Elena Velez
American fashion designer, artist (born 1994)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Elena Velez (born September 10, 1994) is an American Avant-garde fashion designer and creative from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, based in New York City.[1] Her work is known for its synthesis of metalsmith and high fashion and has been featured at the Rockefeller Center,[2] V&A Museum[3] and the London Barbican.[4] Velez was a semi-finalist for the 2024 LVMH prize and named the CFDA's 2022 Emerging Designer of the Year. In 2025 Velez designed the costumes for The National Ballet of Canada.[5]
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September 10, 1994
Elena Velez | |
|---|---|
Elena Velez at the Met Gala, 2023 | |
| Born | Elena Velez September 10, 1994 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Education | Central Saint Martins, Parsons School of Design |
| Occupation | Fashion Designer |
| Spouse | Andreas Emenius |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | www |
Described by Vogue as "explosive and aggressive",[6] Velez's work has been inspired by the craftsmanship of the American Rust Belt as well as reactionary, counter-cultural aesthetics.[7] Themes in her work include deconstruction,[8] "anti-heroines",[9] and alternative construction methods, which include salvaged materials.[10] Velez coins her visual identity as "aggressively delicate" and "anti-fragile", frequently asserting the urgency of "transgressive art".[11]
Early life and education
Of Puerto Rican heritage [8] and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Velez claims in recent interviews that the "industrial" nature of her "nontraditional upbringing" as the only child to a single mother who is a ship's captain on the Great Lakes influenced her current artistic identity, which she says draws heavily on "the relationship between femininity and force".[12] With a beginning interest in design from early childhood, the first documentation of her developments appear in local TV news as a teenager in 2010.[13] In 2023 Velez was profiled in The New York Times detailing her difficulties in growing a brand without private wealth or industry connections.[14]
Velez studied at Parsons Paris from 2013 to 2015 and graduated from Parsons School of Design in 2018 with a BFA in fashion design and minor in creative entrepreneurship.[15][1] Additionally in 2020 she received a Graduate Diploma in fashion design from Central Saint Martins in London.[1] Her BFA thesis collection was shown at VFILES Season 10 Runway,[16] and London Fashion Week, as a guest of the Swedish Fashion Council.[17]
Career
In 2019 Velez's work was exhibited as a Teen Vogue 2019 Generation Next designer curated by Editor in Chief of Vogue Anna Wintour.[18] Her work has received coverage in Business of Fashion,[19][20] Women's Wear Daily,[21] WGSN,[22][23][16][24] and other publications.
In February, 2021, Elena Velez Industries Inc. was founded with investment support from venture capital firms Gener8tor, and CSA Partners.[25]
Velez has dressed celebrities including Courtney Love,[26] Ye,[27] Taylor Swift,[28] John Kiriakou[29], Angela Nikolau & Ivan Beerkus, [30] Solange Knowles,[31] Ethel Cain,[32] Julia Fox, Charli XCX, Eartheater, Doja Cat, Grimes, Anna Delvey,[33] Teyana Taylor, Tinashe,[34] Jenna Ortega,[35] and others.[36][37][38][39]
In 2022, Velez won American Emerging Designer of the Year at the CFDA Fashion Awards.[40][41] In March 2023, she was inducted as a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.[42]
Velez attended the 2023 Met Gala as a guest of Balenciaga. For the occasion, she created a crackle medium screen print ink-gown for the artist Sasha Gordon as a nod to Gordon's painting career.[43]
In February 2024 Velez hosted controversial EVSALON001,[44] which drew on "antiheroic American female archetypes" [45] from Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind. The Washington Post criticized the salon as "problematic" and "dangerously cheesy" and alleged that Velez "aligns herself with the unsavory flavor of a tendentious downtown New York crowd, whose podcasters, media personalities and fashion and art-adjacent figures rose to prominence under the aegis of 'Dimes Square'".[46] The salon garnered Velez the nickname of "Fashion's first post-woke designer" according to The Free Press.[45]
Velez is alleged to be associated with scenes connected to Peter Thiel and the new libertarian and "tech right", collaborating with digital art collective Remilia Corporation in 2025 [47]. The scene is known for its "reactionary politics".[46] Velez was quoted in The New Yorker commenting on heterodox downtown event space Sovereign House [48]
In 2025, Velez collaborated with subscription platform and adult content hosting website OnlyFans.[49]
For her Fall Winter 2026 show, Velez received highly polarizing reviews for collaborating with controversial streamer Clavicular on his runway debut.[50] The event also featured Pariah the Doll.[51] Velez is quoted in Vogue Business asserting that alignments are not "moral attachment[s]" but "artifacts, not endorsements".[52] Fashion industry critics, while acknowledging the validity of the trend of "hypermasculinity" and "bodymaxxing",[53] claim she "platforms problematic ideologies."[54]
In her Spring Summer 2027 show as part of the New York Fashion Week, Velez had ex-CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou walk down the runway with a book about Watergate tucked under his arm.[55]
Awards
- Inaugural Fellow of the Jayaram Law Creative Legal Alliance, New York, 2026 [56]
- Recipient, Joe & Clara Tsai Foundation; 2025 Revitalize Brooklyn Grant, New York, 2025 [57]
- Semi Finalist, LVMH Prize, Paris, 2024
- The Dazed 100 List curated by Ib Kamara, 2023
- Semi Finalist, Emerging Designer/ Brand of the Year; Latin American Fashion Awards, 2023 [58]
- 50 Women In Power list by WWD, New York, 2023 [59]
- Elle Magazine's 2023 Women of Impact Award, WA D.C., 2023 [60]
- Winner, Fashion Trust US Sustainability Award, New York 2023 [61][62]
- Winner, Best Emerging Designer; CFDA Fashion Awards, New York, 2022 [63]
- Winner, CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund Award, New York, 2022 [64]
- Recipient, IMG Fashion Alliance Grant, New York, 2022 [65]
- Winner, Teen Vogue Generation Next, New York, 2019 [66]
- Winner, VFILES Season 10 Runway, New York, 2018 [67]
- Finalist, Swedish Fashion Council CTF Award, London 2018 [68]
Museum Shows & Acquisitions
- Rockefeller Center: America250, New York City, 2026[2]
- Barbican Centre: Dirty Looks, London 2025[4]
- V&A Museum: Taylor Swift | Songbook Trail, London 2024[3]
- Pratt Manhattan Gallery: The New Village: Ten Years of New York Fashion, New York 2024[69]
- Abrons Art Center: Objects of Permanence, New York 2023[70]
- The Museum at FIT: ¡Moda Hoy! Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today, New York 2023[71]
New York Fashion Week Collections
- YR009 - SMITE, Sep 12. 2026[72]
- YR008 - MANUS MAXXIMA, Feb 12. 2026[73]
- YR007 - Badland, Sep 16. 2025[74]
- YR006 - Leech, Feb 9. 2025[75]
- YR005 - La Pucelle, Sep 10. 2024[76]
- YR004 - The Longhouse, Sep. 2023[77]
- YR003 - How's My Driving?, Feb. 2023[78]
- YR002 - In Glass, Sep. 2022[79]
- YR001 - Maidenhood And Its Labors, Feb. 2022[80]
- YR000 - Rinascita, Sep. 2021[81]
- Homecoming, 2019[82]
- Vessel, 2019[83]
- _And Carry On, 2018[10]
Salons
- EVSALON001: Tomorrow is Another Day, Feb. 2024[44]