Nostalgia was king at the 42nd annual Cornell Fashion Collective (CFC) Spring Runway Show, complete with a crown.
Collections at the March 21 show in Barton Hall paid homage to well-loved storybooks and designers' childhood memories and cultural backgrounds. A total of 42 students showed their work, including nine seniors who designed full collections.
A model walks the runway at the 42nd Cornell Fashion Collective Spring Runway Show.
"Nostalgia is my favorite feeling," said Madison Feely '26, a fashion design management major in the College of Human Ecology (CHE), who referenced childhood classics including "Where the Wild Things Are" (with an illustrated sweater and crocheted crown), "Little Women," "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" in her collection, "Homebody." "My designs celebrate a well-lived and well-loved childhood, honoring the authors and illustrators who allow me to relive it each time I open their books."
For the past two years, Feely has been the student assistant for the Shima Seiki knitting machine, gaining experience with knit programming and knitwear design. She paired the machine knit pieces with labor-intensive crochet and hand-pieced quilting techniques. She also made matching earrings out of Shrinky Dink paper.
Meanwhile Ana Mocklar '26, an information science major in the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, took a page from Moe Willems' series of pigeon books for "Don't Let the Pigeon Design a Collection," with eight whimsical looks each representing a city mishap, based on a trip to New York City. "The Puddle Pigeon" featured beads that portrayed rain falling off an umbrella skirt; "The Cat Attack Pigeon" had large slashes shown by red pleats on the jacket and pants; and "The Takeout Bag Pigeon," had red lettering with the words "Thank you!" and "Have a Nice Day!" across the shoulders.
CHE fashion design major Lucy Jones '26 reflected her experience growing up in Los Angeles in her collection, "Crosseyed and Painless." T-shirts emblazoned with the words "Cable TV" and "Around Six PM" were juxtaposed with plaid shorts and minidresses.
A model does her makeup before walking the runway.
Other collections took root in memories from across the globe. In "", CHE fashion design major Andy (Seungjoo) Kim '26 imagined what traditional Korean neighborhoods would look like if they had persisted today. "Mare," by Julia Schanen '26, a mathematics major in the College of Arts and Sciences, evoked her Romanian heritage, using natural fabrics like silk, leather and wool. The wool came from small farms in Ithaca and Michigan, and she sourced the silks from various locations, including a class trip to India and Sri Lanka in January. She purchased all the leather wholesale, because it was deemed too damaged to sell at retail, and used many upcycled and salvaged antique remnants.
"I'm always so inspired by the past and incorporated antique trims and accessories into my collection," she said. Every look required handwork, and the materials were delicate and required handling with a lot of care.
Kylie Gillen '26, a fiber science and apparel design major in CHE, blended her experience and cultural heritage to create her collection, which sought to preserve traditional Japanese practices through contemporary forms, materials and perspectives. Patterns resembling traditional woodblock prints graced long flowing trains.
"Permanence is not about resisting change but about allowing tradition to evolve and stay meaningful in modern life," she said.
Robin Roger is the assistant dean for communications at the College of Human Ecology.
