On Friday, Global Fashion Collective (GFC) returned to The Glasshouse with another slate of shows, this time spotlighting designers who blur the lines between art, youth culture, and couture. The collections leaned heavily into fantasy and identity, with runways that felt like immersive stories as much as fashion showcases. From playful childhood references to Cubist abstraction, the day highlighted how imagination and individuality continue to drive GFC’s presence at New York Fashion Week.
SHOW ONE — Wenny Han
Wenny Han, a young designer with roots in China and North America, staged a solo Global Fashion Collective show on Friday that fused fine art with fashion. Her latest collection drew from Cubist abstraction, with fragmented silhouettes, sheer organza layers, and architectural contrasts. Known for translating themes of memory and identity into wearable forms, Han’s work balanced delicacy with bold artistic vision.
SHOW TWO — Alex S. Yu / Ruikodou / NOLO / Eduardo Ramos
Alex S. Yu
Alex S. Yu, who hails from Taipei, Taiwan, and based partly in Vancouver, Canada, builds extensive though playful wardrobes for the young and the young at heart. In his kids and early teens line, yesterday’s show offered looks with lots of plaids and tulle, tennis sneakers with understated shine, and splashes of holographic / chromatic-esque flair. The adult line carried forward his youthful DNA but made it more editorial: geometric pattern mixes, ruffles, bold color moments with a dominant palette of blues and greens. It felt like everyday kidwear meeting fantasy runway.
Ruikodou
From Japan, Ruikodou presented deeply conceptual pieces: multi-dimensional garments that unzip or shift, costumes and semi-costumes that reference ballerina grace, holiday pageantry, animals such as ladybugs and fish, and even objects like haunted houses and racecars. The collection felt like walking through an imaginative theater set, where clothes are modifiers of character, movement, and narrative.
NOLO
NOLO, rooted in Mexico, presented fashion for kids and teens that leans edgy and experimental. The collection mixed street style with psychedelic inspirations: bold shapes, asymmetries, textured materials including rope-like or grass-like fabrics, contrasted with smoother synthetics and playful colors. Some pieces felt like model off-duty statements, others more surreal. The overall effect was one of pushing at the boundaries of what youth fashion can be.
Eduardo Ramos
Eduardo Ramos is a Mexican-Canadian designer whose runway work often fuses sharp tailoring with decorative opulence. In this latest collection, his pieces included sequined or jeweled lace face masks, crisp collars, ethereal tops paired with more grounded bottoms. The models moved with a delicate, doll-like poise, giving the show a sense of elegance meeting artistry, structure meeting ornament.
Taken together, these shows under the Global Fashion Collective banner made it clear: fashion is increasingly about vision, not just product. Designers are building worlds — identity, fantasy, youth, texture are all important elements. And because GFC is placing these voices on major runways, the messages aren’t whispering in the margins — they’re center stage.
