The Rising Designers Bringing Fresh Perspective to Fashion

Meet the Veronica Beard x CFDA Creative Futures Scholarship winners

The future of fashion starts with the next generation—and this summer, we’re paying it forward by investing in it. Through our VB Gives Back partnership with the CFDA Foundation, we launched the Veronica Beard x CFDA Creative Futures Scholarship to provide financial assistance, mentorship, and immersive industry experience to four rising design talents poised to help shape fashion’s next chapter. 

Through a competitive application process, each recipient was chosen for their unique vision, technical skill, and dedication to thoughtful, forward-thinking design. They’re now spending the summer at our NYC headquarters, working alongside the VB design team and gaining real-world experience across the denim, tailoring, soft wovens, and knitwear departments—bringing a fresh perspective to the table and leaving their mark on what’s next. 

Ahead, get to know the 2025 Creative Futures class. 

Athmiha Saravanen – Tailoring

Athmiha Saravanen, an incoming FIT senior studying sportswear design, grew up in Karur, India, a small textile town where her family runs a fabric exporting business. Having grown up surrounded by fabrics and threads, fashion is in her blood—but she’s chosen to forge her own path within it. “Rather than textiles, I’m really drawn to design in terms of silhouette,” she says. “That’s what I love.” Currently interning with our tailoring team, she brings an eye for detail and thoughtful construction—especially when it comes to jackets, her favorite piece to design.

For Athmiha, design is storytelling—“a way to share who you are with others.” Her creative perspective is deeply influenced by her multilingual background—she speaks four languages—and the many sides it brings out. “Every language I speak brings out a different version of myself,” she says, which has led her to design with versatility and modularity in mind. As she continues to pursue a career in fashion, she hopes to carry forward a strong sense of intentionality in her work—something she’s already been cultivating at VB. 

Giorgio Parolini Arroyo – Soft Wovens

For Giorgio Parolini Arroyo—a soon-to-be senior fashion design student at FIT—culture is at the heart of his vision. Born in Mexico City to Italian and Mexican parents, he dreams of building the first luxury Mexican fashion brand—one that both uplifts his culture and brings fading traditional artisan craftsmanship into a more contemporary context. “I don’t want to do this just for me,” he says. “I want to drive my country forward.” From working with traditional dyes like cochineal to collaborating with local artisans, Giorgio sees design as a way to connect the past to the present with intention. “When we lose these crafts, we lose part of our culture,” he says. “I feel the need to really promote them through new and exciting ways.”

Specializing in soft wovens—both in his personal work and at VB—Giorgio brings a love of shape and silhouette, gravitating toward fabrics with movement and drape. Through his internship, he’s gaining a deeper understanding of how a collection comes together across different perspectives—and how creativity and structure coexist within the fashion business. It’s this balance that Giorgio hopes to carry forward as he builds a brand rooted in both purpose and craft. 

Samira Koehler – Knitwear

Samira Koehler’s fashion journey spans continents. Born in Germany, she studied at Polimoda in Florence before landing in New York at FIT, where she’s now specializing in knitwear. Her love for fashion began early—taught to sew by her grandmothers, she started stitching Barbie dresses from fabric scraps at age seven. Hailing from a family in STEM, her appreciation for math translates well to knitwear, a side of design that requires just as much calculation as creativity. “People think I’m sitting around knitting scarves,” she laughs, “But it’s actually super technical and involves a lot of handwork—even when you’re working with machines.”

Her approach to design blends emotion with self-expression, creating garments that feel personal and full of life. At VB, she’s been contributing across the design process—from sitting in on prototyping meetings to experimenting with print placement on knit garments. “I hope to learn a lot from the people around me,” she says. “Especially in New York, where brands are made up of people from so many different backgrounds—you can pick up something from everyone.” 

Lena Alibrio – Denim

When Lena Alibrio read the Chloe by Design book series as a kid, she realized being a fashion designer was an actual job, and never looked back. She started drawing clothes, paid careful attention to her outfits, and eventually found her way to Marist College, where she’s now entering her senior year. While experimentation across all categories is part of her fashion design program, it’s denim that stuck. “I was working on a portfolio and started playing around with denim,” she says. “I just loved exploring it.”

Lena’s design perspective is rooted in what she loves to wear—inspired by the understated elegance and minimalism of the ’90s. “Not too over the top, but designed for the everyday,” she says. At VB, she’s helping the team design for Fall 2026, sketching into concepts and gathering visual inspiration. “I didn’t think I would actually be designing, but here I am!” As she dives deeper into the process—from understanding washes to collaborating with merchandising—she’s learning how to balance creative exploration with the needs of the customer.