At age 6 or 7, Caroline Hill dressed in purple corduroy shorts and a tie-dye T-shirt to go to the mall in the wintertime. Her mom said she needed to change, so Hill added rainbow tights, earning compliments from passersby.
“I was strong-willed and strong-minded and knew what I wanted to wear,” says Hill, a Chesapeake, Virginia, native who currently works as a showroom and design assistant at Watson Ellis in New York City. “The minute I learned to dress myself — it was pretty much completely out of my mom’s hands.”
Hill learned to sew in middle school home economics class and chose her career path after taking a fashion design course in high school. She participated in the Summer Fashion Academy, a weeklong preview of Kent State University fashion programs for high schoolers, and knew she wanted to study fashion design there.
Through Kent State, she spent a semester in its New York City Fashion program in 2023. She interned at Watson Ellis, doing custom suiting in the city. Then, in 2024, she completed Kent State’s Paris American Academy study abroad program and learned the art of making couture.
Her eight-look senior collection, ID:Cloaked, won Best in Show at Kent State’s student fashion show.
“My collection, Cloaked, was inspired by anonymity and blurring of identity,” Hill says. “It’s definitely a modern take on suiting and tailoring.”
The first look is a voluminous modern trench coat crafted from cotton gabardine and weather-treated nylon with khaki and army green color blocking and handmade piping. The undershirt has a wrap belt that feeds through welt slits in the coat.
“There’s a massive collar that can be laid down to look more natural … [or] flipped up,” she says, “That’s definitely an element that ties into the idea of cloaking.”
All the Cloaked looks are visually linked with trompe-l’oeil prints, made by dipping muslin patterns in paint and stamping them onto garments.
“I wanted to further the concept of being confused at what you’re looking at,” Hill says.
A double-breasted cropped trench coat provides a modern aesthetic with a reversible wool hood with an attached mask and a removable shoulder covering paired with pants featuring a skirt layer.
“There’s a tab cover that ties around the ankles that would be seen on trench coat sleeves,” she says.
A linen shirt dress has a hidden placket that conceals a front closure and removable shirt tails jutting out of the bottom. The look is finished with an oversized army green scarf that was digitally knit in Kent State’s KnitLab.
“You program it on the computer and then essentially plug it into this huge machine, and it prints, essentially, the knit scarf or sweater,” Hill says.
Featuring a striped cotton button-up with long knotted sleeves that resemble neckties, another look has an oversized vest paired with linen balloon pants with crisp center pleats and French ankle cuffs.
“Something like French cuffs would traditionally be worn with a tuxedo,” Hill says. “For me, it was all about finding those traditional menswear elements and flipping them on their heads.”
All eight looks in Cloaked could be worn by either men or women. Despite being in menswear, Hill works to be inclusive. Watson Ellis creates custom suits for men, women and nonbinary people. Her dream is to go to London and apprentice on Savile Row, where suits have been made for centuries.
“I’m really interested in bespoke suiting and becoming essentially a master tailor, the term that they like to use in England,” she says. “It’s an art form.”
Allison Freidly
Allison Freidly
Allison Freidly
Allison Freidly
Allison Freidly
Allison Freidly
