House of GOCA is an annual signature event celebrating avant-garde fashion and wearable art, where designers, artists, and performers converge to transform the runway into a living gallery. It’s a high-energy, immersive experience that blurs the boundaries between visual art, fashion, and performance. Each year, the event showcases bold creativity and community spirit, culminating in a dance party that keeps the celebration going.
The 2026 House of GOCA theme, STARDUST, draws inspiration from the cosmic and contemplative work of artist Nina Elder, whose practice explores the material remnants of time, space, and human impact. This year’s show invites artists and designers to channel the mystery and majesty of the universe—where fashion becomes a vessel for transformation, resilience, and radical imagination. STARDUST celebrates the elemental and the ephemeral, engendering hope and reminding us that we are all made of the same stuff.
STARDUST will feature the work of Aaron Graves, Chromatiicat Handmade, Frantic Fabric, Hart & Horn, Jibwa Studio, K. Palma, Obaid Afghan Treasures, Phoebe H. Boynton, SKYE|AIRE, and Tyne Hall.
Stardust draws inspiration from the cosmic and contemplative work of artist Nina Elder, whose practice explores the material remnants of time, space, and human impact.
Stardust invites artists and designers to channel the mystery and majesty of the universe—where fashion becomes a vessel for radical imagination.
Several Denver designers were selected to participate in the show including Chromaticat Handmade, K. Palma, Skyeaire and Tyne Hall.
About Nina Elder:
Artist and researcher Nina Elder creates projects that reveal humanity’s dependence on, and interruption of, the natural world. With a focus on changing cultures and ecologies, Nina advocates for collaboration, fostering relationships between institutions, artists, scientists and diverse communities. Because Nina is devoted to rural communities and often overlooked places, she regularly works outside of urban cultural centers and the commercial art world. Nina lectures as a visiting artist/scholar at universities, develops publicly engaged programs, and consults with organizations that seek to grow through interdisciplinary programming.
Nina’s artwork is widely exhibited and has been featured in Art in America, VICE Magazine, and on PBS. Her research has been supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Rauschenberg Foundation award for Arts & Activism, the Pollock Krasner Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation. She has recently held positions as an Art + Environment Research Fellow at the Nevada Museum of Art, a Polar Lab Research Fellow at the Anchorage Museum, and a Researcher in Residence in the Art and Ecology Program at the University of New Mexico. She migrates between rural Colorado and site-specific projects.
