From the fashion houses of Versace, Gucci, and Betsey Johnson to the master artists Michelangelo and da Vinci. From the luxury automobiles of Porsche and Ferrari to game makers Rubik and a battle between the worlds of Sega and Nintendo.
From Dieter Rams’ philosophy of “less, but better” to Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic architecture, and the internationally known animations of Hayao Miyazaki’s anime and Chuck Jones’ Loony Tunes, 3D Design students at UW-Stout brought their sculptural costumes to life on the runway in front of a sold-out house during Fashion Without Fabric on April 11.
This year’s theme, “Years in the Making,” reflected the university’s Year of Design and celebrated the “hellish mesh of hot glue and cardboard” transformed into works of wonder, like a caterpillar emerging as the butterfly, said the evening’s emcee Ainsley Violet, a studio art senior and Student Artist-in-Residence.
The Fashion Without Fabric Hoeft Builders Endowed Scholarship winning team was “Immerse Your Eyes, Preserve Your Mind,” inspired by designer Brenda Laurel, by Dani Binzcak, Cole Kothbauer and Zoe Watanabe. Each member will receive a $1,000 scholarship.
Out of 79 designs created by more than 250 students, the winners of the runway event were:
- First place: “A Fragile Wonder,” inspired by designer Eva Zeisel, by Elliott Clark, Quinlan Hartung and Kyra Oertel
- Second place: “Metropolitan Muse,” inspired by designer Massimo Vignelli, by Marilena Grado, Margaret Stephenson and Sadie Peissig
- Third place: “The Triadic Ballet,” inspired by designer Oskar Schlemmer, by Luci Janzen, Elise Lenhart and Alani Vue.
View Fashion Without Fabric 2026 on YouTube. The Year of Design features events highlighting the innovation, leadership and impact at the heart of Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University.
‘Immerse Your Eyes, Preserve Your Mind’
Technology meets humanity in this scholarship-winning sculptural fashion design. Like a walking phantasmic dream, Kothbauer, the team’s runway model, was nearly encased in a metallic cape resembling a satellite dish, held upright over his head. He wore a high-low, asymmetrical “shirt” of deep red blended into black, topped by a corset composed of a cross-grid of red, blue and white electrical wires. The vertical wires branched upward to a headdress adorned with two-foot-long bedazzled antennae and trailing tassels.
Kothbauer then lowered the cape to create a double-layered skirt that swayed like shifting crystalline pendants as he made his way down the runway. Every angle of the design sheened and reflected light.
“Immerse yourself in reality, immerse yourself in fantasy, immerse yourself in technology,” said Violet, the emcee. “However, in a day when the work of artists and designers is under threat by artificial intelligence, this piece takes us back to when such technology was designed with humanist intentions. The blooming transformation is reminiscent of unveiling the layers of technology to find the hardware behind the screen, the software behind the hardware, and finally the human designer behind the software. This piece articulates what it means when humans blend with technology while keeping humanity at the forefront. For technology can never erase the humanity of the creator, but it is up to man to protect the humanity of the user.”
“Immerse Your Eyes, Preserve Your Mind” was inspired by video game and interaction designer Brenda Laurel. Popular in the 1990s, one of Laurel’s most notable and distinctive innovations was in virtual reality and immersive experiences, which use technology to enhance or simulate real-world concepts in fantastical ways.
“Her work varied, but amongst all of her designs, she used technology as a tool that benefited society through education and communication, which opposed the growing mindset of technology and virtual media being seen as a distraction or as something redundant to the development of humanity,” said Kothbauer, adding that some of Laurel’s projects also involved space-related themes, such as Purple Moon Media and Colonizing Cyberspace.
Binczak, Kothbauer and Watanabe were inspired by other technology and media sources from the 1990s, particularly vintage technology and space technology. They appreciated the interesting visual appeal and sleek, smooth silver designs of the Sega VR and the International Space Station, which launched in 1998.
And with Fashion Without Fabric being a fashion show, the team also wanted to focus on the experimental designs of modern-day high fashion and studied Thierry Mugler and Selva Huygens and their interpretation of interesting silhouettes and use of rigid materials.
The foundation of their design is built of cardboard to give it a rigid structure and lightweight quality, as seen in the transforming skirt and headpiece. “Underneath the surface though, the skeleton of both pieces was made of manipulated steel broom handles. Aluminum foil, vinyl, and chicken wire were cheap and composed the abundant reflective surface that connected back to the team’s technology theme. We also experimented with the appearance of zip ties on painted foam tubing that reminded us of the vertebrae of a spine or wires,” Kothbauer said.
The team thought that reimagining ordinary objects to suit a fashion design and working with abstract forms on a scale large enough to cover the human body was challenging but rewarding. And they enjoyed seeing teams and classmates support each other during the build process and the day of the event.
“This event is a yearly tradition in Menomonie and a staple in Stout’s School of Art & Design. It is easy for artists to be undermined and overlooked today, so being involved in Fashion Without Fabric made us appreciate the chance we get to be in a show that inspires future generations of artists and designers. We want to remind people to continue supporting designers and to listen when an artist is trying to say something,” Kothbauer said.
‘A Fragile Wonder’
A white teapot painted with delicate pink and blue flowers, with a matching cup, gravy boat and spoon emerged as one from behind the curtain and walked down the runway to cheers for its delicate charm. Violet asked the crowd to picture this:
“You walk into the kitchen one morning to find all your ceramics gone, melded into a whimsical little creature which is now parading around without a single care in the world. You hear a faint clinking and clanking as the whimsical wonder wanders about, with a sense of wonder as she experiences the world for the first time. What used to be a teacup is now her head. What once was a gravy boat has become a flower basket, and an assortment of different vases and dishes now form limbs. This little creature entrances you with her odd but charming mannerisms, and her fragile ceramic exterior adorned with an array of painted flowers; you can’t help but be overcome by joy whenever you are around her.”
“A Fragile Wonder” embodies the craftsmanship of Hungarian industrial designer Eva Zeisel, whose 1946 “Museum” dinner service exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York was the MOMA’s first one-woman exhibition.
For their design, Clark, Hartung and Oertel focused on Zeisel’s tableware, emphasizing the natural curves of the human body that Zeisel incorporated in her ceramics. The design’s interior structure is built of cardboard, hot glue and chicken wire. This was covered in layers of printer paper and glossy mod podge to mimic ceramics, painted with blue flowers. The ball on the top of the teacup headpiece is foam, covered in duct tape and painted cobalt blue. The headpiece also features white mesh sheets for visibility.
Oertel, who modeled the sculpture, enjoyed seeing the design finally realized on the day of the event. Hartung enjoyed painting the flower detailing on top of the papier-mâché to contribute to the ceramic finish. Being in the University Theatre’s production of “Something Rotten,” which opened the same weekend, Clark could not attend Fashion Without Fabric with his team. “But when my castmates found out we had won, they surrounded me and celebrated, and it made me feel extremely proud,” Clark said.
Other honorary awards were presented to:
Additional Spring Showcase events
- Saturday, May 2, 6 p.m.: Stout Fashion Show, showcasing innovative capstone collections from fashion design and development seniors.
- Tuesday, May 5: Research Day, celebrating the research and creative work of students, faculty, and staff from all fields.
- Thursday, May 7, 6 p.m.: Stout Game Expo (SGX), western Wisconsin’s largest game developer exhibition.
- Friday, May 8, 6 p.m.: School of Art & Design Senior Show, celebrating more than 120 graduating seniors’ creative works.
- Saturday, May 9, and Sunday, May 10: Unspooled Film & Animation Festival, dedicated to showcasing the very best in independent filmmaking.
- Wednesday, June 24, to Sunday, June 28: Murals in Menomonie, featuring the Walldogs, is a collaborative group of community organizations bringing in international mural artists.
UW-Stout’s School of Art & Design offers bachelor’s degrees in animation and digital media; game design and development-art; graphic design and interactive media; illustration; industrial and product design; interior design; studio art; arts administration and entrepreneurship; fashion design and development; and video production, and an M.F.A. in design. UW-Stout also has a new program in game and media studies.
