If fashion, like advertising, Hollywood, fast food, and athletics, is obsessed with youth, then Début on Mulberry Street in Manhattan was the place to be on Tuesday evening. While much of New York overran the seaport to try and get an earful of Drake (or was it Hanson?) at Paper’s free (and then canceled) concert, some of us stayed above Houston St. to get a glimpse of selected up-and-comers from Parsons New School of Design’s graduating class.

“We singled out 10 designers from the Parsons graduating class. We met with 40 seniors, saw their look sheets, and then chose 10,” says Début owner Lisa Weiss, who opened her NoHo shop to display only the newest, most undiscovered talent. “That was the inspiration for the store. A lot of stores like to watch a designer for a while, and see how they sell through. We’re not looking for a track record. We want to showcase new talent, help them get started and provide some help with the their overhead,” she says.

This year, Weiss noted that students were working with good quality fabrics, and were moving away from the lighter, spring materials. “Wool, cashmere, knitwear; those were some of the stronger collections we saw,” she says.

Some sartorial highlights from last night’s event: