SF: What's your name, and where are you from?

GLUE: We're glue, a Vancouver based fashion collective made up of three designers: Katie Vasquez, Thomas Lychy, and Zoë Macdonald. The three of us met in 2024 during our first semester of fashion school at the KPU Wilson School of Design, and founded glue together in the spring of 2025.

SF: Can you tell us a bit about your journey into fashion?

GLUE: The three of us each had our own paths which led us to fashion and design, though we all found ourselves drawn to creating with our hands and using clothing as a form of expression. We began designing together under our collective project glue after realizing that our three unique perspectives allowed us to create work elevated from what we could do alone. glue has become a space where we are able to experiment freely, challenge each other creatively, and build projects that wouldn’t be possible individually.

SF: How would you describe your design aesthetic?

GLUE: The aesthetic of glue is really the collision of our three individual design styles. We all share an interest in sculptural silhouettes, unique craftsmanship, and storytelling through clothing, but each of us brings something different to the aesthetic of the collective. Thomas’s style tends to lean more dark, dystopian and industrial, having previously worked primarily in menswear and with denim. Katie’s work is all about self expression, and has a more playful, bright, and psychedelic feel. Zoë’s style is rooted in contrast and tactility, balancing dark and light, softness and structure, and masculine and feminine influences. The goal of glue as a collective is to create work elevated from what each of us could do alone, and the aesthetic of the collective truly is the melding of each of our unique design perspectives. We have a lot of love and respect for each other, and a lot of trust in each other's design sensibilities, technical capabilities, and construction. We allow each other the freedom to explore our own ideas fully and bring our visions to life under the glue name.

SF: Where do you find inspiration?

GLUE: A lot of our inspiration comes from the communities we're a part of. The three of us first bonded through music, attending raves and EDM shows together. The cultural influence of these music spaces, where creativity and self expression are really valued and celebrated, has had a big influence on all of us and on our design process. We feel so lucky to have an amazing community of creative friends around us. Most of our friends are involved in the arts in some shape or form, whether that be in fashion, music, film, fine arts, acting or more. We all support, uplift, and inspire each other. Storytelling and the avant garde have become key aspects of glue collections, every collection begins with a story and message, and from there we build a world and its characters through silhouettes, materials, colour, and styling.

SF: What do you hope people take away after seeing your collection?

GLUE: Above all, we hope people walk away after seeing our collection feeling something. We really love how fashion can be such a strong medium for storytelling, and we want our collection to spark curiosity and conversation. We hope viewers walk away questioning their relationship with technology in regards to identity, and the way we all interact with the rapidly changing world we exist within. We also hope people leave feeling inspired to embrace creativity and self expression for themselves.

SF: What do you think Vancouver's fashion community needs most to continue growing?

GLUE: We honestly think Vancouver's fashion community is already incredibly talented and full of people who genuinely want to support one another. What it needs most is more opportunities for those people to come together. More independent runway shows, exhibitions, pop ups, networking events, studio spaces, and creative gatherings would help strengthen the community and give emerging designers more platforms to share their work. Last November we hosted our own event and runway show, and seeing how many people came out to support local fashion really reinforced how much appetite there is for these kinds of spaces and events in this city.

SF: Why should people be paying attention to Vancouver fashion right now?

GLUE: Vancouver's fashion scene feels like it's at a really exciting point. There is a generation of independent designers in the city making original and exciting work. Because the fashion community in Vancouver is still relatively small, there is also a real sense of collaboration rather than competition, with designers, artists, photographers, makeup artists, performers and more consistently working together and supporting each other. We think that this spirit of creativity and openness is producing some incredible and interesting work, and we’re excited to see where it continues to evolve in the coming years. Vancouver may not have the reputation or major industry of larger fashion hubs, but that is part of what makes it exciting. It is easier here to feel like we’re really part of something and helping to build something.

DESIGNER FEATURE - GLUE

The Vancouver Project - Meet the Designers