Social anxiety and Fibonacci spirals adorn the runway at the CCA fashion show

San Francisco Chronicle​

18-05-2025

When Cyuaka Vu was 8 years old, they watched their mother sew at the dining table in their home in St. Paul, Minn. She mostly made traditional Hmong garments that the family wore to community celebrations and holidays.
'In my culture, there's a lot of hand-sewing techniques,' Vu, 35, said. 'We'd be adorned with all these hand-embroidered pieces.'
One of the motifs in her traditional pieces was a spiral, symbolic of family and ancestral lineage in Hmong culture, which Vu featured prominently in their collection at the California College of the Arts runway show Friday.
'My senior thesis is inspired by the spiral, I patterned out a Fibonacci sequence spiral in pretty large scale,' they said.
Vu was one of seven graduating students who showed off their work, many of whom are making their postgrad debut into the fashion industry with mixed emotions.
'I think there is a cycle of both hope and anxiety because a lot is not in our control,' Vu said.
Vu enrolled in CCA after being unable to find a fashion industry job without a bachelor's degree in fashion, and even then, limited job availability was top of mind. The political landscape is also a source of their worry.
'The taking away of rights from LGBT people, from women, from people of color — it's crazy to me,' Vu said before the show. 'I think all of it is interconnected, and if one goes away, that gives way for other groups, and it feels like a downhill ride.'
On Friday, Vu's curvilinear jacket sleeves and trousers with coiled pleats landed on the runway outside CCA's main building in San Francisco to applause from friends, family and professors.
'The way the government is rolling out things, it's really about fearmongering,' said Helen Maria Nugent, the dean of CCA's Design Division. 'I think the students will find their way, with no doubt in my mind.'
While Vu's linen, silk and cotton garments melded the Hmong spiral motif with inspiration from a visit in 2024 to their partner's home city of Tulum, Mexico — and a particularly circuitous and magical bike ride the two went on, anxiety showed up in a more literal way elsewhere on the runway.
Jingyi Yang's garments reflected the social anxiety that she and others of her generation experience, exacerbated by the pressure of social media, she said.
'I think everybody is worried about the future,' said Yang, 24, who knew she wanted to be a designer while watching episodes of 'Project Runway' as a kid in her coastal Chinese hometown of Qingdao.
Titled 'Frictional Identity,' Yang's collection included a top with the outline of a face mask used for skin care as a nod to societal pressure for self-improvement. Meanwhile, copious pleats, layering and zebralike line work represented illusion and self-protection in the face of social anxiety, she said.
Yang also feels anxious about the job market that awaits her.
'When I started to design this collection, I didn't feel that anxious about unemployment because there's still one year left,' she said. 'But right now, I feel already worried about unemployment.'
Yang, who will be sticking around the Bay Area after graduating while she applies for jobs, said she and her peers feel that there are not a lot of opportunities in an already competitive industry.
Other designers such as Hao Wei Chuang — whose collection referenced a Chinese novel about a Buddhist monk through dragon-like scales on leather trousers and fantastical, lace headpieces — were mostly looking forward to life after college.
'I feel excited,' said Chuang, 24, who hopes to pursue his fashion career in New York. 'It feels like a new chapter in my life.'
Kalen Walthour, 22, who grew up in Louisiana, said her relationship with her faith gives her a lot of hope and confidence in herself no matter what's going on in the world.
'I define success as a woman loving herself,' Walthour said. 'I feel like my calling in life right now is to bring hope to women who feel broken.'
After her models strode down the runway in gowns meant to evoke Eve in the garden of Eden, Walthour joined her fellow designers in a gold skirt and ceramic bodice meant to symbolize the dual strength and vulnerability of womanhood, she said.
After the show, Nugent commented on how President Donald Trump's administration has weighed on student life. At least one international student at CCA decided to return home after the administration threatened to revoke their visa, she said.
For Vu, the precarious state of the world is also motivating, especially as they observe other designers they admire stay engaged in politics and stand in solidarity with oppressed groups.
'That's why I think it's important for me to express myself the way I do,' they said.