The West Valley College campus was buzzing all day, but around 6:30p, the atmosphere shifted. DJ John Beaver’s upbeat EDM set boomed across the valley, guiding folks from the parking lots into the Cilker School of Art and Design Grad EXPO.
Outside, food trucks lined the Northwalk. Near the entrance, 2026 San Jose Creative Ambassador Jorge “J.Duh” Camacho was pulled up in his modified U-Haul Pop-Up Box. Built as a mobile art gallery, it was created to make art viewing more accessible for and by the community. This evening’s exhibition featured a mix of art. It included works from artists in issue 18.3 “Perform,” such as a community art piece by Crossthread SJ, and hardcore show photos shot by Sherrise Sexton (on loan from 365—a visual archive of Bay Area hardcore that was on view at Vago Super). Paintings by Hargun M. Mann and welded metal sculptures by Alana Lin were also displayed.
Moving inside, Content Magazine supporters gathered for an intimate VIP reception headlined by Los Panaderos, whose performance beckoned guests to the Cilker Courtyard for food, drinks, and dancing.
As the fashion show approached, folks started making their way across campus. They took in the full spread of what was happening—from student art sales and gallery exhibitions to the live performances in the Cilker Lounge. Before hitting the grass, guests could catch Lindsey “HELLA Famous” Leong selling books on revolutionary ideology. They could also tap in with the Crossthread SJ crew. The group held it down for the community by pairing show promo with vital harm-reduction support like contraceptives and test strips. While critical theory and fentanyl test strips probably weren’t on the official college tour brochure—and may have surprised a few guests between wine refills—activations that merge and showcase community perspectives across contexts are exactly the point of Content Pick-Up Parties.
By 8p, all paths converged on the runway, the crown jewel of the night. This event celebrated the 5th year of the Cilker graduate showcase and partnership. This year’s Annual Graduating Fashion Design Student Fashion Show displayed elite growth and experimentation. For nearly an hour, models strutted the catwalk in student-designed garments that pushed boundaries. They mixed materials from latex to lace, and patterns from plaid to polka dot. The sheer diversity of the collections proved that the future of South Bay fashion is unapologetically bold.
The energy didn’t drop when the runway cleared. Immediately after, Silk Road took the stage. Fronted by sisters Alana (featured in the current Issue 18.3) and Amara Lin (featured in Spring 2024’s Issue 16.2), Silk Road rocked a heavy set of covers and originals to a lawn of listeners, leaving the audience wondering why the college doesn’t host a regular concert series on that grass.
Even as the performances wound down, the chairs were being folded, and the food trucks pulled away, guests could be seen mingling and chatting. While the EXPO has grown massively over the last five years, the core of this collaboration between Content Magazine and West Valley College remains unchanged: it is a definitive showcase of what happens when higher education, local arts, and authentic community dial into the same frequency.
Missed out on the action? Grab your copy of Issue 18.3 “Perform” and mark your calendars for our Issue 18.4 “Profiles” Pick-Up Party on Thursday, August 27, where we will bid a fond farewell to the founder and Cultivator of Content Magazine, Daniel Garcia, as he embarks on retirement.
From the blended Spanish Colonial Revival and Art Deco architecture of the historic Hotel de Anza to the bustling sounds of designers scrambling to get their looks on point, the first-ever San Jose Day Fashion Showcase was a spectacle to remember.
People move to San Francisco to be free. People move to San Jose to be innovative. No matter where you land, fashion in the Bay has always been led by personal style and the communities that live here. In planning this fashion showcase, graphic designer, Muralist, and co-director of San José Day, Jorge “J.Duh” Camacho, wanted to bring a fresh element to this annual event.
J.Duh’s industry connections in San Francisco gave him the sense that the city was disconnected from other parts of the Bay Area, but also inspired him. For San José Day, he imagined a collaboration among fashion designers from across the South Bay and beyond. The final showcase featured San Francisco Fashion Designer Nolan Kenji, San Jose Fashion Designers Henry Manolis, Ramona Rebel, SewKali, and Coldwater Collective, alongside Students from the West Valley College Cilker School of Art and Design. Through creative collaboration, J.Duh brought designers together to share ideas, coordinate, and create a rhythmic showcase for fashion lovers.
The event started with a photo walk led by San Jose Shooters, beginning at Foto Express and ending at the De Anza Hotel. The evening moved into a VIP cocktail hour that got attendees into the spirit for a spectacular show. For the main event, emcee Josue Ramirez, owner of the local vintage shop and gallery space Vago Super, kicked off the show, stating, “The real gems are by and for the people of San Jose.” Ramirez led the audience through the show, while rounds of applause and cheering filled the Hotel courtyard. The West Valley College fashion design students received a particular buzz of excitement before and after the runway show. Following the showcase was a panel discussion with Ryan Mante and Marisela Cristina Gonzales Ginestra. The conversation, moderated by Marisela, focused on designers’ views of fashion’s impact on the community.
Marisela Cristina Gonzales Ginestra, who was born and raised in San Jose, is currently a Denim Designer at Levi Strauss and co-curator at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles. In a side conversation outside the panel, she shared what it was like as an aspiring fashionista growing up in San Jose. She agreed that San Jose has two extremes–on one end, there can be scrutiny toward individuals who express their originality and personal style, where those who dress out of the norm may receive looks and judgmental comments; on the other end, there is a desire to turn each look into a statement, where creative expression is fueled by that same tension.
Henry Manolis
Designer, Henry Manolis responded to the prompt by saying, “San Jose is a boiling pot of diversity, and because of that, fashion really works in bringing people together and sharing ideas and perspectives.” His recent collection is inspired by his latest life stage as a new father.
“Clothes can be more than materialistic; they tell stories.” -Brian Nemedez.
Coldwater, a fashion collective based in San Jose’s Japantown, was founded by three brothers who believed they could share their story through a brand. The collection they presented was inspired by their childhood experiences, going fishing with their dad. Content Magazine covered their story back in 2024, sharing the magic that runs through Coldwater’s veins.
Coldwater was originally featured in Content Magazine’s Fall 2024 issue 16.4, “Perform”
Local San Jose fashion designer Ramona Rebel runs the brand Rebel Notions and is inspired by Cultura. Deeply rooted in Chicanx Lowrider culture, Rebel’s attitude towards design is grounded in self-expression.
Cilker School of Art and Design student Jayssielisa is currently completing her final semester at West Valley Community College in Saratoga. She shared that students in their last semester taking Design II: Line Development are tasked with creating three looks for West Valley’s annual graduation fashion show, now in its fifth year. Jayssielisa viewed the San Jose Day showcase as a great opportunity, even encouraging other design students to join. Other West Valley Designers included Ellie Vogel, Clyde Elloso, Sage Jean, Christian Cordero, and Angelica Ochoa.
Clyde Elloso was originally featured in Content Magazine’s summer 2025 issue 17.3, “Perform.”
There is so much beauty in San Jose, a place where you can be different, show up in your own way, and, hopefully, inspire others to do the same. Movements like this require people to organize and support each other.
So, what does San Jose fashion look like? It looks like claiming space, sharing stories, and showing up for one another. It looks like the brilliance of the people who reside here, who push the envelope and inspire others to expand their minds through self-expression.
Image 1: Jayssielisa | West Valley College, Cilker School of Art and Design
Shannon Mirabelli-Lopez, Dean of Cilker School of Art and Design, describes her first impression of West Valley College and its facilities as a “crazy diamond in the middle of what felt like nowhere.” When she joined the community college in 2021, returning home to the Bay Area after two decades in New York City, she was ready for a change and had a vision to democratize a premier arts education.
Mirabelli-Lopez grew up in the East Bay in the ’80s, a punk rocker and later a tour manager, doing distribution and marketing for bands like Primus and styling music videos for Primus, Green Day, and INXS. Researching styles for those music videos led to an interest in history and fashion. She went on to study Anthropology at UC Berkeley and Visual Culture: Costume Studies at NYU, working full-time to get herself through school. That winding path eventually led her to the Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where a junior role turned into a 12-year run helping realize major fashion exhibitions.
Yet the prestige came with a cost. “The Met is sort of like a rarefied place,” she says. “It’s very elitist, to be honest, and it just became a little incongruent with how I felt about myself.” A move into leadership roles at Pratt and Parsons revealed another layer: how tuition and debt quietly shape who has access to creative careers. “You cannot be a creative person in New York City starting out the gate with that much debt,” Mirabelli-Lopez says.
At Cilker, she saw a different possibility. Supported by a strong tax base, West Valley can offer in-district students free tuition while maintaining high-quality facilities. Mirabelli-Lopez has used that foundation to tighten the curriculum, launch new offerings in industrial design, digital art and illustration, and curatorial studies, and to reimagine the fashion program so that creativity and craft carry equal weight. “I’m good at creating environments for creative people to do what they do best and not worry about the details,” she says. “That’s what I do as a dean.”
In this conversation, Mirabelli-Lopez traces her journey from punk shows and music videos to the Met, Pratt, and Parsons, and explains why schools like Cilker—where state-of-the-art facilities meet accessible tuition—are crucial in changing the landscape of art and design.
2026 marks the 10th anniversary of the Cilker School of Art and Design and the 5th annual Grad EXPO. The event takes student work out of the classroom and into the public eye through a day of exhibitions, performances, and a live runway show designed to engage the community.
2026 also marks five years of collaborating with Content Magazine to co-produce their summer Pick-Up Party alongside the Grad EXPO. You can read more about the Cilker School of Art and Design, along with profiles of three student alumni, in Issue 18.3, “Perform,” dropping at the EXPO on May 15. Join us to celebrate the school’s first decade and the next generation of Bay Area creatives. Learn more.
Artists and students gathered on the campus of West Valley College in Saratoga to showcase their work at the college’s annual STEAM’D Fest. 2025 marked the fourth year of collaboration between Content Magazine and The Cilker School of Art & Design in producing The Cilker Grad EXPO and Pick-Up Party 17.3, “Perform,” which celebrated the latest issue of the magazine.
Before the main event and Pick-Party began on May 16, 2025, college students attended a networking event. With portfolios in hand, they practiced their elevator pitches and shared their coursework with industry professionals from various fields, invited by Content Magazine. Adding to the pre-party festivities, a mobile screenprinting press run by OaxaCali Studio supplied visitors with commemorative tote bags and shirts with the Cilker School of Art and Design’s logo. Attendees lined up excited to receive their EXPO swag.
At 7p, nearly everyone on campus made their way down an incline led by string lights to the college’s visual arts building; they followed the sound of a music duo, MindFi, comprised of guitarist Mark Arroyo and vocalist Kia Fay Donovan, and were greeted The Content Magazine check-in table, guest received food and drink tickets, and picked up their copy of the new magazine.
Art lovers cycled in and out of the glass facades of the visual arts buildings, enjoying student work in one gallery and a pop-up exhibition featuring artists from the pages of the magazine in the other. The blend of magazine members and college supporters made the event feel like a party hosted for the city, as all ages enjoyed the artwork and snacks on a crisp Friday evening.
Mild Monk, previously featured in Issue 12.0, “Discover,” performed a rare live performance in front of a massive 12 ft wide King157 backdrop featuring the magazine’s name and his iconic graffiti characters. The piece, produced in partnership with 1Culture Gallery for the Winter 2025 edition of Content, was hauled in and built for the event. At the same time, attendees snacked on ice cream and churros from food trucks.
In the theater behind the stage, students practiced their sales skills at booths set up like an art fair, selling stickers, ceramics, crochet pieces, and art prints.
After Mild Monk wrapped their half-hour set, attendees migrated upstairs to a beautiful second-story courtyard to experience the annual Cilker Fashion Design fashion showcase, which began fashionably late and had more attendees standing than sitting. As models strutted down and around the square catwalk, the designs were met with complete attention and applause.
Student designs brought a wide variety of wardrobes to the show, with some resembling those from the set of Dune and others looking red-carpet ready. With thick eyeliner and confident strides, the models presented themselves to an enthusiastic crowd, some sporting trailing capes and knit face masks, as the designers concluded the scheduled portion of the evening with a bow.
Join us on Thursday, August 21, 2025, at CURA Contemporary gallery in Morgan Hill for Pick-Up Party 17.4, “Profiles”. The party will celebrate the artist featured in the issue, including the 2025 Content Emerging Artist Awardees, and feature a pop-up gallery, live music, and food and drink from Véra restaurant and its master chef’s curated menu. The party will be produced in partnership with CURA contemporary, The Gilroy Foundation, Heritage Bank, and The City of Morgan Hill.
