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The University’s new art and fashion collection saw over 200 participants in their show celebrating “The Beauty of Perfection”.
Lekha Sunder
Contributing Reporter
Courtesy of MAISON
More than 200 Yale students gathered in Tsai Innovative Thinking this past Saturday to see them dressed in “chaotic cocktail attire.” Yale’s first fashion show in five years.
The event was held at MAISON at Yale, the university’s new art and fashion collection titled Entropy. Former YFH member Mona Chen ’25 wanted to continue promoting fashion at Yale, so MAISON was born out of the “fallout” of the former club, Yale Fashion House. Chen now serves as MAISON’s co-president.
Michelle Zheng, 25, the firm’s head of advertising, wrote to the News that she and Chen wanted to challenge the stereotypes of fashion firms by looking “exclusive and elite.” The name Maison – French for “house” or “home” – was chosen to reflect the welcoming and welcoming atmosphere Zheng and Chen wanted to nurture.
“MAISON is a home and a home for all those who seek fashion through style expression, artistic design or anything else every day,” Zeng said.
MAISON “is effectively the only student. [organization] It’s focused on fashion,” Chen said. While Yale has several organizations dedicated to finance and counseling, STEM, leadership programs and other creative expressions such as a cappella and theater, “the fashion club stands out, belonging to the state people to the overall student experience,” Zeng added.
For MAISON leaders, fashion is more than what a person wears every day – it is the basis of personal identity and a driver of self-confidence, according to Chen.
“Clothes have such a unique transformative power and can bring beauty to an incredibly deep level beyond beauty,” Chen said.
Saturday’s fashion show was the first major event hosted by MAISON. The two-hour show featured 38 models and 15 designers, including Parsons and RISD students and local New Haven designers like Neville Wisdom and MiniPNG. The models were all Yale students.
MAISON wanted Entropy to be “exploding with creativity,” with “very different styles,” Chen pointed out.
“Viewers saw heels but not ripped shoes, formal dresses not just jeans, ready-to-wear clothes, but clothes that didn’t look like clothes at first glance,” says Chen.
Just as the name Entropy suggests, Chen says she and the MAISON team want to show disruption, randomness and instability, as well as “the beauty of perfection.”
Kai Chen ’26 outfits feature almost second hand or vintage items such as old quilts and lace tablecloths that she collects from eBay, Etsy and local thrift stores.
According to Chen, their jewelry and clothes – hand-stitched – are meant to be “dreamlike and otherworldly” while having a certain softness.
“As a gender-identified person who grew up avoiding feminism/soft expressions, participating in and designing crafts like these…was really liberating and revealing,” she wrote to the News.
Among other places, Chen says, he draws inspiration from the feminist art movements of the late 20th century.
Another Entropy designer, Lydia Lee, 23, said she asked herself what would happen if “three mermaids accidentally walked down the runway” as she designed her wrap dresses — mostly from recycled yarn — for Saturday’s show.
Lee learned craft at the age of seven and said she mastered her craft by making clothes for her dolls. as if Earlier this year, Lydia had “Runway Design” on her New Year’s bucket list.
“I was thrilled to hear about the opportunity to design MASON’s runway,” Lee wrote to the News.
As for what’s next for Maison, Mona Chen said she hopes to bring well-known speakers from the fashion industry to Yale, showing students “there are more career opportunities than we’re often exposed to.”
MaiSON, according to club leaders, hopes to further incorporate sustainable fashion into their organization and reach out to non-profit organizations outside of Yale. Other possible future programs include modeling or clothing design workshops and closet sales. MAISON also plans to continue the annual Yale Fashion Show for years to come.
“We’re looking for new members to bring this culture down the line,” Zeng said.
The Tsai Center for Creative Thinking at Yale is located at 17 Prospect St.
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