Fashion Students Showcase Designs During Driehaus Awards

Original designs from Dominican University fashion students were featured in the prestigious 2025 Driehaus Fashion Awards, held in downtown Chicago on May 22 to celebrate emerging fashion talent.

The students, who graduated in May, had garments from their senior collections modeled in the award show, which took place at the 21c Museum Hotel Chicago.

Albina Ikizli was presented with the Driehaus Design Initiative’s inaugural Fashion Innovator Award for her line of women’s wear with a Spanish flair. The award came with a $5,000 grant.

“The Spanish Dance collection is a celebration of cultural heritage, reinterpreted for today's world,” Ikizli’s description of the collection read. “It invites women to experience the confidence and poise that comes from wearing garments steeped in tradition yet designed for contemporary life.”

“Albina is a very creative young lady with the ability to build garments very well,” remarked McKinley Johnson, fashion lecturer at Dominican University, who attended the awards event with the students. “She’s taking business wear and giving it a new twist.”

Garments from DU graduates Moxie Devan, Michael Hunter, Jasani Thompson and Jenny Velasquez were also modeled during the show.

Dominican has participated in the Driehaus Fashion Awards for a number of years at the invitation of the Driehaus Design Initiative. Also participating this year were fashion students from Columbia College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

The Driehaus Design Initiative is a nonprofit organization that promotes and encourages design education.

By participating in the fashion awards, students get a sense of what other Chicago fashion design students are creating, while also networking for apprentice or internship opportunities and gaining exposure of their own work, Johnson said.

“They see what the competition is like out there,” he added. “They have their garments presented in front of these wonderful, established fashion houses—which means they can make connections in the fashion world.”

Read additional coverage about the Driehaus Fashion Awards here.