A Cut Above: How Edgar X. Aguilera is Dressing Icons and Shaping Students

Many fashion designers dream of outfitting celebrities, but in order for that creative collaboration to work, the celebrity has to be a right fit for the clothes. For School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) Assistant Professor Edgar X. Aguilera’s designs, there was no better fit than Bad Bunny. Aguilera dressed the iconic musician for a Spotify feature mounted in Times Square—a bold, striking look that featured a structural coat and a beaded bucket hat.

Image

The lessons he took from that experience are some of many that he’s passing along to his students at SAIC. “I tell my students, it’s like when you're an architect, you have your own vision, but at the end of the day, what is the building? A museum is different from a mall or a library or a house for a friend. The ego should not come first. All artists and all humans have it, but put it aside. Listen to the person you’re designing for.”

Aguilera fell in love with fashion as a teenager in Mexico City. His high school staged a massive fashion show every year, with students as designers, models, and production designers. His fashion-loving mother encouraged Aguilera to watch the runways shows of Christian Dior and Jean Paul Gaultier for inspiration, and he became obsessed with the immersive experiences they created.

Image

“I saw that it was not just about the clothes, but about the whole aura you're creating,” he said. “That’s also something that I try to push my students to see in their work, the multiple layers. It's not just about the garment and fabric selection, it's what you're feeling, everything you're putting into that moment.”

After graduating from CENTRO University, he worked as the creative director of a small boutique, crafting high-end menswear for a select clientele. “Everything was done by hand locally,” he said. “We made pieces that would take three months to complete.” Then, he wanted to explore the other end of the fashion spectrum, leading menswear product development at Mexico’s largest fashion retailer, shaping visuals and design across more than 240 stores.

He took lessons learned at both and applied them to his own label, EDGAR*AGLRA. His collections take inspiration from history—the reign of Louis XIV, a vision Napoleon had sleeping in the pyramids of Giza—and reimagine classic silhouettes, transforming them into modern, sculptural menswear. His designs appeared on magazine covers, but he decided he wanted to do more, passing along what he learned to students just beginning their fashion journeys.

Aguilera started teaching at his alma mater in Mexico City, but in 2025, he moved to Chicago, drawn by SAIC’s reputation and belief in interdisciplinarity. “Here, students embrace different practices and find new ways of developing their own work. You're not closed, thinking, I'm only a fashion designer. I have one student that is doing their buttons in ceramics. I have another student who is using 3D printing in their design. It's explorative. That’s the beauty of it, no?”

Image

Aguilera is currently working with students on their capstone collections, and he’s constantly inspired by them. “Last semester, we were all looking at muslins and muslins, only beige fabric, and now we're starting to check color selection and different fabrics or weights and different textures. And it's making me excited—I want to go back to work.”

Like countless faculty members at SAIC who are also working artists, Aguilera is crafting his next EDGAR*AGLRA collection, experiencing the same journey as his students. His new designs will reflect a new city, a new job, and a new creative community, but it will also reflect the breadth of experiences he’s had in the world of fashion. “I tell my students—there are different layers of the whole business. Go out there, knock on every door. Get as much experience as you can.”