Q+A with Valentina Chirkes
Parsons BFA 2025
Adamo
At No Kill Magazine, we’re after what might change the game — not just what’s next. Some of the sharpest ideas are coming from designers rewriting fashion’s rules.
In Next Gen / No Kill, we spotlight standout fashion graduates whose work opens up new conversations and possibilities. From New York’s top programs and beyond, these are the designers shaping a future of fashion defined by intelligence, creativity, and intention.
What is the inspiration or concept behind it?
This collection was co-created with four “clients” as a way to close the gap that exists between designer and customer. Fast fashion has established a distance between the two which prevents the creation of clothing with high inherent value. By bringing them together, the designer can create products that will be deemed highly valuable by its user, and the customer gets to give input on their garments and participate in the manufacturing process.
What’s one material or technique you’re currently obsessed with?
Custom upcycling, something that I did for two of the garments in my collection (patchwork leather jacket and striped culotte pants). These were made from a client’s preloved garments and re-manufactured custom for them.
What does fashion mean to you today?
Fashion to me is a vehicle of confidence, we don’t choose clothes by how they look but by how they make us feel, and how much they reflect us and our style.
What’s one thing you wish the fashion industry would leave behind—and one thing it should embrace?
The fashion industry should leave behind business models centered around selling massive quantities and should embrace creating new fashion systems to produce, create, sell and communicate fashion in more conscious and sustainable ways that focus on building holistic value.
Who or what has shaped your design values most?
Being born and raised in Argentina, the availability of clothing wasn’t nearly as much as it is here. Growing up my family always taught me to buy things consciously, treat things with care and get rid of them only when necessary and to someone you know will continue to value them.
If you could design for anyone in the world, who would it be—and why?
With the design system I created, I would want to design with/for as many people as possible to learn as much as I can about this process. But if I had to name one person, probably Miley Cyrus, she has one of the coolest styles.
Three things keeping you sane right now
My friends, working out, a clean space.
One word to describe your design approach: Valuable
Where can we find you online?
www.adamostudios.com / @adamo.studios
www.valenchirkes.com / @valenchirkes
