INSURRECTION

This garment was developed from the research of Colombian scientist Amanita Calderón, whose work investigates the social and political structures that make transgender women one of the populations most vulnerable to HIV and AIDS. More than a matter of individual exposure, this reality is rooted in historical systems of marginalization, exclusion, and the denial of fundamental rights.

As a response, the look reclaims narratives of resistance through the ancestral knowledge of the Muisca Indigenous people of Colombia. Inspired by the goddess Uitaca, a symbol of freedom, transformation, and the breaking of imposed norms, the concept embraces spirituality as a source of empowerment and liberation.

The project is also inspired by ballroom culture, recognizing its role as a space of visibility, community, and survival for queer and transgender people, particularly during the HIV/AIDS crisis. Through performance and self-expression, ballroom becomes another language of insurgency, where marginalized bodies transform vulnerability into power.
INSURRECTION emerges as a confrontation against systems that have historically attempted to erase transgender lives. The silhouette embodies a Muisca warrior figure while incorporating ballroom’s boldness and theatricality, transforming the body into a symbol of dignity, ancestral memory, and queer resilience.

The use of purple, pink, and gold creates a visual language of spirituality, opulence, and resistance, while the owl print, associated with Uitaca, appears as a guardian symbol of wisdom and freedom.

Through fashion, this project transforms ancestral mythology and queer cultural heritage into a contemporary political expression, honoring transgender lives as sacred bodies that carry the power to exist, resist, and transcend.

Orchis Spectrum

Developed in collaboration with scientist Michel C. Nussenzweig, the look takes as its starting point his research on broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs), a rare immune response capable of neutralizing different variants of the HIV virus, important in the study of prevention and treatment. From the relationships established between these antibodies and the scientist’s hobby of cultivating orchids, a narrative emerges that brings science and nature closer together through the concepts of diversity, adaptation, resistance, and flourishing.

Inspired by Brazilian orchid species, the project visually translates the coexistence of delicacy and resilience present both in the flowers and in the immune response process studied by Nussenzweig, and with the people who live with HIV.
The diversity of flowers and their adaptability become metaphors for the constant transformation of biological systems and for the scientific advances built over time. The flowering, in turn, represents the materialization of knowledge and the prospect of new paths for the prevention and treatment of HIV. Such as the resistance and resilience of the orchids that it can be seen in those who live with HIV and persevere with the treatment and has to fight against social stigmas as well.

The look’s composition uses athletic fabrics to represent the resilience of flowers and patients living with HIV. The colors were chosen based on researched orchid species and references related to the scientist. The main piece is a jacket with removable double sleeves that unfold into colorful stripes, evoking the blossoming of flowers. Complementing the design, the shorts feature articulated front appliqués that reinforce this same idea of transformation and revelation.

The idea behind the garment emerged from Professor Lloyd Mulenga’s research on HIV control and prevention. The intention of this garment is to symbolize union and community.

The research process began after speaking with Professor Lloyd Mulenga and learning more about his work and its key focus points. The following step was to translate these concepts into shapes, colors, and fabrics, creating a visual interpretation of the final garment.

The main concepts that inspired this look, after learning more about Professor Lloyd Mulenga’s research, were the digital connection waves derived from his work on the digital health system, as well as the importance of community and support. Some of the colors of the Zambia flag were also incorporated into the garment, creating a more personal connection with Professor Mulenga and his research.

All of these ideas were conveyed into a single look that intends to speak for itself from head to toe, resulting in a coat that incorporates fabric manipulation to represent the digital health system, as well as separated yet connected sections that symbolize community. The oversized silhouette and comfortable fabric are intended to convey comfort and support, reflecting the idea that treatment and prevention should be perceived as forms of support rather than control.

OUT OF THE LABORATORY, ONTO THE STREETS

HIV has always existed in two worlds: as a biological reality inside the body, and as a social reality shaped by language, stigma and fear. This garment brings those worlds together through a material history spanning eleven years and a conceptual history reaching back to the beginnings of the AIDS crisis.

In 2015, visual artist Sebastian Zagarella presented Inside/Out, an immersive installation drawn from his lived experience of HIV. Enlarged images of the virus were incorporated into everyday objects and textiles within an intimate domestic setting, making the invisible visible and placing HIV within everyday life. The installation invited audiences to enter this world, encouraging conversation, understanding and a challenge to HIV stigma.

In 2018, Ed Moreno wrote and performed Through the Night within the installation, drawing on HIV history, his own experience and his deep connection to Brazilian writer Caio Fernando Abreu. The work imagined the epidemic as a passage through darkness—from diagnosis, fear and death—to survival, treatment and the dawn of U=U. Moreno painted words and symbols of love, sex and fear directly onto Zagarella’s virus, which he then draped across his body.

Eight years later, James Penrose transformed the same textile into an oversized, camped-up lab coat and trousers for HIV Unwrapped at AIDS 2026. Zagarella’s virus imagery remains. Moreno’s words remain. Dye, tailoring, a pink triangle, U=U and Penrose’s panache add another layer. Each intervention accumulates.

That accumulation mirrors HIV history. Effective treatment has transformed what it means to live with HIV, while Undetectable = Untransmittable means a person with an undetectable viral load cannot sexually transmit HIV. Yet stigma persists. Science does not change stigma simply by being true; its knowledge must be understood, believed and carried into everyday life.

Here, the lab coat—the uniform of medicine and scientific authority—becomes excessive, queer and public, carrying HIV’s histories out of the laboratory and onto the streets.

UKUTEMWA

This garment was inspired by the research and the message about life that Izukanji Sikazwe wants to convey to the world: love, affection, diversity, longevity, and above all, respect for others.

Due to social prejudice against people living with HIV, this garment was created to bring joy to the wearer; its light, flowing fabrics symbolize the possibility of a light, fluid, happy, and long life. The fluidity of the fabrics also reflects the fact that nothing in science is static and everything changes every day.

The colors are chosen to radiate joy and life. Green combines the freshness of nature with a touch of boldness and renewal; pink represents fun, affection, and celebration; blue represents serenity and confidence; and red brings passion and love.

This is how the piece’s name, UKUTEMWA, came to be. It is a term in the Bemba (or ChiBemba) language, spoken primarily in Zambia and parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zimbabwe, that means “love” or “to love.” It is a word with a deep and comprehensive meaning that encompasses affection, care, appreciation, and dedication to another person.

The Undetectable = Untransmittable collection, developed for the Unwrapped Rio project, is inspired by the U=U principle, which states that people living with HIV who are receiving effective treatment and have an undetectable viral load do not transmit the virus through sexual contact. Drawing from this scientific framework, the collection proposes a reflection on the body, invisibility, stigma, and transformation.

The garments explore layers, volumes, and surfaces that challenge the boundaries between concealment and revelation, translating scientific knowledge into a visual and sensorial language. By bringing together fashion, art, and social discourse, the collection reaffirms the body as a site of presence, care, and empowerment, contributing to the dismantling of stigma and the promotion of greater awareness and inclusion.

If You’re Gentle, Touch Me

If You’re Gentle, Touch Me investigates the stigma surrounding physical touch and people living with HIV, particularly the fears and misconceptions established during the 1980s and 1990s that continue to persist today. Inspired by the research of Raphael J. Landovitz, the project examines how misinformation transformed one of the most fundamental human experiences — touch — into a source of distance, suspicion, and exclusion.

In response, the garment proposes the opposite: rather than repelling, it invites. Its highly textured surface is designed to awaken curiosity and encourage tactile interaction. Developed manually using Merino wool woven on a peg loom, the material creates a dense, soft, and sensory texture that makes touch central to the experience of the piece.

The color palette ranges from white to soft yellow tones, emphasizing form and honoring the natural qualities of the material. The silhouette is defined by a voluminous rounded skirt that evokes enlarged cellular and nodular structures, as if elements normally hidden within the body had been transformed into architecture. These organic forms suggest life, growth, and transformation.

As a statement against stigma, If You’re Gentle, Touch Me invites viewers to reconsider their relationship with touch, proximity, and difference. The garment is not about contamination, but connection; not about isolation, but presence. Through fashion, touch becomes an act of recognition, empathy, and resistance.

While exploring aging in people living with HIV through the research of Dr. Lishomwa Ndhlovu, I found in nature a way of understanding the body as a living organism in constant transformation. Trees, roots, and seasonal cycles became starting points for reflecting on the relationship between time, adaptation, and permanence. Just as nature responds to the conditions around it, the body is also shaped by visible and invisible processes that influence its experience throughout life.

The garment translates this relationship through translucent fabrics, materials of varying densities, and organic surfaces that evoke growth, adaptation, and continuous transformation. Embroidery, tactile textures, and prints inspired by microscopic imagery reveal what exists beyond immediate perception, creating a connection between the body’s internal processes and forms found in nature.

Rather than representing a medical condition, the piece offers a reflection on humanity, on bodies that change, adapt, and continue to exist. Like roots that remain beneath the surface or flowers that return with each season, it celebrates the capacity for transformation that accompanies all forms of life.

The concept for this look emerged from research into the HIV/AIDS epidemic during the 1980s and the stories of individuals who challenged silence and stigma. During this process, I discovered Philly Lutaaya, one of the first Ugandans to publicly disclose his HIV diagnosis in 1989.

At a time when fear and prejudice were widespread, he used his voice to promote awareness, compassion, and dignity. Reflecting on his legacy led me to a simple but powerful idea: despite our differences, we all share the same heart, the same blood, and the same right to care, respect, and humanity.

This concept is translated into a sculptural red silk taffeta dress, where the heart becomes the central symbol. The dramatic volume and cascading layers of ruffles represent strength, visibility, and resilience, while the structured back resembles protective armor, shielding the body from stigma and discrimination. The garment transforms vulnerability into empowerment, honoring those who have used courage and visibility as tools for social change.

APÁTRIDA

APÁTRIDA is a conceptual look developed through research into the corporealities of LGBTQIAPN+ youth, Mapuche Indigenous peoples, and migrant populations crossing the Atacama Desert in search of refuge, humanitarian assistance, and access to healthcare. The project is grounded in a reflection on the body as a territory in constant displacement, shaped by physical, social, and symbolic borders.

The work explores concepts such as nomadism, protection, freedom, inhabiting the body, destiny, and journey. Based on this investigation, traditional Latin American garments were analyzed, particularly the ponchos worn by Indigenous communities, whose generous, gender-neutral construction provides shelter and comfort to the body. From this observation emerged a proposal for a modular, genderless garment built from geometric forms and inspired by the traditions of Latin American weaving. The materials used consist of reclaimed fabrics and textile remnants, referencing the vast amounts of textile waste discarded in the Atacama Desert. The narrative imagines a traveler who, throughout their journey, collects textile fragments and weaves them onto their own body as a survival strategy against the harsh desert conditions, creating a kind of portable cocoon.

The color palette draws inspiration from Indigenous cultures of Chile and Brazil, combining genipapo black, limestone white, coffee brown, tones found throughout the desert landscape, and annatto red. Visually inspired by the aesthetic freedom of Elke Maravilha, the look establishes a dialogue between science, fashion, and human rights, transforming clothing into a symbol of resistance, belonging, and care for life.

The structure and development of this look are grounded in the research conducted by Sandhya Vasan, Vice President of Global Infectious Disease Research. As the leader of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program and the Viral Diseases Research Program at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, her scientific work serves as both the foundation and the starting point for the visual and conceptual narrative of this design.

The look translates this research through the development of a printed jumpsuit layered beneath a blazer and complemented by a conceptual belt. The blazer’s aesthetic is directly inspired by the laboratory coat, establishing an immediate visual connection to protection, scientific investigation, and the laboratory environment in which Dr. Vasan conducts her work. In contrast, the jumpsuit illustrates the biological behavior of the virus, representing the way HIV enters, inhabits, and integrates itself into the human body. The print functions as a visual translation of this process of invasion and permanence, making a direct reference to the fusion between HIV and the genetic material of human cells.

Finally, the belt assumes the role of intervention and healing. Far from being a mere accessory, it becomes a key element within the garment’s narrative. Its design references the cutting-edge technology behind mRNA vaccines, one of the most promising frontiers of modern medicine championed by leading global research institutions symbolizing active protection and the ongoing fight against the virus.