A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.
Edgar Aguilera, an adult person with closely-cut black hair, a medium-fair skin tone, and glasses.

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Edgar X. Aguilera

Assistant Professor

he/him

Contact

Bio

Edgar Aguilera is a designer and educator whose practice merges artisanal menswear with experimental construction, historical silhouettes, and contemporary visual culture. Through his label EDGAR*AGLRA, he explores fashion as a space for personal mythology—crafting one-of-one garments that embodied the aesthetics of contemporary individualism. His work has appeared in global campaigns, including Spotify’s feature on Bad Bunny in Times Square, and on the September issue cover of 192 Magazine, worn by Ely Guerra.

Aguilera’s design language has spanned custom tailoring, sculptural pattern making, digital fashion, and narrative-driven video and performance. His garments were selected for Cotton Incorporated’s Styling Cotton: Ready to Wear Talent initiative, archived in their international CottonWorks 3D digital collection.

Before relocating to Chicago, he led menswear product development at Mexico’s largest fashion retailer, shaping visual and design across over 240 stores. He also taught across undergraduate and graduate programs at CENTRO University, where he developed courses at the intersection of creativity, entrepreneurship, and material experimentation—fostering new approaches to fashion education.

He holds a Master of Professional Studies in Global Fashion Management and a Bachelor in Fashion and Textile Design from CENTRO University in Mexico City. 

Exhibitions

The Sad Kids of the Renaissance: Triumphs & Laments, 2023; The Boy Pharaoh, 2021; Apotheosis, 2020; Le Roi Soleil, 2019 (National Art Museum Mexico City exhibition); Eschatology, 2015

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

Fashion Design I builds the skills and talents required to achieve creative fashion. This class teaches the design fundamentals of the integrated core fashion design curriculum. Students will engage multiple skills to create individual, visionary, unconventional garments, and later, collections. Through a series of projects, students explore form, silhouette, volume, and research in design to arrive at a personal point-of-view in fashion. This course will specifically ask students to work conceptually and to develop research methodologies in their design work. Based on this inquiry, students generate sketches and surface treatments to refine their unique silhouettes and material manipulations. No prerequisite.

Class Number

1555

Credits

3

Description

Join our trip to Peru to discover a unique experience while gaining insight into South America's large tradition of textile crafts as well as other artistic practices. In addition to our in-depth study of textiles, we will also concentrate on art as a catalyst for intercultural exchange, focusing on the rich vibrant indigenous Quechuan communities of the Peruvian Highlands. During the course students will have a series of practicums focusing on backstrap weaving, service projects, ritualistic ceremonies, and interactions with local indigenous communities, as we will embrace cultural tourism as a means of inter-cultural exchange through our social interactions. Another focus is the pre-Hispanic archaeological sites located in the Sacred Valley, with a visit to Machu Picchu as a highlight.

Class Number

1013

Credits

0

Description

This class focuses on the visual development of an individual fashion portfolio, culminating in a presentation on fashion design. Students learn the skills necessary in the fashion industry - how to draw technical flats, fashion illustration, and layout planning - skills through which students explore new concepts and create collections. With this industry-ready portfolio, students will have the professional body of work to compete in the rigorous and competitive field of fashion.

Class Number

1375

Credits

3

Description

Come to Peru and encounter a unique experience while gaining insight into South America's large tradition of textile crafts as well as other artistic practices. In addition to our in-depth study of textiles, we will also concentrate on art as a catalyst for intercultural exchange, focusing on the rich vibrant indigenous Quechuan communities of the Peruvian Highlands. A series of practicums focusing on backstrap weaving, service projects, ritualistic ceremonies, and interactions with local indigenous communities, we will embrace cultural tourism as a means of inter-cultural exchange through our social interactions. Another focus is the pre-Hispanic archaeological sites located in the Sacred Valley, with a visit to Machu Picchu as a highlight.

Class Number

1010

Credits

3

Description

Advanced Fashion Studio 1 This two-day (6 credit hour) course aims to help students achieve a high level of professionalism through the design and development of a body of work through collections that emphasize and generate a personal style and a fashion direction. Students will engage conceptual design and creative pattern cutting to develop their collection through refined and distinct garments, and their manufacture. Workshops in advanced techniques augment and expand the fashion vocabulary and potential for their offerings. Students communicate collection concepts utilizing advanced design and research methodologies to back up their creative visions. Students will develop prototypes for their thesis collection, and complete a minimum of five directional garments in the fall. Pre-req FASH 3900.

Class Number

1534

Credits

6

Description

Advanced Fashion Studio 2 This two-day (6 credit hour) course aims to help students achieve a high level of professionalism through the design and development of collections that both emphasize and generate a personal style and a fashion direction. Building on the fall semester, students will plan and execute an editorial photoshoot of one look concurrent to the completion of a collection of garments to be shown during the spring fashion runway show. Pre-req FASH 4001.

Class Number

1153

Credits

6

Portfolio