Organizing Committee Members / Membres du comité d'organisation
Sophia Zavarella
Toronto Metropolitan University
Sophia Zavarella (she/her) is an aspiring fashion writer and researcher who is currently in the first year of her MA in Fashion at Toronto Metropolitan University. With a BA in Honours Arts and Business from the University of Waterloo, Sophia is passionate about telling stories that explore dress as an expressive medium.
Her research is centered on ballet dress, and its relationship to the moving body, exploring the aesthetic restrictions of ballet attire. In addition, Sophia is interested in the postwar period, examining how ballet influenced couture fashion, particularly through its material choices, silhouettes and form. At its core, her work considers the intersection between performance, embodiment and design, examining how clothing reflects social contexts, identity and history.
Michons Marigot
OCAD University
Michons Marigot is a distinct design talent with a myriad of skills in both technical and creative design. She is currently based in Toronto, where she is a professor in the School of Fashion at Seneca Polytechnic and works in product development, 3D Design and in other creative capacities with a textile focus. With a breadth of global industry experience, technical acumen, and an unparalleled tenacity, Michons is well-rounded with a mind that thinks outside the box and aims to work imaginatively and sustainably.
Michons Marigot is behind the small, namesake brand, which follows the Slow Fashion ideology and creates seasonal collections of mindful luxury. She is pursuing her Master of Design at OCAD University in Interdisciplinary Design.
Christian Gines
Parsons School of Design
Christian Gines is a writer, curator, and researcher from Mississippi informed by the canon of Black Critical Thought and Black visual and material culture. His work interrogates how Black Aesthetic and Optical practices have served as incubations of Black virtuosity rooted in the intimate, illicit, and incandescent tradition of the Afro-diasporic American South. He is a first-year Master's student at Parsons and a graduate of Harvard College, where he studied History and Literature and African American Studies.
Alex Tremblay
Fashion Institute of Technology
Alex Tremblay is a graduate student and aspiring fashion historian currently enrolled in the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice program. They hold a B.A in Psychology from The Ohio State University, where their research bridged aesthetic theory, social psychology, and fashion to study human behavior. A longtime lover of perfume, Alex’s research interests include fragrance as a cultural and gendered medium within fashion systems throughout history.
Nadia Bunyan
Concordia University
Nadia Bunyan is a Master’s student and a SSHRC award recipient. With a background in fashion design she has worked as a researcher, community organizer and has been a guest curator at the McCord Stewart Museum with her exhibition Aunties’ Work: The Power of Care. With over 20 years of experience in the fashion industry, Nadia believes we must begin with education and relationality to see change in the industry and beyond. These core values led her to cofound Growing A.R.C. a nonprofit using the prism of material culture and its fashion systems, to discuss sustainability and inclusivity.
Kellian Gordon
McMaster University
Kellian Lilia Gordon is a PhD student in French and Francophone Literatures at McMaster University. She holds an Honours Bachelor’s degree in French Studies from Brock University and a Master’s degree in French Literature from the University of Toronto.
Her research examines representations of racialized individuals, bringing into dialogue eighteenth-century Enlightenment literature with twentieth-century Franco-Caribbean literatures. Alongside her academic work, she is committed to promoting Francophone cultures and communities.
During her undergraduate studies, she received the Board of Trustees Spirit of Brock Medal in recognition of leadership, initiative, and community engagement. In March 2026, she was invited to participate as a panelist at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario for a literary event held during Francophonie Week in the Lieutenant Governor’s Suite. In May 2026, she championed La Maison vide by Laurent Mauvignier as part of Choix Goncourt Canada 2026.