Denver Fashion Week welcomed two up-and-coming designers into their Fall 2025 lineup last month at their biannual Emerging Designer Challenge. This challenge is designed to celebrate new talent on the runway, with designers competing for two spots on the Fall 2025 runway.
Five designers competed at this fall’s challenge, including Rose Tint by Spencer Gordon, Pondor, Dream Life Designs, Muhtoro and Nineteen Candles. After each designer showed a collection of five looks on the challenge runway, two were chosen to advance to Denver Fashion Week: one by a panel of judges and the other by audience vote.
The Fall challenge was hosted by Denver Fashion Week producer Nikki Strickler, who also served as a judge alongside DFW Creative Director David Rossa, and designers Alicia Rau and Mona Lucero.
Here’s a closer look at each competing designer’s collection.
Rose Tint by Spencer Gordon
Spencer Gordon presented a collection entitled “Rose Tint,” based on his capstone project for his Fashion Design degree at Colorado State University. The collection demonstrated expert-level crafting of contradictions: earth tones against colorful hues, modern silhouettes against flowing parachute pants and vests, modest cuts with playful skin-baring cutouts. Rhinestones and metallic eye makeup contrasted against fresh, clean faces, making for an altogether intriguing collection, leaving the audience wanting more.
Pondor
Pondor’s collection was an upbeat celebration of fashion and culture. His hand-tailored pieces combined Afro-Peruvian staples with a contemporary twist. With primarily masculine silhouettes, the collection was, in the designer’s words, “a wearable revolution,” with visual appreciation for Latino identity and Incan tradition. Set against modern trucker jackets, cowboy boots and intentional silver jewelry, the collection’s unmatched positivity lit up the challenge runway, culminating in designer Ramiro Santiago Cornejo Cervantes bringing his sewing machine down the runway in a true celebration of handmade fashion.
READ: Meet The Contestants For The Fall 2025 Emerging Designer Challenge
Nineteen Candles
If Pondor’s collection celebrated masculine fashion, Nineteen Candles did just the opposite with a collection of looks that amplified feminine energy in its darkest and most unapologetic form. And while the looks themselves were eye-catching, the details brought the collection to the next level: including chunky jewelry, bags with Nineteen Candles’ logo and statements like “Resistance Until Liberation,” handcuffs, pearls and — in the final look — a sword. One highlight was a dress was adorned with photo negatives from designer Ella Jensen’s grandmother’s travel photography, catching the light as the model moved down the runway.
Dream Life Designs
Dream Life Designs sent an upcycled denim collection down the runway for the Emerging Designer Challenge. Backed by an upbeat Fleetwood Mac mix and a crew of smiling models, each look was a playful twist on a vintage standard, with bedazzled jackets and jeans, maximalist patch placements and pops of red throughout the collection. Overall, the collection not only showed the beauty in creating something unique from Americana staples but also the power in fashion that’s just plain fun.
MUHTORO
Jeremiah Muhtoro’s collection under the self-titled brand MUHTORO was a masterclass in texture mixing. Muhroto crafted unique silhouettes from a variety of fabrics including cowhide, silk, furs, canvas, suede and denim, embellishing them with fringe, waist-cinching scarves and classic western accessories such as wide-brimmed hats and sharp boots. Made of dark hues and expertly styled on each model, the collection was equal parts grungy and chic, with carefully crafted details that deserve a thoughtful eye and a second look.
Nineteen Candles and Dream Life Designs Will Show Full Collections at Denver Fashion Week Fall 2025
After each designer showed their collections, two winners were chosen: one by the panel of judges and the other by audience vote. The audience chose Dream Life Designs to advance to the Fall 2025 runway, celebrating the joyful collection designer Camille Cozzens brought to the challenge. The judges chose Nineteen Candles as their winner, based on the cohesion, construction and concept of Jensen’s collection.
Both Nineteen Candles and Dream Life Designs will show full collections in the fall season of Denver Fashion Week, scheduled for November 8-16 this year.
All photos by Scott Norby Photography.