If CAKEBRAIN’s win at last season’s Emerging Designer Challenge wasn’t the first domino of change in the Denver fashion scene, it was certainly a significant one.
His streetwear collection was as provocative as it was cohesive, combining repurposed military symbolism and weaponry with explicit statements of protest and mistrust for the American government and authoritarianism.
But while some have voiced skepticism for CAKEBRAIN’s unapologetic display of “aggression,” his win of the audience’s vote at the challenge proves one thing that his critics seem to forget: CAKEBRAIN’s aggression is exactly what the audience wants — and now, they have a leader for the movement.
Now, six months and one official Denver Fashion Week later, CAKEBRAIN’s first collection hangs on a rack in a small studio in northern Colorado.
The walls of the studio are lined with vintage Michael Jordan posters and handmade collages. A Singer sewing machine sits next to piles of scrap denim and camouflage fabric. WWE plays on the TV next to a well-used ash tray, a custom skate deck and a “Road Work Ahead” sign with origins better kept unexplained.
In other words, the rumors of CAKEBRAIN’s aggression have been greatly exaggerated. Stepping inside his studio, it’s clear that Ethan Hernandez (the man behind the brand) isn’t motivated by anything other than making art that feels true to his unique perspective.
And while this perspective feels naturally controversial to those in the fashion industry who white-knuckle tradition, Hernandez is simply driven by a near-obsessive love for creation and an inability to stray from his authentic self.
“My brand is just me being me, honestly,” Hernandez shared. “It’s just what I’m interested in, my thought process, all of that. So I don’t think I’m necessarily trying to do a certain thing. It’s just kind of what I need to say and what I need to express.”
In fact, that need to express has always been the backbone of Hernandez’s life, long before CAKEBRAIN was born. Nevertheless, it has always manifested in his style, an interest he’s held since childhood.
”It started with shoes,” Hernandez shared. “I just loved having the coolest shoes in the coolest colorways. I’d go on Nike ID and customize hella stuff all day.”
But even if he didn’t quite realize it at first, from his first pair of Nike Shox (patent leather with a black to white gradient, by the way) to customizing pieces from his own closet later on, that impulse to create, to make something new from what already existed, would become the foundation of CAKEBRAIN years later.
When he landed an apprenticeship sewing plane upholstery out of high school, at the time, Hernandez didn’t think of it as fashion: sewing was a skill, one he picked up easily and left behind just as quickly. But last summer, he returned to the sewing machine, tapping into muscle memory with a new sense of purpose. What started as experimenting with pieces from his own closet grew into full looks, and eventually into the collection that won the approval of the audience at the Emerging Designer Challenge.
A few months later, that collection expanded into his official Denver Fashion Week debut: a moment that felt like a natural extension of Hernandez’s creative instincts. His collection was carefully choreographed, with models in his original designs descending the runway together, others with fuck-if-I-care attitudes that mirrored the designs’ messaging and a surprise appearance from Hernandez himself, revealing at the conclusion that he was the model in the mask seen at the beginning of the segment.
“It’s less of ‘I’m trying to show this product,’ and more of, ‘I’m trying to tell a story,’” Hernandez explained. “I’m tired of the normal walk down and walk back. And that’s where I wanted to switch it up for my own sake.”
All of these details culminated into something more than thoughtfully constructed fashion: instead, Hernandez leans into the medium for its ability to evoke strong reactions in real time, to feel more like a performance than a clothing exhibition.
“The pictures and the videos will never do the shows I do actual justice,” Hernandez shared. “To me, the most important thing is that the people who are there witnessing the show in real time are going to get the most raw emotion out of it. I would rather someone have anything to say than have nothing to say about my work.”
By prioritizing storytelling over products and unapologetic noise over compulsory decorum, CAKEBRAIN’s Denver Fashion Week collection showed the power in authenticity and risk-taking. When the show ended and he was once again voted the audience favorite, it confirmed that his risks didn’t just pay off: they truly resonated.
His work is the kind of fashion Denver actually responds to, the kind that moves the conversation forward.
Hernandez knows that this response (and even the responses that aren’t so flattering) mean that his mission of evoking emotion and thoughtfulness is working. Nevertheless, he isn’t creating for the accolades and wins.
Rather, that creation comes from his lifelong refusal to make anything other than what feels honest to his perspective. And the fact that it happens to resonate with a growing community in Colorado is just, well, icing on the cake — proving that even in a market saturated with micro trends and consumerism, he has the passion, expertise and edge to push the fashion scene forward.
“I feel like deep down that this is what I’m supposed to be doing, and there’s a weird feeling there because it’s so overly saturated,” Hernandez admitted. ”But a lot of what’s out there feels microwaved, almost like people are just doing it to do it, getting things out there and not taking the time to break the mold and create thought-provoking things. I just make stuff that I think is cool and the people who are supposed to be there are going to be there and see that.”
This point underscores the philosophy that drives every aspect of CAKEBRAIN: creation that comes from a genuine, personal place will always carry more weight than work designed to please or impress. In his deliberate approach to fashion design, Hernandez is refusing to bend to outside expectations.
And in doing so, he’s making room for other designers to do the same. Hernandez is hopeful that his collection will initiate that domino effect, that young designers who see his work will lean into authenticity and continue disrupting an industry that’s always had a forceful undercurrent of submission.
“Just make stuff for yourself, not what you think other people want,” Hernandez shared, speaking toward newer designers. “When you create from a real place, it resonates with the people it’s supposed to resonate with.”
In an industry often defined by cautious trends, Hernandez’s creative process offers a roadmap: make what moves you, and the rest will follow. As the scene continues to evolve, CAKEBRAIN stands as a real-time example that unapologetic self-expression resonates in a way calculated designs never could, sparking a movement that pushes the boundaries of what Denver fashion can look like when it celebrates real, honest voices.
In the meantime, though, Hernandez will keep creating — and there’s no way of knowing what will come next.
