For student designers making clothes in bedrooms, basements, and borrowed studio spaces, Put You On (PYO) feels less like a student fashion show and more like a soft launch for the next wave of fashion designers. The community-driven fashion discovery platform, started in 2020 by Olufemi Yessoufou and Zachariah Smith, helps student designers showcase individuality and cultivate community around their brands, as well as connect with consumers and other creators.

PYO sees range as the point, and their events aim to steer away from trends. Designers are able to showcase eco-friendly fabrics and experimental silhouettes and are unafraid to be unique. Yessoufou and Smith curate with intention, selecting brands that reflect PYO’s forward-thinking, community-first ethos. The casual music and conversations set the perfect ambiance as people circle the room taking in the designs, paired with the panel where industry speakers pull back the curtain on process and positioning. It’s part showcase, part open dialogue: consumers get context, and designers get a rare chance to articulate their vision in real time. Yessoufou, a fashion management graduate student at Parsons School of Design, and Smith, a graduate of Morehouse College (where they met), said they co-founded PYO after being inspired by the many talented brands that existed on their college campuses that were yet to be given a spotlight. 

At PYO’s events, emerging brands can learn from being in front of the customer, being able to talk about the storytelling behind their brands, their design theory, all while engaging with their community. “It’s not necessarily about having a million customers, but a few customers who buy from you repeatedly,” Yessoufou said. 

PYO’s pop-ups and mixers are designed as entry points. They give new designers a place to start out, allowing them to navigate the gap between student work and a competitive industry where consumers have access to unlimited fashion. When curating, Yessoufou said the team starts close to home — first with Parsons students, then friends, and then brands they’ve discovered through their own networks or social media. “The creation process really is first leaning into our immediate circle, and then … maybe brands that we’ve seen on social media, and it’s always Parsons. It’s been Parsons and friends,” Yessoufou said. 

Photo by Mitchell Ho

Not every designer is fully established, and that’s part of the point. PYO prioritizes those who feel ready to showcase and get in front of people, even if they’re still building their brand. On Dec. 5, 2025, PYO hosted an industry mixer in the Parsons Student Hub, an event with the ethos Yessoufou described as for the students, by the students. 

“In terms of quality of garment and … the stylistic elements of design … [the students] do a great job. But when it comes to meeting the community where they’re at and meeting the people where they’re at, sometimes that part is a little bit tougher,” Smith said. “That’s where events like these … helping bring the community to Parsons becomes even more meaningful because it gives those student designers that platform that they so desperately need.” 

Another goal of PYO, besides hosting in-person events, is building and growing an online presence. “Our platform aims to create a space where emerging designers can be discovered, and people who are interested in shopping decent, niche, and emerging brands can kind of build a community for themselves on our platform,” said Yessoufou. PYO largely focuses on the importance of community in physical spaces as well as the digital realm. Both creators and shoppers get to be exposed to unique fashion pieces they wouldn’t find elsewhere. 

On Feb. 13, PYO returned with “Open Studios,” a Parsons & Friends event that expanded on its first showcase. The evening began with a panel featuring stylists and creative directors — including Parsons alum Chantelle Thach — who spoke about building an audience in a digital-first industry. 

While students may have access to many materials and resources in the Parsons studios, learning how to tackle the challenges surrounding uniqueness, quality, and technique, another prevalent challenge is the need for connection-building and exposure to help build their future brands, Yessoufou explained. Through building relationships between shoppers and creators, PYO opens up a world of opportunities. Their cultivation of a fresh space for building such connections helps designers find a voice in an industry that struggles to support brands lacking virality.

As PYO expands, its founders say the biggest lesson has been learning when to step back. “One thing that we really have learned is also releasing some control,” Yessoufou said. “We’ve been, in the past, very meticulous of what type of brands we want there … while it is good to curate and be very particular, it’s also good to sometimes let go.” That means trusting collaborators who are deeply connected in the industry and have built their own community to help shape the visuals and energy of each event. “Put You On is always meant to serve the community before ourselves,” Yessoufou said. “Whichever way that they see themselves.” If PYO hopes to exist as more than a show, openness and community-forward thinking may be the key.

Photo by Mitchell Ho

Co-founders Yessoufou and Smith hope to make these collaborations with Parsons a regularity in the future, and expand their reach to support more brands, as well as continue to give student designers support, platforms, and networks. They hope to see an industry where emerging designers have the same opportunity to share their work with the world that brand names do. “Best way to do things, if you want to see them done … is do it yourself,” said Yessoufou.