This year, two featured pieces reflected direct connections to CSW alumni artists and creators. Emma ’26’s Plaid Shirt was developed during a Queer Fashion workshop led by Sonny Oram ’06, while Avery ’26’s Tulip was inspired by Untitled (Rosy), a painting by contemporary artist Jonas Wood ’95.

Sonny Oram ’06 is the founder of Qwear, the first online LGBTQIA+ style incubator. The birthplace of the award-winning #ThisIsWhatAsexualLooksLike movement, Qwear has served as a gathering space for fashion and gender activists since 2011. The organization uses fashion as a health and advocacy tool to improve quality of life for LGBTQIA+ individuals. On Sunday, November 9, Sonny and Qwear co-creator Ru visited CSW to lead a workshop focused on conceptualizing and prototyping outfits that reflected students’ identities and interests. Six students participated, engaging in conversations about how designing one’s own clothing can offer a means of self-expression not often available through mass-produced fashion. Emma ’26’s Plaid Shirt was later featured in the End-of-Mod 2 Show.

Jonas Wood ’95 is a contemporary artist whose work has been exhibited at museums and institutions around the world and is included in the permanent collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, D.C.); the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York); the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Guggenheim Museum (New York); The Broad (Los Angeles); the Museum of Modern Art (New York); and the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), among others. His painting Untitled (Rosy) was among several works Alison shared with students for an assignment in which they were asked to create wearable art inspired by a painting. Avery ’26 selected Jonas’s piece, drawn to the bright flowers depicted on the wall behind the central figure, the artist’s grandfather. She designed her garment to evoke an upside-down tulip, complete with six colorful petals.