FashionX Runway
Runway is Stanford’s annual student-run fashion show and one of the largest student-produced events on campus. Every year, it brings together designers, stylists, models, and creatives for a night of original work.
Designers are given a theme and the freedom to interpret it however they want. The result is a wide range of student-made looks, from conceptual pieces to couture-inspired collections, created by students from disciplines across Stanford.
Carved in Jade
"The Mirror Stage"
This year’s theme explored self-image, identity, and performance through the lens of Jacques Lacan’s “mirror stage.” The historic venue gave the show a darker, cinematic atmosphere that pushed the scale and ambition of student fashion work.
Carved in Jade approaches identity through the practice of carving, shaped as much by what is removed as by what remains.
Drawing from jade's cultural significance in Japanese tradition and its associations with purity, protection, and quiet strength, the look moves between restraint and revelation. Modest yet striking. Covered yet exposed. Raw yet refined.
The garment centers on a structured high neckline and sheer tulle sleeves layered with lace appliqué and sequins. The lace acts almost like negative space, directing attention through absence as much as detail. An open back shifts the body into the composition itself. Every cut and exposed section follows the same logic as carving. What is removed matters as much as what remains.
Porcelain in Motion
"Metamorphosis"
Runway 2025 explored transformation across material, sound, and silhouette. Designers worked with algae, aluminum, peacock feathers, 3D-printed plastic, and shattered mirror. The show opened with a live string ensemble before shifting into a Space Odyssey-inspired trumpet performance built around the idea of metamorphosis.
Porcelain in Motion translates the fragile into the enduring, traditional Chinese porcelain motifs remade in the language of American workwear.
The garment looks at fragility and durability side by side. Decorative surfaces become functional construction. Chinese ceramic patterns are rebuilt through denim, canvas, and appliqué.
The look is built in two parts. Wide-leg canvas pants covered in hand-applied felt appliqués, each one cut and placed to echo the glaze work of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain. And a structured denim bodice that sits against the softness it frames. The appliqué work carries the idea behind the garment, treating ornament and durability as complements rather than opposites.
Studying how clothing is made is how I first understood it as a language — and these shows are where I learned to say something with it.