From Graphic Tees to Bespoke Runway Garments: Alter Ego’s Evolution

Before Alter Ego Expressions made bespoke runway garments, we made a different invitation: Wear More Art. Ayanna Ali’s original surreal characters appeared on graphic tees, apparel, accessories, prints and art objects. A person could take an image off the wall and bring it into everyday life.

That was already a kind of transformation. But it left a question open. What could happen if the artwork did more than sit on the surface of a finished product? What if the image helped determine the garment’s shape, placement, drape and movement from the beginning?

The artwork came first

Alter Ego began in 2018 as a family-built Seattle brand rooted in Ayanna’s original character art. The early products gave the work many lives: a tee could carry an image through the city; a print or art object could live in someone’s space. The point was never to treat a garment as a blank object waiting for decoration. Each piece invited someone to wear a character, a mood or a point of view.

Our graphic tees still do that work. The Eyes of Hell tee, for example, puts an original Alter Ego image into an everyday silhouette. Making bespoke garments expanded that idea. It asked us to design the silhouette around the art rather than choose a silhouette first.

Eyes of Hell on an Alter Ego graphic tee. Product image: Alter Ego Expressions.

A tapestry showed us another possibility

Ayanna’s sheer tapestries were already among Alter Ego’s best-selling pieces. Their scale and lightweight fabric suggested something different from a conventional print on a shirt. The image could be wrapped, layered or partially revealed. It could change with light and with the person carrying it.

That observation became a design experiment. The Planet Void tapestry was an art object in its own right. In the Celestial Sovereign look, the same original artwork later appeared on the back of a wrapped tunic. It was no longer only an image to hang or hold; its placement became part of how a character appeared, turned and departed.

Planet Void as a sheer tapestry before the artwork was incorporated into a runway garment. Artwork: Ayanna Ali. Product image: Alter Ego Expressions.

Two garments turned a question into a practice

At Cannonball Arts in 2025, we presented two early bespoke pieces: a dress and a paneled skirt constructed from the lightweight tapestry material. Ayanna developed the tapestry-garment concept and early sketches; Andreya Taylor constructed the dress prototype, while Tanya Greigorian constructed the paneled skirt prototype. Their work proved that the fabric could carry more than an image. It could carry a runway silhouette.

Those pieces were a proof of concept, not a finished collection. More garment ideas remained in the sketch queue while the cost of producing them kept the larger vision out of reach. We had seen what the fabric could do. We still needed the right opportunity and the right team to take that experiment further.

From proof of concept to 18 runway originals

That opportunity arrived through Bumbershoot in April 2026. Over the following months, the project grew into UNFRAMED, a 30-minute living gallery presented at Bumbershoot Fashion District at Seattle Center on September 5 and 6. The two early garments became the starting point for 18 custom-fitted runway originals, five handmade masks, movement, live painting and a production built by more than 30 creative contributors.

The move into bespoke work changed the questions we asked at every stage. Where should the artwork land when a model turns? How much of it should be visible from the front? What does a sheer layer reveal under runway light? Can a dramatic shape still allow the performer to move with control? Sketching, surface design, textile production, construction, fittings and rehearsal all had to answer one another.

The resulting looks did not repeat a single formula. The Celestial Sovereign’s wrapped tunic placed Planet Void across its back. The Molten Empress’s corset gown used Ayanna’s Seraphina Moonrise artwork in the skirt. The Obsidian Executioner held the Eyes of Hell image behind a severe front view, so the full design arrived with a turn. In each case, the image was part of the garment’s structure and timing, not a final graphic added after the design was done.

Gat as The Celestial Sovereign in the blue Wrapped Tunic Set at Bumbershoot Fashion District. Photo: Noah Kim (@nmk.jpg). Courtesy of Alter Ego Expressions.

The next chapter still starts with art

Making bespoke garments did not replace the tees, tapestries or art objects that built Alter Ego. Those pieces make original art accessible in different forms. The runway collection showed what happens when we give the same artistic point of view more room, a specific body to work with and a character to bring it to life.

That is the evolution behind UNFRAMED: from art you can wear to garments conceived through the art itself. Some ideas may become accessible apparel; others will remain custom runway originals or limited wearable art. The format can change. The starting point stays the same: Ayanna’s artwork, and the possibility of letting it move further than anyone first expected.

Explore the Celestial Sovereign design process and the Molten Empress gown, or contact Alter Ego Expressions about a runway piece or custom project.