Models and designers of the Columbia College Chicago School of Fashion celebrate a succesul NASCAR Race Day fashion show on Saturday, July 5, 2025.
As the sun disappeared from the sky and emanated orange rays from behind the Chicago skyline, 18 models stood in a line sporting repurposed NASCAR gear to the backdrop of Buckingham Fountain for a Columbia-hosted fashion show.
The School of Fashion and NASCAR partnered to host the Race Day Fashion Show, which took place between the conclusion of the Xfinity Series Race and before the Zac Brown Band, at the NASCAR Fan Plaza located around Buckingham Fountain on Saturday, July 5.
The designs featured in the fashion show shared the overarching themes of NASCAR — grit, speed and spectacle — merged with the “bold aesthetic of Chicago street style.”
Led by recent Columbia graduate Fredo Medina-Ortega, 18 student designers featured their personally unique pieces at the show, including Waldo Perez, Sydney McCormack, Muath Amoudi, Yatziri Cervantes, Lucy Conway and more.
The two-day Chicago Street Race takes place in the backyard of Columbia’s campus. Shane van Gisbergen won The Loop 110 NASCAR Xfinity Series race on the first day of racing on Saturday.
On Sunday, 40 racers will compete in the marquee NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park 165. That race starts at 1 p.m.
Columbia President and CEO Shantay Bolton, who started her leadership position a few days earlier on July 1, attended the NASCAR race on Saturday and then came to the fashion show shortly before it began. She said her first NASCAR experience was “exhilarating.”
“I could not have had a better first week than how Columbia College Chicago and the city of Chicago has shown me love,” she said.
She praised the college’s collaboration with NASCAR as a “wonderful way” for the students to express and highlight their talents.
One of the designers featured in the show, William Duwe, a 2025 Columbia graduate who finished with a BFA in fashion design, was excited to have their designs shown in an event partnered with NASCAR.
“They actually had a little showcase last year, just with Columbia, so I was fortunate enough to be a part of that, but being here at the actual races, it’s really cool,” he said.
The idea to partner a fashion show with the racing organization began after three Columbia students landed NASCAR internships through the college’s Fashion Lab in the Spring 2025 semester, as previously reported by the Chronicle. After a proposal spearheaded by the interns for a race weekend activation, NASCAR donated recyclable materials and gave the group the green light to begin designing for a dual event.
The event was livestreamed through the School of Fashion’s Instagram page. The page also sent out a form for interactive fan voting, which determined the top three designs, which went out at 5 p.m.
Aaron Nelson, a 2012 Columbia graduate who also sang the national anthem at the race Saturday, attended the fashion show.
He described the experience of being able to perform the national anthem as an out-of-body experience.
“That was one of the best things I’ve ever done, and to sing it right in front of where I used to walk to class is a whole different experience,” Nelson said. “I’m still floating.”
Misha Manushree, a graduate student from the University of Southern California, happened upon the fashion show. She applauded NASCAR for supporting “smaller designers from a smaller college” and shining a spotlight on their fashion.
Manushree liked the blending of two themes into one finished product.
“I think with fashion, I think it’s cool for designers to integrate their own style and experience into what they’re designing,” she said.
The winner of the fashion show was Mora Forkapa, who won $1,500, followed by Jorge Espinoza, who won $1,000 and Maria Moreno, who won $500. Forkapa, a senior product development and fashion studies major, was in shock that she won the grand prize and “super duper happy” that all of her hard work paid off.
Her design, which was modeled by Lizzy Fowlkes, a senior BFA fashion design major and Forkapa’s roommate, pulled a lot of inspiration from different aspects of NASCAR, from the black tire prints that decorated the white top to the driver’s safety net inside their cars that acted as the skirt.
Mora Forkapa’s father, Mark Forkapa, who came out from Cleveland, Ohio, said it was “incredible” to see his daughter’s work modeled for the public and said that he was “so proud” to see what his daughter could do.
“I think she’s got a lot of talent, so this is a really cool way to see it in action,” he said.
Copy edited by Manuel Nocera
