Aligned Poster Print Snap Shirt
“layers of Freedom,
Echos of Stonewall.”
2025 Parsons BFA Thesis Collection
tongm648@newschool.edu
Instagram:
@_cygne
My name is Meng Tong. As a designer raised in a traditional Chinese household, I draw inspiration from personal experiences to explore identity, cultural complexity, and environmental responsibility. Navigating the tension between societal expectations and self-expression, I found in fashion a powerful medium for storytelling. My designs often incorporate recycled materials, layered prints, and adaptable silhouettes—reflecting a dialogue between history, identity, and sustainability. I view myself not just as a recipient of external influences, but as an active filter—processing, transforming, and reinterpreting them through a deeply personal lens.
For me, design is more than aesthetics or function; it is a dynamic, intimate, and socially engaged form of art that responds to the world around us. By blending cultural symbolism with ecological awareness, I aim to create work that is both expressive and responsible—honoring the past while imagining inclusive, sustainable futures.
I grew up in a traditional Chinese household, surrounded by deeply rooted gender roles and cultural expectations. Ideas centered around family continuity, social conformity, and heteronormativity created an invisible web that profoundly shaped the way I viewed myself and the world. As I gradually realized that my identity differed from these expectations, I found myself caught between silence and self-exploration, searching for a way to express a self that could coexist with inherited beliefs.
Coming to Parsons and living in New York marked a turning point. For the first time, I was immersed in a more open and inclusive environment—one where the identity that once felt isolating was met with understanding and acceptance. I began to critically reflect on how culture, memory, and power shape identity, not only in daily life but across history.
While researching the stories of marginalized communities, particularly the queer liberation movement, I became drawn to the marks of time, the tension between fragility and resilience, and the ways garments could be reshaped, adapted, and transformed. I was deeply moved by the emotional weight carried by secondhand clothing and began to explore the subtle balance between concealment and revelation. By deconstructing and reconstructing old garments into new patchworks and structures, I discovered a quiet but powerful form of expression.
In this ongoing creative journey, design has become a way for me to navigate personal memory, cultural tension, and the urgency of sustainability. Every design decision becomes part of a larger conversation—not a declaration, but a gesture: a tribute to memory, a voice for survival, and a step toward becoming whole.
Meng Tong @_cygne
tongm648@newschool.edu
Photographer:
Yueyan Lin @_yuillim1999
Models:
Devin Leadbeater @devin.leadbeater
Anthony Antenucci @itsanthony_a
Tomas De Keulenaer @tomasdekeulenaer
Ryan Zhensheng Lin @ryann_lin_
Instructors:
Daniel Salmon @danielmarksalmon
Ranjit Lalvani @ranjitchristopherlalvani
Special thanks:
Zhimeng Liu @zhimeng_odn
Muyun Sun @muyun_sun
Jackson Feng @jackson_feng_
Xiaohan Chang @xiaohhan_chang