CCS turned the Somerset Skywalk into a 700-foot runway for The Show 2026

The College for Creative Studies sent more than 100 looks down a 700-foot runway on Sunday, April 26, staging its annual student fashion showcase, The Show 2026, on the glass Skywalk at Somerset Collection in Troy.

The Skywalk is the differentiator. Rather than a single stage, CCS used the enclosed bridge that connects the Somerset North and South buildings over Big Beaver Road, a 700-foot span that the program turned into a working catwalk for the night. The runway was built in collaboration with the school's interior design department, which dressed the bridge with suspended frames, projected light, and reflective surfaces. The show drew 354 guests and opened at 8 p.m. after a reception, per the college's own account of the event.

This year's collections ran under the theme Future Fantastic, which CCS describes as drawing on Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" and leaning toward precision and minimalism. The work came from both junior and senior apparel and accessories students, with collections rooted in personal and local narrative rather than abstraction. Subjects included Iraqi immigrant history along Detroit's Seven Mile corridor, the city's automotive legacy, and the origins of techno.

Ten seniors showed full collections: Izzy Abohasira, Mar Bissada, Hayden Brice, Maxwell Honeycutt, Falina Jimerson, Griffin Mesner, Sarah Nofar, Ryan Putnam, Veronica Wardowski, and Emma Wisler. Nine juniors also presented work: Quade Feller, Luka Galle, Santino Giglio, Bryn Hazen, Athan Hillman, Megan Hotchkiss, Sophia Jensen, Lilly Steele, and Bryce Truby.

"We've created a kind of laboratory for fashion at CCS," Aki Choklat, the Linda Dresner Endowed Chair in Fashion Design, said in the college's announcement of the show. "Here, students experiment, take risks, and develop their own design language."

CCS is a Detroit design school in Midtown that grew out of the Society of Arts and Crafts founded in 1906. The Show is the fashion design program's annual runway event, and staging it inside Somerset gives the students a venue that retailers and industry guests actually attend while the mall gets the brand association and the foot traffic.