And the winner is Emma Joan Foley, a mid-westerner who nabbed Supima’s 17th Annual Design Competition after a joint show in New York Fashion Week on Thursday evening.

Born in Minneapolis, part of a twin city with St Paul that is dissected by the Mississippi river, Foley is a graduate of The New School, Parsons School of Design in New York. And like her hometown, Foley’s collection was a blend of two key elements: a bravura understanding of the possibilities of using Supima cotton and her punchy inspiration, medieval armor and 17th century court dress.
 
Staged annually, the Supima Annual Design Competition is a unique prize that pits six graduate students with bachelors’ degrees selected from leading American design schools.

Each designer showed five looks made of denim, shirting, jersey, twill or velveteen American supima, the cashmere of cotton grown by some 300 farmers in the southwest of the United States. Each young talent participating in a joint show inside the Prince George Ballroom in midtown Manhattan.
 
“I am so grateful. I had a great time working on this collection It was such a privilege to extend my thesis from Parsons, and continue that influence. Thank you so much,” beamed Foley.
 
If anything, this was a vintage competition and one of the strongest Supima shows of all. Also impressing were Henry Hawk, from Rhode Island School of Design, who focused on workwear, riffing on late 19th century San Francisco, marking him as a designer destined for a fine career in hipster sportswear.

A meeting of Catholic education and churches permeated the display by Jules Gourley, from the School of Art Institute in Chicago, whose gothic shapes, tulip sleeves and brutalist cutting made for a powerful statement. 
 
Next up, Marina Lamphier, a grad of Philadelphia’s Drexel University, played on her youth sailing in the Great Lakes, with a natty nautical display incorporating naval flags and symbols. And a timely one, seeing as the latest America’s Cup started last week in Barcelona.
 
A desire to address the demons of one’s youth was apparent in clothes by Mina Piao, from the Fashion Institute of Technology, who spoke of “toxicity” of career success being demanded from all second-generation Americans. Her intricately made voluminous clothes, finished with artful errors, had real impact. 

Finally, Lizzy Truit of Kent State University, hailing from a family farm in Alabama, showed romantic fashion based on quilted techniques.
 
The winner took home a prize of $10,000 after voting from a jury chaired by designer Phillip Lim, who stages his own next show Sunday in the Meatpacking district.
 
“After this show the future of fashion seems very assured,” enthused Lim, who addressed the audience together with the prize’s driving force, Buxton Midyette, Supima Vice President of Marketing and Promotions.
 
Lim led a jury of experts that included Fern Mallis, Avril Graham, Mickey Boardman, Freya Drohan, Gilles Dennis, Lida Lockwood and yours truly.