Goodbye, Runway.
At this year’s Art2Wear showcase, change wasn’t just the theme — it was the medium, the method and the message.
Held at the Gregg Museum of Art & Design, Art2Wear: Revive marked a departure from tradition. Gone was the raised runway and seated crowd. In its place: an immersive, walk-through experience where models and garments occupied the same space as the audience — a fluid, living gallery of wearable art.
For student directors Lydia Spears and Keerthi Nagapudi, this evolution wasn’t accidental — it was personal.
“We utilized the theme Revive to reshape the structure of the show this year in its new form,” the duo shared. “Revive was inspired by the changing state of Art2Wear and its new possibilities while being in a transformative state. Change can be a good thing. That is what Revive is: a positive and rejuvenating change.”
The transformation wasn’t just logistical. It was philosophical. Spears and Nagapudi led a team of student designers and producers through months of collaborative work — not just guiding them to the finish line, but inviting them to stretch creatively and conceptually.
“We really wanted the theme Revive to be a feeling amongst the designers and the audience alike,” they explained. “We wanted designers to walk away from the show with a sense of accomplishment but also a refreshed feeling of inspiration for future projects. We would say, from our perspective, this aspect was successful.”
And the work speaks for itself.
From meditations on grief and rebirth to critiques of overconsumption, the 2025 designer collections pulled no punches. Each one reflected a deeply personal take on revival, told through unexpected materials, embodied performances and thoughtful storytelling.
Reimagining Through Design
Mia Danford-Klein created The Return Home, a moss-draped exploration of life, death and energy transfer — a love letter to her late grandfather and a reminder that death, too, is a beginning.
“After taking part in this year’s show, I really feel like I’m capable of making great things. It was incredible to prove to myself that I can not only design something great, but construct it and build on it.” – Mia Danford-Klein
Charlotte Davis stoked flames with Ignite, a piece that tore down 1950s housewife tropes in a smoky blaze of feminist transformation. Confining symbols became tools of liberation in this slow-burn performance.
Sophie Dickerson brought memory into material form in Ornaments of Being, a quiet, nostalgic piece constructed from cyanotypes, neuron-inspired structures and keepsakes — fragments of a self revisited and remembered.
Alyx Hucks’s ‘Til Mourning Comes delivered a haunting fiber-based exorcism — a performance where the garment itself unraveled as a metaphor for grief, transformation and the slow reclamation of self.
Maia Lindgren & Caleb Sowah embraced camp and catharsis with Life After Death, a narrative arc of self-discovery that ends in zombified enlightenment. Each piece — Life, Death and Zombie — examined how we lose, find and recreate ourselves.
Megan Mersch delivered a future-forward critique with Baggage, a fashion statement made from single-use plastic bags. Her character, draped in excess, served as a walking warning against environmental apathy.
Elle Newkirk explored cultural rebirth in Palingenesis, a collection inspired by traditional Korean dress. Merging heritage with contemporary silhouettes, the work reflected both personal and collective revival.
“Every single one of my looks was constructed from a pattern that I made of a hanbok that a close family friend gifted me, a piece of heritage that crossed oceans and is decades old.” – Elle Newkirk
Mia Potter & Devyn Williams launched the audience skyward with The Fall of Icarus, a mythological meditation on hubris and human ambition. With Greco-Roman silhouettes and masquerade-inspired choreography, their piece blended costume, dance and cautionary tale.
Learn more about each collection in the Art2Wear: Revive Program Booklet
Behind the Seams: Production as Storytelling
While the collections rightfully stole the spotlight, the immersive atmosphere of Revive was no accident — it was engineered. Under the leadership of junior director and production head Aurelia Pyrczak, the Art2Wear team reimagined every spatial and sensory element of the show. From set design to sound, from archival curation to audience flow, every detail served to elevate the designers’ visions.
“The show’s unconventional format brought production and designers closer together,” Pyrczak said. “We worked to achieve spatial design that spoke to each designer’s work and the story they aimed to tell.”
Aurelia’s role spanned the full academic year. In the fall, she led the co-curation of Art2Wear: Through the Archives with the Gregg Museum, digging through decades of photos, videos and print ephemera to trace the evolution of the show. In the spring, her focus shifted to engineering the experience: transforming the museum space into a dynamic canvas for live performance.
“This year was completely new for Art2Wear, including those of us creating the show,” she explained. “I had never worked on exhibition or set design before this year. I learned as I went — but that also gave us a lot of creative control.”
Despite the learning curve, the result was a multi-sensory journey. Audience members didn’t just observe the work; they were immersed in it. Lighting, soundscapes, pacing and pathfinding all helped bring each designer’s narrative to life in an environment that blurred the line between fashion and performance art.
“Productions like Art2Wear bring the story of wearable design to life by crafting an environment in which the art becomes personified,” she said. “Each year, the audience is drawn in as they watch closely to discover the newest stories being told.”
And when it finally came together?
“I must admit I felt relieved — and a bit shocked — that we had pulled it off,” she reflected. “After the first show, I just felt so proud of the members of Art2Wear. I had seen everyone working so hard all year long. It felt incredible to see the audience enjoying the show and admiring everyone’s work.”
Building an Unconventional Foundation
Art2Wear: Revive challenged conventional ideas of what fashion can be and what stories it can carry. It also revealed something essential about the next generation of designers: they’re not just creating garments; they’re building meaning.
“There was a really strong feeling of inspiration amongst leadership, production and designers alike,” Spears and Nagapudi reflected. “If people see you working hard as a leader, they feel inclined to return the energy to you. There was an attitude of everyone trying their best.”
The collaboration extended beyond the student team. This year’s show marked a first-of-its-kind partnership with the Gregg Museum.
“Working with the Gregg this year added a whole new layer to the responsibilities of the leadership team,” the co-directors said. “Both teams learned a lot from one another about collaboration styles and strong communication. The Gregg was extremely accommodating and supportive during this whole process.”
In the end, Art2Wear: Revive wasn’t about discarding the past. It was about learning from it, leaning into it, and reimagining what comes next. And in doing so, this year’s team didn’t just revive a legacy — they reinvigorated its future.
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