Elena Velez | |
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![]() Elena Velez at the Met Gala, 2023 | |
Born | Elena Velez September 10, 1994 |
Alma mater | Central Saint Martins, Parsons School of Design |
Occupation | Fashion Designer |
Spouse | Andreas Emenius |
Children | 2 |
Website | www |
Elena Velez is an American fashion designer and creative from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, based in New York City. [1] Her work is known for its synthesis of metalsmith and high fashion and has been featured in the V&A Museum [2] and Barbican Centre. [3] Velez was a semi-finalist for the 2024 LVMH prize and the CFDA's 2022 Emerging Designer of the Year.
Described by Vogue as "explosive and aggressive", [4] Velez's work has been inspired by the aesthetics of the American Rust Belt. Themes in her work include deconstruction, [5] "apocalyptic anti-heroines" [6] , and alternative construction methods, which include salvaged materials. [7] Velez coins her visual identity as "aggressively delicate" and anti-fragile. [8]
Of Puerto Rican heritage [5] but raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Velez claims in recent interviews that the "industrial" nature of her "nontraditional upbringing" as the only child to a single mother who is a ship's captain on the Great Lakes influenced her current artistic identity, which she says draws heavily on "the relationship between femininity and force". [9] With a beginning interest in design from early childhood, the first documentation of her developments appear in local TV news as a teenager in 2010. [10]
Velez studied at Parsons Paris from 2013 to 2015 and graduated from Parsons School of Design in 2018 with a BFA in fashion design and minor in creative entrepreneurship. [11] [1] Additionally in 2020 she received a Graduate Diploma in fashion design from Central Saint Martins in London. [1] Her BFA thesis collection was shown at VFILES Season 10 Runway, [12] and London Fashion Week, as a guest of the Swedish Fashion Council. [13]
In 2019 Velez's work was exhibited as a Teen Vogue 2019 Generation Next designer curated by Editor in Chief of Vogue Anna Wintour. [14] Her work has received coverage in Business of Fashion , [15] [16] Women's Wear Daily , [17] WGSN, [18] [19] [12] [20] and other publications.
In February, 2021, Elena Velez Industries Inc. was founded with investment support from venture capital firms Gener8tor, and CSA Partners. [21]
Velez has dressed celebrities including Taylor Swift, [22] Solange Knowles, [23] Ethel Cain, [24] Julia Fox, Charli XCX, Eartheater Doja Cat, Grimes, Anna Delvey, [25] Teyana Taylor, Tinashe, [26] Jenna Ortega, [27] and others. [28] [29] [30] [31]
In 2022, Velez won American Emerging Designer of the Year at the CFDA Fashion Awards. [32] [33] In March 2023, she was inducted as a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. [34]
Velez attended the 2023 Met Gala as a guest of Balenciaga. For the occasion, she created a crackle medium screen print ink-gown for the artist Sasha Gordon as a nod to Gordon's painting career. [35]
Velez has been closely associated with scenes connected to Peter Thiel and the new far-right. According to the Washington Post, from 2024 Velez "aligned herself with the unsavory flavor of a tendentious downtown New York crowd, whose podcasters, media personalities and fashion- and art-adjacent figures rose to prominence under the aegis of 'Dimes Square'". The scene is known for it's "reactionary politics and associations with Peter Thiel." [36]
In February 2024 Velez hosted controversial EVSALON001 [37] , which drew on Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind. The Washington Post criticized the salon as "problematic" and "dangerously cheesy". Sohrab Ahmari referred to the presentation as a "weird racial" variation of the "Art-right". [38]
In 2025 Velez collaborated with controversial streaming platform OnlyFans [39] and designed the costumes for The National Ballet of Canada. [40]