Academy of Art University Online Fashion Student Named Inaugural CFDA x Bezos Earth Fund Next Thread Scholar

BFA Fashion Design student Catrielle Barnett is one of just 12 emerging designers nationwide selected for the inaugural scholarship supporting the future of sustainable fashion.

Academy of Art University School of Fashion student Catrielle Barnett has been named an inaugural CFDA x Bezos Earth Fund Next Thread Scholar, earning national recognition for a body of work that brings together sustainability, craftsmanship, technology, and the stories embedded in reclaimed materials.

Barnett, an online BFA Fashion Design student, is one of only 12 undergraduate and graduate designers from eight schools across the United States selected for the inaugural class of Next Thread Scholars. The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) describes the award as its largest scholarship program and its only scholarship dedicated specifically to sustainability in fashion design.

The 12 recipients will share more than $500,000 in scholarship support for the 2026–2027 academic year, with awards individually designed to help close students’ remaining tuition gaps. Scholars also receive funding for thesis materials, supplies, and studio expenses. The scholarship is part of the larger $6.25 million CFDA x Bezos Earth Fund The Next Thread Initiative, created to advance innovation and education in sustainable fashion.

For Barnett, the recognition is the culmination of years of following the CFDA’s student opportunities—and an intense period of preparation once she learned she had become one of the competition’s 20 finalists.

“I’ve been following the CFDA competition for years, so when I found out I was selected as one of the 20 finalists, I was genuinely so excited and grateful,” Barnett said.

At the time, she was balancing junior-year finals, several jobs, and development of her pre-thesis work. Still, she said she approached preparation for the finalist presentation “like a full-time job.”

When she ultimately learned she had received the scholarship, Barnett was completing a summer intensive internship.

“I was incredibly excited, but that excitement also came with a deep sense of gratitude and humility,” she said. “I am in the company of many talented designers, and I feel incredibly fortunate to have my work recognized by the CFDA and the Bezos Earth Fund.”

Reclaiming Identity Through Fashion

At the center of Barnett’s award-winning portfolio is Reclaiming Identity, a collection inspired by historical quilts and the histories contained within them.

“I see quilts as more than textiles; they record labor, memory, family, and community,” Barnett said. “I wanted to preserve that sense of history while transforming these materials into contemporary sculptural garments.”

Her process crosses disciplines. Research, poetry, photography, set design, garment construction, textile work, and digital technology all contribute to the collection.

Barnett works with community-sourced quilts, reclaimed denim, repurposed materials, and donated cotton and linen, approaching the existing material not simply as raw material to be reshaped, but as an artifact whose history should remain visible in the finished garment.

The stains, repairs, irregularities, colors, and signs of use within the textiles become part of the design.

“I wasn’t simply sourcing fabric; I was receiving objects that someone else had already cared for, used, and given meaning,” she said. “I wanted to honor that history.”

For Barnett, quilt-making itself represents what she calls a “living archive of labor and memory.”

“A quilt is an archive because every piece of fabric, stitch, repair, and decision represents a moment in time,” she said. “It records the hands that made it, the available resources, and the lives that surrounded it.”

That philosophy also shapes the collection’s approach to sustainability.

Sustainability as a Creative Challenge

Barnett does not view sustainability as an addition to the design process. Instead, she sees it as something that should influence decisions from the beginning.

“Sustainability is about intention,” she said. “It’s about being conscious of what I have before asking what I need next.”

Her process includes reclaimed and donated materials, natural dyeing techniques, digital prototyping, and zero-waste patternmaking. Before cutting into limited or one-of-a-kind textiles, Barnett uses CLO3D to experiment digitally with silhouette, proportion, and construction.

The approach allows her to evaluate ideas before physically manipulating the material, reducing unnecessary sampling and waste.

“Technology and traditional textile practices aren’t opposing ideas,” Barnett said. “They are different tools that can support one another.”

The results can be remarkably efficient. Barnett has achieved up to 98% fabric efficiency through zero-waste patternmaking—an accomplishment she has turned into part of the creative challenge itself.

“At this point, fabric efficiency has become a game for me,” she said. “I constantly challenge myself to use a material effectively and get the most out of every piece of fabric.”

Instead of designing a predetermined silhouette and then finding material to fit it, Barnett often allows the dimensions, imperfections, and limitations of reclaimed textiles to shape the garment.

“Sometimes the most unexpected shapes come from trying to make every inch work,” she said.

That combination of environmental thinking, design strategy, construction, and creative vision helped earn Barnett a place among this year’s scholars. The Next Thread finalists presented their work to a selection committee that included Bezos Earth Fund Vice Chair Lauren Sánchez Bezos; CFDA President and CEO Steven Kolb; and designers Joseph Altuzarra, Stacey Bendet, Tommy Hilfiger, Grace Ling, Sami Miró, and Tracy Reese.

From an Online Classroom to National Recognition

Barnett’s achievement also demonstrates what is possible for students pursuing their creative education online.

As a fully online Academy of Art University student, Barnett has developed the technical skills, creative practice, digital workflow, and portfolio that helped her stand out in a national field of emerging fashion designers.

Academy of Art University’s BFA Fashion Design program is offered both online and on campus and incorporates research, sourcing, sketching, draping, patternmaking, construction, technology, and portfolio development to prepare students for the professional fashion industry.

Now entering the next stage of her work, Barnett sees the scholarship not as a destination, but as an opportunity to push further.

“This scholarship helps support my dedication to design work and ongoing research,” she said. “I’m incredibly thankful for the support and excited to keep learning, experimenting, and reaching in new directions this year.”

Her goals remain rooted in the same ideas that shaped Reclaiming Identity: curiosity, experimentation, history, technology, and a determination to rethink the relationship between fashion and the materials from which it is made.

“I plan to build a career where I can continue experimenting, collaborating, and making things that encourage people to look at materials, clothing, and their own relationship with fashion a little differently,” Barnett said.

“Being a designer is about staying curious, staying open, and continuing to ask: What else is possible?”

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