Apparel Design Students Showcase Self-Reflective Collections at RISD’s Annual Runway Show

Archived family fabrics, post-apocalyptic themes and textiles derived from nature were just a few of the elements featured at this year’s Apparel Design runway show Collection 2025. Held in late May at the WaterFire Arts Center, the event showcased 74 looks by a dozen graduating seniors. 

“I am thrilled to see a great variety of personal and highly imaginative narratives informing the making of the senior collections,” said Department Head Gwen Van Den Eijnde. “Garments were conceived through a multiplicity of concepts: they were made to embody characters, to echo the memory of a place, to imagine a dystopian story or to envision a much happier and more hopeful scenario. With strong concepts and clearly identified inspirations and references, these eloquent bodies of work are anything but superficial. These collections situate RISD’s Apparel Design department at the crossroads of art and fashion.” 

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The show began with designs by Minwoo Matthew Oh 25 AP, whose collection, Bird Boy, explored the innocence of boyhood and the tension between opposing worlds. The pieces had birdlike silhouettes that were tattered and frayed yet delicate like feathers. He was inspired by his childhood in Korea, where he often fantasized about completing his mandatory military service, which he was liberated from after becoming a US citizen. 

“Back then, I didn’t fully grasp the weight of war. It is not a game—it is life or death,” he said. “As a child, I had dreams about flying, but it’s not possible to grow wings and fly. This is my way of expressing and fantasizing about those dreams.”

Also reflecting on childhood was Tracy Zhang 25 AP, who lived in Beijing in 2013 when the city was hit with debilitating air pollution. Rather than fear, Zhang was filled with a sense of adventure. Her collection revisits that thrill through characters who live and express themselves through both survival and coexistence. The pieces included a thick trench coat, faux fur, salvaged material turned into soft armor and used bedsheets. 

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“I wanted to capture that sense of adventure while simultaneously acknowledging the harsh realities of an apocalypse,” she explained. “There’s a certain tension in this duality between my imagination and reality.”

Similarly, designer BIBI 25 AP experimented with various materials and techniques to create the collection Terror, Transformation, Transcendence, which resembles bodies altered by organic processes and drastic metamorphosis. BIBI blended each theme with a specific material: latex and corpses, velvet and algae, felt and mold. Stemming from her fear of change and losing control, she created characters that are both divine and monstrous. 

Isabel Clulow 25 AP also focused on self expression as well as intimacy and femininity. Who’s that girl? Who does she love? What made her get up this morning? What does her wardrobe say when she isn’t speaking? These are questions Clulow asked herself when creating her collection To Live Her Life. She created transparent vintage-style lingerie, corsets, coats and other intimate pieces.

“It’s the pure joy of going through your wardrobe late at night and experiencing so many different versions of yourself or versions of other people that you're attempting to embody,” Clulow explains. 

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Viewers were treated to another personal journey in Breezy Hill, a collection by Jersey Bond 25 AP inspired by her rural home in upstate New York. Silent Companionship by Ruolin Bai 25 AP brings spiritual presence into modern life, incorporating Buddhist imagery and Dunhuang art into functional, everyday wear.

Other collections by graduating Apparel Design seniors included Becoming; Undoing by Nura Dhar 25 AP, Chorus of Circuits by Avidron 25 AP, Ocean Serenity by Olivia Rose Fournier 25 AP, Somewhere, Nowhere/ 15341 Days since 2008 by Jordan Wang 25 AP, [light poems] by Anna Winters 25 AP and Anima by Bryce Satow 25 AP. 

“This year, the senior collections have exaggerated material and sculptural features that convey drama and emotion,” Van Den Eijnde said. “They are also the result of a more collaborative style of teaching, guided by both long-standing faculty in the department and new colleagues who have more recently joined the team. In addition to the faculty, industry professionals provide thoughtful guidance to the students during critiques. One can see how the students' work mirrors a state of uncertainty in the world. No one knows what the future of fashion will be, and we need these inspiring scenarios and playful visions.”

Kaylee Pugliese / photos by Jo Sittenfeld
June 9, 2025