The College for Creative Studies Presented Over 100 Looks at its Runway Show

Fashion

The College for Creative Studies Presented Over 100 Looks at its Runway Show

From glamourous handbags to Motor City-inspired apparel, the students at CCS wowed a large crowd of attendees including representatives from Louis Vuitton, Bottega Veneta , and Hermès.

Juliana Lumaj

May 10, 2024

Pictured Left to right, Ann-Marie Mountford, Aki Choklat, and Natelle Baddeley. // Photograph by Anthony Kabiity

The transformed the Cadieux Stage in Detroit into a fashion runway where over 130 designs created by fashion students were presented on May 4, 2024.

Over 200 guests attended CCS’ fourth iteration of , including talent acquisitors from Bottega Veneta, Louis Vuitton, and Tapestry. The runway featured collections from 23 students, including a freshman, sophomores, seniors and their capsule collections, guest designers from other departments, and an international student.

Fashion concepts were drawn from water, sleep, fruit, spontaneous acts of nature, and more, resulting in a diverse runway filled with contemporary, abstract, and romantic designs. Sitting up front was Aki Choklat, Linda Dresner Endowed Chair in Fashion Design, who proudly took photos of the students’ creations on his cell phone as they walked down the runway.

“This is an accumulation of several years of work — it’s the biggest show we’ve ever done,” Choklat said. “… We are gaining international exposure. We have big names in the house, from Louis Vuitton, Paris, Bottega Veneta from Milan, Hermès, so we are super excited that we can represent Detroit. The student’s work is Detroit, and I have to say, we as a community are Detroit.”

Some standout looks that caught our eye this year came from seniors Maureen Rossman, Miles Barron, Defne Kanberoglu, and sophomore Max Honeycutt, whose capsule collections were inspired by the darker corners of one’s mind, 1970s Motown era, armor and protection, and deep-sea creatures, respectively.

Other astonishing capsule designs came from senior students Gabriel Armelin, Clay Barckholtz, Ana Bosnjakovski, Andreas Caballero, Cierra Headings, Avis Kerns, David Rodriguez, Mamie Scholl, and Jannah Turner.

program was established in 2015 under the leadership of Choklat, becoming the largest and most-equipped fashion accessory design department in the United States. Seven years later, in 2022, the department expanded to include apparel design. The 2024 fashion show marked the first cohort of apparel design students since the department’s expansion.

This year, it was also the first time the department held the fashion show off-campus. Moving forward, CCS plans to hold The Show in a different part of the city each year to highlight the rich history of Detroit.