The House of Soil Sustainability Award Makes Its Debut at Purdue's Bug Bowl

Last month at Purdue's Bug Bowl, students designed and presented insect-themed looks — pulling from exoskeletons, metamorphosis, mimicry. What could have been a fun novelty turned into something genuinely worth paying attention to, with each piece showing real creative thinking about how natural systems translate into form and structure.

The range was impressive. Some designs led with silhouette, others with storytelling, others with material experimentation — and the variety showed how much creative ground this brief actually opened up.

The event was organized by Izaak Gilchrist, Purdue Entomology PhD candidate, who built real space for students to sit at the intersection of science and design. The atmosphere was collaborative and open, with biological concepts becoming wearable forms in real time.

Get your guide for inspiration

Through House of Soil, I introduced a Sustainability Award for the very first time. The premise was simple: recognize a design that showed genuine awareness of material choices, reuse, and what happens to a garment after it leaves the runway. To support the students, I developed the House of Soil Sustainability Guide for Insect-Inspired Fashion — a practical resource covering material decisions, from thrifted fabrics and plant-based fibers to electronics and glitter.

Sustainability in fashion takes root in how students are taught to think about materials from the start — not as an add-on, but as part of the work itself. These students are already there, and I'd love to keep supporting this show and the connections it builds between soil, materials, and design.