Student-Led Fashion Show Spotlights Textile + Garment Practices from Across Disciplines

Fashion recently took centre stage at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (ECU) in a runway show spotlighting the practices of nearly a dozen graduating students working in textiles.

Led by Adrian deHeer-Amissah (BDes 2025) and Ankedo Zake (BDes 2025), Human Being showcased clothing and textile artworks designed and made by students.

“Fashion and textiles are important mediums that are being embraced by students from across disciplines at Emily Carr University,” Adrian says from Toronto, where he and Ankedo continue to extend their network following the show. “We felt it was important for that to be recognized.”

“Part of my goal this past year was to inspire by showing you can jump into something without knowing anything about it,” Ankedo adds. “This fashion space was new to me as much as everyone else. We thought bringing everyone together in a show would help create and celebrate this community of like-minded people.”

In addition to Adrian and Ankedo, Human Being featured work created by Parnian Anaa (BDes 2025), Fiona Billinton (BDes 2025), Yulong (Gerry) Chen (BDes 2025), Hailey Johnson (BDes 2025), Shelly Kositsky (BFA 2025), Emma Rogers (BDes 2025), Ariana Felicity Tan (BDes 2025), Lena Tarr (BDes 2025) and Deborah Tuazon (BDes 2025).

The event took place as a student-led extension of The Show, ECU’s annual exhibition of works by graduating students. Amidst works by more than 400 of their peers, the artists and designers in Human Being saw their works brought to life before a live audience by models coordinated by Melika Khodaei under her runway coaching moniker Role Model.

The 10 participants graduated from programs ranging from Industrial Design to Communication Design to Visual Arts, making their mutual use of textiles a conversation that transcends disciplines.

Yet despite their diverse fields of study, participants were united by more than their interest in textiles as a creative medium, says designer, Material Matters cofounder and ECU faculty member Hélène Day Fraser, noting their mutual interest in issues including identity, sustainability and relations with the natural world.

This shared thematic emphasis is partly due to cross-disciplinary classwork as well as extracurricular projects. For instance, several of the students in Human Being participated in Lab: Here//Too//For, a series of workshops, collaborations and public forums which took the form of a satellite classroom at the Vancouver Art Gallery during the 2023 Fashion Fictions exhibition. Meanwhile, several third- and fourth-year design courses were cross-listed as arts courses, meaning students from diverse programs could learn together and from one another.

“The emphasis on relations and identity ties closely with asking those students to consider their positionality – who they are, who they’re of, where they’re from – and asking them to think about relations with material,” Hélène says.

“Reflecting on identity not as a unidirectional statement, but as a concept encompassing community, connection, belonging, and how they contribute as designers in relationship to the material world was also part of the mix.”

Adrian notes the show felt like a meaningful step into the world of professional creative practice, offering a wealth of lessons they can take forward as they develop their careers.

“We’ve learned a lot from this process and from working together,” Adrian says. “In coming together, we had to not only trust ourselves but trust that our collaborators share our vision and goals. It showed us how nothing ambitious seems possible until it’s done.”

Ankedo agrees, noting the experience provided a kind of road map for how he and Adrian can build the world they wish to see.

“I think at first we didn’t understand what a show like this could be, and then so many people showed up and supported the project,” Ankedo says. “People joined together to make it a big, beautiful show that everyone was engaged with. It became more than a school project — it was a real-life project. We broke a wall we didn’t know was breakable.”

Follow Adrian and Ankedo on Instagram to keep up with their practices.