UMN Apparel Design Collective

UMN Apparel Design Collective Committee that plans, runs, and creates the UMN Apparel Design Senior Fashion Shows.

⭐️SENIOR FASHION SHOWCASE RECAP PART:3⭐️Here is some action shots of the show! Our last thank you’s go out to our amazin...
04/14/2026

⭐️SENIOR FASHION SHOWCASE RECAP PART:3⭐️

Here is some action shots of the show!

Our last thank you’s go out to our amazing College of Design Dean, Prosad Boradkar, who gave a moving speech at the show. We are also incredibly grateful for the featured designer segment from the University of Minnesota and our personal mentors that have helped with our design process! As soon to be graduates, we could not have asked for a greater university, creative community, and lasting experience in the Apparel Design Program. Last but not least, thank you to all of the family, friends, & peers, that travelled or sacrificed your time to come support us- WE APPREICATE ALL OF YOU! ❤️❤️❤️

03/11/2026

PART 1: Interviewing our designers!🪡

🌟Learn more about each designer and their collections as we head into the studio for a closer look! Stay posted to learn more about our senior students & how they go about the design process!

🌟Interviewees:
- 1st:
- 2nd:
- 3rd:
- 4th:

⭐Designer Spotlight- Morgan Stover!Morgan Stover is a designer who bridges the gap between traditional art and modern fa...
03/10/2026

⭐Designer Spotlight- Morgan Stover!

Morgan Stover is a designer who bridges the gap between traditional art and modern fashion through narrative-driven ideation. She is dedicated to creating works of art to convey messages, themes, and stories through fashion.
Her work is deeply rooted in her advocacy for women’s rights, environmental sustainability, and a fierce, authentic sense of self.

Gaia is a visual exploration of motherhood, weaving together childhood nostalgia, nature, and spirituality. The collection manifests through three distinct archetypes:

NURTURE - A study of grit and grace. She pairs delicate, earth-distressed lace with rugged wood jewelry to create the image of a caretaker emerging from the forest, watering can in hand.

LIFE - A celebration of abundance and warmth. She embodies the safety of a mother’s embrace through soft floral prints, layered ruffles, and silhouettes that evoke a sense of home and comfort.

DEITY The ethereal peak of Mother Nature. She represents the Goddess, holding the Earth close to her heart, adorned in cloud-like silk, a marbled bodice, and glassy pearls, a level of elegance only fit for a deity.

This collection aims to cater to the divine feminine, reminding mothers of their worth, and a tribute to the Earth herself. Morgan especially hopes to thank her mother, Stephanie, with this collection, who inspires her everyday, and wouldn’t be able to do any of this without her.

-Get your tickets in our bio!❤️
- Photography: Ron Stover

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⭐Designer Spotlight- Kue Thao!Kue Thao is the designer behind Golden, a label redefining the visual language of style fo...
03/06/2026

⭐Designer Spotlight- Kue Thao!

Kue Thao is the designer behind Golden, a label redefining the visual language of style for women 5'4" and under. As a petite woman herself, Kue realizes the industry often overlooks petite bodies. Kue positions them at the center of the narrative by crafting garments where proportion becomes power and scale becomes an art form.

Kue’s work reimagines classic silhouettes through a seductive, modern lens. Her design process is anchored in research and intention, producing garments that celebrate the innate contours of petite women instead of disguising them.

Through Golden, Kue will honor smaller frames while amplifying presence, carving out space for petite women to be seen in all their strength, subtlety, and sophistication. Her design language is one of quiet seduction and enduring elegance, offering clothing that doesn’t simply adorn the body, but empowers it.

-Get your tickets in our bio!❤️
- Photography: Ron Stover

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⭐Designer Spotlight- Uviusia Vang!Uviusia Vang is a fashion designer who draws inspiration from the creative air that su...
03/06/2026

⭐Designer Spotlight- Uviusia Vang!

Uviusia Vang is a fashion designer who draws inspiration from the creative air that surrounds her, shaping her work with intuition and imagination. She views fashion as a wandering stroll through a blossoming meadow, where beauty appears without warning and every moment invites wonder. In this open landscape, she learns to look inward, discovering the parts of herself that rise only in stillness and curiosity. Through her journey, she finds the courage to follow the path that feels true to her spirit. Each step becomes a tender reminder to her that the best creations bloom from within.

This year, she introduces Valoura, a collection shaped by the courage and brightness that have illuminated her path. Every piece carries traces of the strength she forged during her time as a student, becoming chapters in her creative story. The line moves like a quiet journey, starting in the thunderous storms of early uncertainty before drifting into the gentle, weightless beauty of fashion itself. Along the way, she discovers a profound sense of calm that settles softly within her. From that stillness, her love for fashion blooms into something warm and radiant, like sunlight breaking through clouds.

-Get your tickets in our bio!❤️
- Photography:

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⭐Designer Spotlight- Kendall Samuels!Kendall Samuels’s collection, Yesterday, is a deeply personal exploration of memory...
03/06/2026

⭐Designer Spotlight- Kendall Samuels!

Kendall Samuels’s collection, Yesterday, is a deeply personal exploration of memory, identity, and growth. Created as an homage to her childhood, the collection captures Kendall’s desire, as graduation quickly nears, to look back on the moments that shaped her and recognize how they have formed her into the designer she is today. Guided by the sentiment, “She is still inside of me; I carry her with me wherever I go,” Kendall invites viewers to consider the lasting presence of their younger selves and the significance of remembering who we once were.

Filled with emotional storytelling, Yesterday balances simple, minimal silhouettes with print and collage work. Each garment is constructed using personal childhood photographs, beloved childhood characters, and memorabilia, all brought together through techniques like screen printing, SolarFast printing, linocut, and gel plate printing. The result is a body of work that transforms nostalgia into tangible art, celebrating both the imperfections and beauty found in recollection. At the heart of her work lies the desire to create fashion that connects. Whether through a garment that helps someone feel at ease in their own skin or a dress that evokes a sense of nostalgia, Kendall’s designs aim to foster personal connection and self-recognition.

-Get your tickets in our bio!❤️
- Photography:

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⭐Designer Spotlight- Kaden Larson!Kaden Larson is an independent apparel designer who specializes in tailoring and fit. ...
03/06/2026

⭐Designer Spotlight- Kaden Larson!

Kaden Larson is an independent apparel designer who specializes in tailoring and fit. With strong skills rooted in technical design, Kaden ensures craftsmanship and precision through his people-centered design. Throughout Kaden’s time at the University of Minnesota, he’s established a personal brand rooted in providing tailoring and alterations for his community in the city. The brand, named BALDR, symbolizes the rebirth of forgotten material as we live in an age where garment waste is at an all-time high.

Kaden’s capstone collection Vinland is the maiden voyage of BALDR, and its sails are set on exploring the advancement of tailoring from the physical to the digital age. Using 3D body scanning to generate digital avatars, Vinland brings the craftsmanship of tailoring into a new space where fit, identity, and technology converge. The collection features fully custom looks, each garment made specifically for its wearer and constructed through a blend of machine sewing, digital patternmaking, and material reuse.

As BALDR’s first journey, Vinland reflects both innovation and heritage. It honors traditional tailoring while it embraces the modern tools that allow current designers to create with modern technology. Through this work, Kaden charts his path forward, one rooted in the care, craft, and innovation that defines BALDR.

-Get your tickets in our bio!❤️
- Photography:

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🌟Designer Spotlight- Benny GarnerBenny Garner is a human-centered designer whose work blends storytelling, technical ski...
03/06/2026

🌟Designer Spotlight- Benny Garner

Benny Garner is a human-centered designer whose work blends storytelling, technical skill, and personal vulnerability. Drawing deeply from formative life experiences, Benny’s design perspective centers on working collaboratively, designing with people in mind, and telling authentic stories. His empathetic outlook shapes a practice that values both self-expression and mental health awareness.

His senior collection, “Grief’s Closet,” interprets parts of the well-known Kübler-Ross model of denial, anger, and acceptance through menswear. Each look uses color, texture, and fabric choice to evoke the emotional nuances of a specific stage. This narrative approach challenges stereotypes surrounding male emotional expression and vulnerability, positioning clothing as both a therapeutic tool and a statement of identity.

-Get your ticket in our bio!❤️
- Photography:

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⭐Designer Spotlight- Maria Michaelson!Maria (Mar) Michaelson is deeply attuned to the emotional landscapes of people, po...
03/05/2026

⭐Designer Spotlight- Maria Michaelson!

Maria (Mar) Michaelson is deeply attuned to the emotional landscapes of people, politics, and fashion. Through her collection, Doma, she sheds light on the world’s most divisive conflicts, using fashion as a language for empathy. Her work honors both the resilience and loss families—like her own—experience through separation, illuminating the human capacity to endure, heal, and connect despite hardship.

Raised in a challenging family system, Mar learned early to navigate relational dissonance, growing into a beacon of transpersonal growth and conflict resolution. Every day she is reminded of the decade-long separation from her family in Russia, a result of the country’s volatile socio-political climate. As an adult, she has begun to understand the complexities of family ties and a cultural identity that are slipping away from her. For this reason, her senior thesis is entitled Doma—“home” in Russian. Each element of Doma reflects her compassion, advocacy, and ambition.

While studying technical apparel design and leadership, she has strengthened her commitment to challenging systemic oppression, building community, and using storytelling as a vehicle for change in fashion. Mar aspires to work in high-end luxury fashion while pursuing an international career and entrepreneurship.

-Get your tickets in our bio!❤️
- Photography:
1st: finical.photos
2nd:

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