Performing “The Performance:” Ava Wilson’s NYFW Debut

Ava Wilson is a couture-leaning fashion designer based in Brooklyn, NY. She works primarily within the themes of Black sexuality and Black femininity—how these facets of Black identity have been diluted through time, and how they may be recontextualized in a way that empowers the stories of the past, while nodding towards the future of Black femininity.

Her collection “The Performance” uses mesh, beading, and boning to accentuate and extend the shape of the body, in order to highlight the emphasis placed on Black women and their bodies, while also admiring the beauty of being a Black woman. She was heavily inspired by Josephine Baker when first conceptualizing the collection.

Photo by Haru Morri 2025

Leading up to her New York Fashion Week premiere with Heaven’s Gate, Ava worked with Cheyenne Temple and Amanda DiMaio to produce one of the most stunning photoshoots I have ever seen. In an impressive feat, she began the final look, a wedding dress, for the show three weeks before, and completely blew everyone away as it flowed down the catwalk.

Cheyenne Temple & Amanda DiMaio 2025

Ava’s “wedding dress” piece was partly sourced from a $50 thrifted wedding dress in Connecticut. As she was bringing it home in a bag on the train, a woman next to Ava asked if she should go through with her wedding. Ava said yes and took this as a good omen.

The show itself came together over the course of a day. Out of the seven designers, Ava was one of the only ones not affiliated with a brand. She did not have a hair team, a makeup team, or a press team (besides my camcorder and Nora’s iPhone). Yet, in my opinion, her work easily spoke for itself in its effortless beauty, its technical skill, and its unified thesis. 

Photo by Haru Morri 2025

When asked how it felt to do a New York Fashion Week show, Ava said that it gave her more questions rather than answers: “Sometimes there’s that split second where I’m like… is this what I want?” She describes herself as an introverted person who would rather let her work speak for herself. She wishes to take a more mystical role in the fashion-design process, wherein she is a sort of obelisk behind the work instead of a studiable figure in front of it.

When asked what she was planning on doing in the next few months, she responded: “Survive.” I laughed, but I resonated with that deeply. In our current dumpster-fire of a world, being a creative and being a person can feel like two different things, one feeling more necessary than the other at times.

Ava went on to tell me that she feels her purpose as a creative and a person is to carve out a welcoming space in the fashion community that uplifts Black women and creates a market for their successes. As opposed to the nepotism and cruelty-riddled ecosystem of some high-fashion circles.

I first met Ava in my freshman year, when she became roommates with my best friend Nora. Ava is just one of those people who you know is going to change the world. I have no doubt that the next time you will see her, it will be in Vogue. The real Vogue.

Follow her adventures on Instagram @avav3nue.

Watch the accompanying video online at prattleronline.com