This year, the Fashion Production Association (FPA) at The Ohio State University (OSU) presented its 33rd annual student design show. On April 19 at the Ohio Union, FPA presented Anthology: In the End, We All Become Stories.
According to their Instagram, FPA is an organization that provides students at OSU with the opportunity to publicly display their abilities in garment design and construction. They focus on advertising, fundraising and special event production that culminates in a fashion show or public exhibit at the end of the academic year.
This year’s venue consisted of a large runway with pages from books hung around it.
Eighteen designers cultivated their collections from a wide range of materials and sources, resulting in various different interpretations of this year’s theme.
Here’s a breakdown of some of the wonderful designers that were showcased.
AN ATLANTIC LIGHT - ALEX TREMBLAY
Graduate student Alex Tremblay opened the show and defined fashion as “a powerful tool for storytelling using the human form as the medium.”
Hailing from Maine, Tremblay moved to Ohio at an early age; in their 2025 collection, they explored their connection to their hometown.
“I moved away [from New England] when I was really young, when I was seven,” Tremblay said. “I think I just really want to reclaim that and kind of study and explore that area of the world again, and try to get some of these stories that I remember being told and that I remember coming up with when I was living there.”
“I mean, you don't really notice how powerful an aesthetic has been instilled within you just based on the few foundational years that you've lived there. That was really the process of this collection — trying to take a story and folk work from where I grew up to put on the runway.”
Inspired by Edwarian and Victorian period pieces, Tremblay worked hard to incorporate that aesthetic with their hometown “fisherman-chic.”
“Fashion, it creates, nonstop,” Tremblay said. “We have enough clothes out there….Everything out there that I could possibly need already exists. I don't need new fabric. There's always an option to get something old and secondhand that you can create and make changes to and really make it your own. Then there's also just the thrill of using weird materials that no one's really thought of before.”
Tremblay featured four pieces at the FPA Runway Show, showcasing their fusion of New England-inspired looks with Edwarian puff sleeves and class.
Tremblay’s designs don’t just wear history — they unravel and reweave it. In their hands, a sleeve isn’t just a sleeve. It’s a time machine, a family heirloom and a manifesto all in one.
ETERNAL YOUTH - SANDRA ADAMAH-TASSAH
Sandra Adamah-Tassah is a fourth-year Fashion and Retail Studies major at Ohio State.
Inspired by recent trends, Adamah-Tassah reimagined her favorite styles into her own designs. She said that “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” by Oscar Wilde, inspired her to want to hold onto youth and old age alike. Aging is inevitable, so we must embrace it wholeheartedly.
“I am very into suiting,” Adamah-Tassah said. “I've always just loved that kind of office wear…That's why most of my collection is based on suiting wear and menswear. And then the story of Dorian Gray, which is what my collection is based on. He is like a young, very clean young man. So I just felt like office wear would suit that vibe.”
Adamah-Tassah’s cool and sleek suits are incredibly inspiring and hone in on her vision of self-expression in the workforce.
This collection proves that office wear doesn’t need to sacrifice personality to achieve professionalism. Her upcycled suits stitch sustainability and selfhood, creating an armor for the modern workplace that's as intentional as it is inspiring.
DEEP TIME - BRIDGETTE YAA AGBODZA & JULIAN (TROY) PAGE III
Bridgette Yaa Agbodza and Julian (Troy) Page III were partners in design for this fashion show, featuring their collection: DEEP TIME.
Yaa Agbodza, a fifth-year Fashion and Retail Studies major with a minor in biology, said that DEEP TIME was a process of asymmetrical designs.
“The second half of DEEP TIME was based off of the 90s and 2000s where I focused on the idea of deconstruction and asymmetry” she said. “I also explained to my teacher how I wanted to explore taking a denim outfit and play with it. Which I took [inspiration] from a couple of 90s denim/urban ads and runway shows such as Sean John, Rocawear, MECCA and so forth.”
Interested in the Y2K era, Yaa Agbodza wanted to bring a certain Y2K-inspired feeling and culture back into today’s fashion.
“The 2000s brown leather outfit was made to interpret who a vixen was and her background. I wanted to make her outfit with giving homage to the originals that paved the way for many Black music videos, models and so forth over the years.”
Page III is a fourth-year Fashion and Retail Studies major and said that he wants to exceed his own expectations when designing.
“I love designing; it's truly my passion. When I create pieces I want the craftsmanship to impress me. When I do my job right, I surprise myself and that’s what I want every time.”
Together, their partnership highlights their collaboration. They melded nostalgia with forward-thinking design to create a collection that is both a tribute and a reinvention.
THE VELVETEEN RABBIT - MATTHEW MANNINO
Third-year Fashion and Retail Studies major Matthew Mannino showcased three repurposed, denim pieces for this year’s show. He was inspired by “The Velveteen Rabbit” by Margery Williams, a British children’s story about a stuffed rabbit’s desire to become real.
“I have like a bunch of different motifs — the bunnies [and] hand-stitched stuff in my collection try to tie into that,” Mannino said. “I tried to almost tell two other stories. One story I tried to tell was me as a designer, the silhouettes that not only I want to create going forward, but just from stuff that inspires me and based around streetwear.”
Mannino’s lineup began with a model in plaid pajamas and a graphic t-shirt; a not-so-subtle homage to his favorite children’s story: “And then I have the middle look that's the female with a bunch of patchwork and trying to talk about the different mending techniques. The last look is the boy like grown up…with this top that's not distressed, but you can tell that it's been beaten a little bit and taken to a bunch of skate trips.”
Pushing for inclusion and custom pieces, Mannino said he is passionate about making clothes that fit people.
“My third model, he lifts a bunch and he has really muscular legs and he says he's never been able to wear jeans ever because they just don't ever fit him. Apparently he can fully squat in [Mannino’s jeans] and he's like, I've never, I can't even, like, sit past level in any jeans. So I was like, I'm really happy that I can make that for someone and bring them joy.”
Through his denim collection, Mannino stitches together nostalgia, growth and craftsmanship. The Velveteen Rabbit’s journey becomes truly meaningful when shaped by love, wear and the stories we live through our clothes.
ETERNAL BLOOM - ARANTXA LITUMA & GINA SILVESTRI
Previous winners of the SERVitecture’s Fashion Schau, Arantxa Lituma and Gina Silvestri, showcased their beautiful designs at this fashion show, too.
This year’s Anthology theme inspired Lituma and Silvestri to design pieces around the cycle and story of life.
Silvestri said that it was a non-linear path to get to the showcase: “We start out by just sketching and also just talking about what we wanted to do, what words we want to pull from, where our inspiration is coming from, and then work toward that sort of tactile goal. I think Ara and I especially like our work process, specifically when we start to bring those already-made designs to life, we kind of create something new every time and it's never exactly what you planned — but we almost always fall in love with it.”
Lituma said that they focused on the storytelling aspect of the theme this year: “I think our theme, [since] it's eternal bloom, it's a whole story. It's part life, death and the middle part of life and death, so it's a whole story; our life is a story.”
Silvestri said the clothing reflected this: “It's an interpretation of how life, death and the cycle of life…doesn't have to be written words, it can be like creating pieces that reflect the time.”
With their latest collection, Lituma and Silvestri transformed this year’s theme into a visual narrative where form and creative collaboration breathed new life into the story of existence. Their work reminds us that fashion, like life itself, is an ever-evolving art, shaped by unexpected beauty along the way.
OZDUST BALL - SCARLETT YU
A high school senior at Olentangy Liberty High School, Scarlett Yu transformed tissue paper, tape and plastic bags into beautiful gowns made for the Ozdust Ballroom from Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked” (2024).
“Lately, I've been using a lot of mixed mediums, and with mixed mediums, it's a whole new field,” Yu said. “There really isn't a precedent.”
“So then all my processes, I've learned from just years of experience of pattern-making and sewing, myself, and I kind of transfer that to my new materials, like for my tissue paper dresses or plastic bag dresses”
Yu said that “Wicked” inspired her most recent creations: “Seeing Glinda's dress when she came out in the Ozdust Ball, just the structure, the color, because I love color. It was so beautiful. It just stayed in my mind forever. I thought about her dress, and thought about, if I had the opportunity to go to this ball, what would I wear?”
Yu mentioned that the magic of Wicked inspired her to express her own “magic.”
“The whole point about Wicked is that it's a magical world, right? All these playful structures, I felt like that was so neat. I love creating something that didn't exist before.”
But like, what I like to say is, for my magic, I like to reveal that my dresses are made out of tissue paper, because a lot of people, when they see them, they don't really expect that…I feel like that's a little bit of my magic; being able to transform these things. Because I think transformation essentially is magic. You're turning one object into another. It's like a magic trick.”
During the fashion show, Yu featured five beautiful ball gowns suited for a night at the Ozdust Ballroom. Colorful and whimsical, she truly brought the world of Oz to life.
PHOENIX REBIRTH - LASHANTA LEWIS & PREMA NNADI
Wowing the audience in last year’s FPA Fashion Show, fourth-year students LaShanta Lewis and Premna Nnadi aimed to go out with a bang.
Lewis and Nnadi wanted to explore a mythological theme surrounding the emotions and stages of life.
Nnadi said that she wanted to encompass the loss of innocence from childhood to adulthood. Someone who experiences poverty, mental health issues or any other struggles will experience life very differently than those who haven’t had those experiences: “Fighting back and [returning to yourself]…and the complete form when you’ve reached that level of self-confidence and the level you want to be is as authentic as possible.”
To Lewis, fashion is art: “Art placed on the body; I believe that it’s an expressive way to pretty much show how you're feeling/what is on your mind when you decide to get dressed that day, and it’s an expressive way to express yourself.”
Nnadi added that “Fashion is creativity. It’s art. It’s like a feeling…you can be whoever you want with fashion; you can also make statements, whatever topic of stuff you want to touch on.”
Lewis mentioned that each look is a story in its own way because it’s about growth: “So each look has something of the other. So Princess has a bow, Agony has a bow. Agony has kind of like a skirt, Warrior has a skirt. Warrior also has like gold flakes on her skirt which is also the Goddess so it’s still her — she’s still her but she’s also transitioned in each form so that piece of her heart and her soul is still with her.”
Lewis and Nnadi put together the threads of the human experience. Every ruffle, bow and gold flake maps a soul’s journey from innocence to triumph. Their anthology isn’t just worn — it is lived.
This year, FPA’s silent auction was able to support the designers who showcased their works. These amazing designers expressed their visions and designs and created a spectacular experience for the audience.
