Michael Genao
Fashion Design BA (Hons)
De Montfort University
Specialisms: Genderless / Fashion Illustration / Menswear
Location: New York, United States
Michael Genao
First Name: Michael
Last Name: Genao
Specialisms: Genderless / Fashion Illustration / Menswear
Sectors:
My Location: New York, United States
University / College: De Montfort University
Course / Program Title: Fashion Design BA (Hons)
About
I’m a fashion designer driven by cultural narrative, contradiction, and craft. With roots in Bulgarian heritage and a strong influence from New York’s rebellious street culture, I explore identity through garments that merge folklore, tailoring, and protest. My work investigates the tension between tradition and transformation. I aim to create clothing that challenges conformity, reclaims identity, and speaks to both personal and collective histories.
As a dual-heritage fashion designer, my work explores the intersection of heritage, rebellion, and identity. Born in New York to Bulgarian and Dominican roots, I exist between two contrasting cultures — one shaped by Afro-Caribbean resilience, the other by Eastern European traditions and post-communist conformity. Through design, I bring these worlds into dialogue. My practice is rooted in critical investigation: questioning societal norms, exposing overlooked truths, and reinterpreting cultural symbolism through contemporary design. I celebrate forgotten crafts and revive the mundane through abstraction, distortion, and visual rebellion — disintegrating reality to construct a new one. Each project is both personal and political, driven by research and storytelling. I use fashion as a medium to reclaim identity, challenge stereotypes, and reframe how we perceive tradition, masculinity, and cultural pride. Through this lens, I aim not only to reflect the world — but to reconstruct it.
Competitions
