Loose Buttons is an independent publication, founded by Moe Ebii and Jen Liu, based in New York City. We explore community-oriented approaches in design by showcasing conversations that highlight independent designers, artists, and craftsmen.

We a primarily in print, but are also online at @fromloosebuttons on Instagram. 

If you would like to collaborate or be featured on Loose Buttons, please email us at fromloosebuttons@gmail.com.




Index
01.
02.
03.
04.
05.
06.
Issue 1
Issue 2
Issue 3
Issue 4
DIALECTIVE Runway
Loose Buttons × Amanda Zheng
from Moe and Jen
01.Issue 1

Oct 2024
Publication







02.Issue 2
Dec 2024
Publication





03.Issue 3

March 2025 Publication





04.Issue 4

Oct 2025
 Publication





05.DIALECTIVE Runway

May 2025 Showcards





06.Loose Buttons × Amanda Zheng

Feb 2025
 Photoshoot



×DIALECTIVEIssue 3
Mar 2025

DIALECTIVE is a fashion collective founded by Helen Sotropa, Grace Gordon, Zhexuan Katherine Hu, and Runtan Desmond Du, dedicated to supporting emerging designers. Established in 2022, it began as the first ever student-run fashion show, showcasing the thesis collection of 20 graduating designers at Parsons. Since then, DIALECTIVE has expanded with hosting a NYFW showroom, and opening the DIALECTIVE studio space, with a third runway show set for May 2025.

For this issue, we had the opportunity to visit the studio space and sit down with Grace Gordon and Helen Sotropa to discuss how the collective has evolved into what it is today.


Upon entering the DIALECTIVE studio space, we were greeted by a buzz in the air, with designers working and creating side by side. It’s beautiful to reflect on how it all began with a single runway show. To provide some context for the collective’s beginning, Grace explains that 2022 was a pivotal year for Parsons, marked by a strike that led to the cancellation of the second half of the Fall semester.

Grace Gordon “Our thesis year, our friend Katherine approached both me and Helen and was like “I want to do a runway show” because we’ve actually never had a BFA runway for Parsons graduates. They only started doing them our year after we were working on ours. It was also the year of the strike and we didn’t have class and we were thesis students. So, we wanted to do it in a professional way, where people’s work can be selected by industry professionals, and get feedback on their work when we weren’t getting critique from anyone.”

Having established their ambitions and goals with DIALECTIVE, the next step was to turn those ideas into reality. Grace and Helen share how they navigated these difficulties, the challenges they faced in gaining credibility in the early stages of the collective. 

GG “I’m very much about writing and communication, so I was very focused on how designers talk about their own work in the short bio and assets we asked for from them. That’s why we spent so much time on even just the name DIALECTIVE.

We were spending so much time choosing a name that we were losing our minds, but it’s a play on the word dialectic and collective. We wanted it to be aesthetic-less. We didn’t want it to isolate certain types of designers, it’s supposed to be a neutral entity and people can take what they want from it.

The first semester of this was just us figuring out how it was going to work and how we were going to present ourselves. That was the main thing; presentation. We’re not just a bunch of students that are like, “Give us money for a show that we want to do with our friends.” It’s like no, this is an industry thing that we’re trying to do. Having the judges is also really helpful, because it’s like they’re giving their ok, and that was the thing that helped us get sponsors and people coming to the runway. It’s like their way of giving back to the students, and they’ve told us how they wished there was a communal thing like this when they were going through it, which is nice to hear.”

All of the branding for DIALECTIVE was done by the 4 founders. 

GG “The process for it is we select a group of 4 students in August, and they start working together. They select judges that they think are people that they would want to review their work, industry professionals, they don’t all have to be designers.

You have to be in your BFA thesis, but you don’t have to be a fashion design major. If you get selected as a director your work is automatically in the show. So part of when we decide on people, we also want to look at their body of work as a design student.”

Helen Sotropa “It’s mainly just the directors who do the planning, otherwise it’s too much. We have a director of operations, of finance, production, and then communications. Everyone has a department they focus on, but obviously are encouraged to collaborate.”

GG “Then the students send portfolios that are around 5 pages, it’s like midway through their thesis so not the final thing. They just got selected this year—mid February the judges make their decisions, and it’s based on our values of being environmentally conscious, clear messaging, unorthodox, craftsmanship, authenticity, and social awareness. Those are the things we decided were the most important for selecting well-rounded designers.

Then, they get a photoshoot with their headshot. A big part of it too, when we’re planning all of this, was having a documentary crew following us around as well. We were very focused on image, like professional headshots for everyone and a well written designer bio. It’s not just about press, but you’re getting a job from this. There’s 4 people directing, but there’s 20 of you that have to present yourself in a certain way, and that’s the well-rounded part of it, they all come out with like assets that are super important.”

With 20 students showcasing their work, we were curious on how DIALECTIVE is able to keep things cohesive.

HS “I think that the word curated and cohesive, in our mind they’re very separate, we don’t want the designers to have a cohesive image. A lot of people they’re like, “Do I need to have a certain look to my work?” but the beauty of it is like everyone’s work is so different, and we find a way to compliment each other. And that’s definitely a challenge within the directors of the year, is how they make it cohesive in a way. Everyone’s aesthetic is different and we encourage that in a way, the last thing we want is to seem like we have a very specific way of being perceived.”

GG “It’s teaching them a lot about collaboration in that way too. It’s up to the student directors to make a curated multi-designer thing. That’s the hardest part, and that’s why we couldn’t do more than 20 designers, any more is way too much. We want everyone to have that opportunity but it’s just not possible.

With that, we’re also trying to create a mentorship system. Each year, DIALECTIVE is going to grow and grow as a community, so it’s encouraging students to reach out to their connections and this is a network for doing that.”

From the runway show, they moved on to a showroom hosted in February of 2024, featuring 17 New York-based designers. The showroom, they explained, led to the conversation of starting a studio space.

GG “That was a multi-designer situation. It’s tough to work with that many people. It kind of helps you learn to navigate those things, dealing with people who have conflicting schedules and are busy is not fun. But it’s a good thing to learn. When we did the showroom, that was also like a retail experience and a week long. There were so many things that went into it, and that’s why we were so excited to get this space—of having a space where people can come together and for us to not have to be scrambling all the time.

The space does a lot of connecting for us. where before it was us having to do it. People connect all the time through creative projects in New York, but you lose those connections all of the time. You might see them around, but we’re trying to create a way where people who have similar interests can meet each other and work together. I know a lot of designers from that showroom, people got press, but the experience as a whole was a lot on us, and it’s nice to just provide a physical space. This showroom is actually open to anyone, you can just apply and it’s a 20% commission situation, and also rates have gone up so much in boutiques in NY because of rent, and so it’s insane for an emerging designer, so this is kind of a space for people to promote themselves. We’re trying to encourage people to take more action: Here is the space for you to be able to do what you want to do, and we’re trying to support you in that way instead of us micromanaging everything.”

HS “In the industry, it is so competitive, and in school it can seem that way as well. But when you come together as a community, you find that there’s so much strength in that, and this competitiveness, no one is really thriving. Having a support system is so encouraging. That's something we want to foster within our community. It’s great to see people you haven't seen in so long and congratulate them on something that they have accomplished. It’s really good to have that.”

GG “Our runway show was really successful, and so much branding and effort put into that, we didn’t want to just stop here, but we also didn’t want to continue only being attached to the runway side of things because there’s so much more to the design world. That’s a moment for thesis students, but that’s not something we’re like focused on as emerging designers that are very early in our careers, we’re trying to navigate post-graduation where we wanted to be.

When we started, DIALECTIVE was very much Parsons-centric with the runway show, and now the runway show is open to all NYC-based schools. But we’ve wanted to move away from only being college educated because there’s a lot of really talented people in New York that didn’t necessarily go to design school. So the only requirement to be a part of this space is just know how to use the communal machinery. That’s what’s been good about this space.”

The studio space is divided into two categories: communal spaces and taped-off private physical spaces.

GG “The communal memberships are an hourly thing. You get 50 hours a month and it’s $100. You just have to book the communal spaces in advance. Everyone that has a physical space can also book the stuff in advance without any extra charge.”

HS “If you have a communal space, you can’t leave stuff in here, so it’s nice to have your own studio space. The equipment in the communal space is all things we provide—we have a knitting machine, dress forms, three industrial straight stitches, we have a cover stitch, a serger, a gravity iron, and two communal cutting tables. We also have a plotter, which we’re still in the works of setting it up.”

GG “And then the kitchen, and the showroom area is also a communal space, where people can take photos.”

HS “The reason that we got a lot of this equipment is because it’s really expensive equipment to get on your own, so we wanted to make sure people had access to it. Our rates that we offer are lower than if you were to get your own studio, and that’s part of the mission, making this space more accessible to newly graduated students who are still trying to get their foot in the industry.”

GG “Or people who didn’t go to college. Our whole methodology is just looking at where we are currently in the industry and then trying to figure out how we can make it better for ourselves and our peers, all the community based stuff we’re doing. We’ve done community events. We don’t want to advertise everything as networking, we just want people to be able to talk and get to know each other. It’s very cutthroat in this industry sometimes, especially in New York—it’s just a nicer way to approach things in fashion, then people being so concerned with themselves and only themselves, and in their internal worlds. Cause like, a lot of this, if you have a question about making, you can find someone who knows how to do it. That’s what we loved about school. We’re finding ways outside of the university environment to create opportunities for people to talk to each other. That's the main selling point of universities, it’s the communities, that’s what you’re getting out of it, and we’re just trying to keep that ball rolling.”

HS “Yea, and all the profit we make from here we reinvest it into this space. Whether it be an event promotion, machinery, or maintaining the space in any way that we see fit.”
The studio space, and DIALECTIVE, is constantly growing and evolving.

GG “Everything we’ve done, we’ve always made sure to ask people for feedback. Sometimes when you put so much work into something you don’t love hearing all the things wrong with it, but it is super important to ask people about their opinions.”

HS “Within universities, there’s always the top people making executive decisions, but we didn’t want to be seen as those top people. It’s so important to grow as a group and innovate, and to hear feedback. Feedback is a gift.”

To wrap things up, we asked Grace and Helen what the future of DIALECTIVE might look like.

HS “We definitely want to get more donations and sponsorship in the future, and have some sort of grant system for emerging designers.”

GG “Or more opportunities for people to pitch a creative project that’s paid. I think that would be really cool. Like through a grant system. It’d be nice to provide people with finances to be able to do what they want, and it’s not contingent on you being in school or having a degree.”

HS “Also like word of mouth, expanding outside of Parsons to other fashion schools.”

GG “Or just general community building. This year we have the space so once a month we’re doing wine bar meetups, just for people to come hangout with each other. And we have a discord that we’re trying to get people to join as an online system for people to talk to each other, share progress pictures, and let us know about events going on. That’s been something we’re trying to get people to be an active part in. For us, for the next couple of years, it’s all just community based. We’re pretty happy with where we are at right now. Obviously, way down the line, we’d like to do bigger things.”

HS “Definitely still continuing the runway.”

GG “Everyone always wants to hear what the younger generation’s perspective is, and you only ever hear it through a journalist perspective at a runway show, so why not actually work with students every year and get to know what they’re thinking about.”

Writer: Jen Liu
Copy Editors: Miranda Chalbaud, Shin Yu Liu