Savannah College of Art and Design. I graduated with a BFA in Fashion Design and a minor in Bridal and Evening wear. I recently moved to NYC, working as a design intern at Ulla Johnson this Fall in hopes of pursuing a career in fashion design.
TV: When was the first moment you knew you wanted to work in fashion?
SS: I knew I wanted to work in fashion when I was first introduced to sewing in high school. I immediately fell in love. I started off making clothes out of anything I could whether it was thrifted fabrics or even unconventional materials like paper and plastic. The town I grew up in didn't have access to many fabric stores, I didn't even know fashion could be a potential career for me up until it came to deciding where I wanted to attend college.
TV: What does the future of fashion look like to you?
SS: The future of fashion to me is one where consumers realize their purchasing power. I want to see people truly thinking about items before purchasing. My hope for the future is that quality over quantity is priority.
Jacqueline Picard
Teen Vogue: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Jacqueline Picard: My name is Jacqueline Picard, and I am a menswear designer originally from a small beach town on the south shore of Massachusetts. Growing up near the ocean has greatly influenced my aesthetic as a designer. I love to blend coastal inspiration with timeless, quality menswear. I recently graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) with a BFA in Fashion Design, where I discovered my passion for eco-conscious textiles and tailoring. I’m currently living in New York City, pursuing my career in fashion and working to establish my own unique voice in the industry as a woman in menswear design.
TV: When was the first moment you knew you wanted to work in fashion?
JP: I’ve always been drawn to the arts and creative careers in general, but it wasn’t until later in high school that I knew I wanted to pursue a career in fashion. I wasn’t sure which specific area of the industry I wanted to focus on, but attending SCAD allowed me to explore different aspects of fashion, which made me realize that design is where I belong. My menswear focus came a little later in my college career, during a class where a professor suggested I sketch some of my designs on male croquis. Something clicked, and I realized, “This is what I should be designing.” Since then, my passion for menswear has only grown, and I’m excited to continue developing and creating.
TV: What does the future of fashion look like to you?
JP:I believe the future of fashion will emphasize quality products and technologically advanced fabrics. As the industry evolves, we’ll see a stronger focus on durability, sustainability, and innovative textiles. With my focus on menswear, I’m particularly excited about the potential to merge tradition with technology. I look forward to creating pieces that honor classic tailoring while incorporating these advanced textiles and techniques.
Robyn George
Teen Vogue: Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Robyn George: I'm 22 years old and I'm from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I recently moved to Chicago with two of my best friends who are also designers, Ian and Lisa. Together, along with Grantham and Sydni we have a design group called Numbers which presented for the first time during New York Fashion Week in September. My brand is called Hail Mary, I use it as a platform to share my textile and apparel work as an art form. I'm very interested in interdisciplinary design and collaboration. I entered college at UW-Madison as a political science major which really heavily informed the way that I use the medium to digest the world around me, it also pushed me to create spaces like The Issue on campus where art and culture can combine to create something new and unrestricted. I'm inspired by feminine artists that came before me, especially Hilma af Klint, Georgia O'Keeffe, Sonya Clark, Karon Davis and Joyce Scott.
TV: When was the first moment you knew you wanted to work in fashion?
RG: I've always been interested in fashion, for as long as I could dress myself my vision for what I wanted to wear has transcended what was available to me, and I've always been a problem solver so it's been my natural instinct to create that. I would say I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in textiles and fashion seriously when completing a research project on the artist Sonya Clark. She's a textile artist who uses hair and other mixed media to create commentary on life as a Black American. Seeing her ability to tell stories through textiles along with other designers like John Galiano and Lee Alexander McQueen who create narratives through wearables pushed me to create art in the form of fashion.
TV: What does the future of fashion look like to you?
RG: My hope is that the future of fashion is a diverse parade of culturally informed, sustainable, and adaptive personal style. I want to see a fashion industry and community that embraces sentimentality and I want each person to be their own fashion authority. To me, a future in fashion only exists where reducing environmental impact is the top priority, and I think that in order to achieve that we will all have to approach clothing more personally. The exciting part about it is that the fashion community will become a lot more exciting and less repetitive. The future of fashion should be both exciting and progressive.
