APRIL 10, 2025 | ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | By Olivia Link and Maya Rosen
On an unseasonably chilly Friday afternoon, students line the outside of the Cornerstone Arts building, hoping to secure a runway-side seat to the annual Colorado College Fashion Show. Many of the excited audience members look like they stepped right out of a Vogue catalog, others are dressed in wild outfits, known as “flare,” following the spring Fun Run. As we enter, we first notice a long runway has been installed in the center of Cornstone’s main space. The sides are lined with bright colors and metallic materials. The walls have been adorned with green tulle and silver balloons.
As the room fills with nearly 300 chattering voices, they are accompanied by a smoothing yet enticing instrumental soundscape. Projections can be seen on the walls, displaying liquid paintings, live projects by student artists working with the B-Side Collective, an on-campus accessible art group offering workshops to CC students.
As the chatter dies down and the lighting dims, the music shifts to an upbeat sound-track, opening the event with a vision statement narrated by Ashanty Garcia ‘27, student leader of the Colorado College Sustainable Fashion Club. She describes this year’s theme of “Dream Space: Futures of Fashion” as an attempt to create “a more liberatory, creative community” at CC. “Today, more than ever,” Garcia says, “we need to dream of the future… Futurism in art is activism.”
Throughout the nearly two-hour-long showcase featuring 18 student designers and one visiting artist, Kiwi Phong Nguyen, there were far too many incredible pieces for us to detail. Instead, Olivia and I have decided to feature some of our standout pieces and collections, which feature a broad range of interpretations of this year’s futuristic theme.
Olivia Link’s Standouts:
I absolutely adored how immersive and engaging the entire event was. In addition to the incredible looks on stage, audience members were treated to beautiful visuals and enthralling soundscaping.
While each designer brought something impressively unique to the table, we are highlighting three looks that we feel stood out from the rest. Junior Rebecca Walters’ Alice in Wonderland-inspired collection was an incredible start to the show. One model walked out in a black outfit and a mushroom hat with a widow-esque veil. Another model wore a corset made entirely of playing cards layered over one another.
Marina Malin’s ‘25 clothes embraced her self-proclaimed curiosity and love of reclaimed materials and alternative construction methods, as one of her models showed off a skirt made from an old map.
Max Blair Houston ‘27 designed the penultimate look of the night in a collection that they fully fabricated and sewed by hand. Their showstopper included a long, hand-beaded midnight gown that radiated elegance.
Maya Rosen’s Standouts:
I took a special interest in this year’s theme which connected all the pieces: “Dream Space: Futures of Fashion.” I loved to see each artist’s interpretation of the theme and hear their thought process read aloud before each presentation.
I was first struck by Alyssa Sorensen’s ‘25 collection “Fully Loved Clothing,” which tackled the theme of futurism in fashion through the lens of repurposing and waste reduction. She opened her collection with delicate patchwork dresses and colorful constructed loungewear with the statement that “the future of fashion is reuse and sustainability.”
Others, however, imagined the future of fashion to be pushing boundaries in design. I saw this come through the playful and unconventional designs of Malin, who constructed her garments with incredible structural skirts and leg warmers made with basket weaving techniques.
Kass Ullmann’s ‘27 collection also pushed the boundaries of fashion and included a sustainable focus, through his wearable and transformable collection. The collection featured masterfully constructed heavy-weight fabrics, a muted color palette and blended simplistic, almost utilitarian designs, with inventive constructions. His stand-out piece (no pun intended) was a pair of pants which were removed by a model and placed at the end of the runway; standing up entirely on its own in front of the flashing camera as the crowd erupted in gasps and cheers.
Overall, the event was a beautiful celebration of the creativity and talent we have on campus, and it ended, rather appropriately, with a dance party that showcased the looks and how much fun the models had wearing them.