Pratt Institute will honor Korina Emmerich, a New York-based Indigenous fashion designer and founder of Emme Studio, with the 2026 Pratt Fashion Visionary Award.
Known for her holistic approach to fashion and community engagement, Emmerich will be recognized for her innovative work that emphasizes connection, visibility and cultural expression. Her designs highlight the social and cultural potential of clothing, aligning with Pratt’s tradition of inspiring emerging designers to push boundaries while honoring heritage.
Her achievements will be celebrated at the 2026 Pratt Shows: Fashion, which is scheduled to be held at the Powerhouse Arts in Brooklyn on May 14 at 6 p.m. The 125th annual showcase will highlight the creations of the Pratt Fashion department’s graduating seniors. Each final collection must include at least 20 percent repurposed or responsibly sourced garments.
“We are thrilled to honor Karina Emmerich with the 2026 Pratt Fashion Visionary Award in recognition of her powerful commitment to social and climate justice through design,” said Lisa Z. Morgan, chair of Pratt Fashion. “Her work, rooted in cultural heritage, community collaboration, and sustainable practice, embodies the values we instill in our students and reflects the future of fusion we hope to advance at Pratt.”
Since founding her brand in 2015, Emmerich’s work focuses on her paternal indigenous heritage from the Puyallup tribe, while positioning fashion as a vehicle for social and climate justice, education and community-building. Through Emme Studio and her broader work as a designer, educator and organizer, she creates vibrant narrative-driven collections that challenge colonial frameworks and elevate historically underrepresented voices. In 2025, Emmerich organized the inaugural Indigenous New York Fashion Week. She also has held leadership roles with the Slow Factory Foundation, the Fibers Fund, Catalyst Dance and as a cofounder of Relative Arts, a New York City space dedicated to contemporary Indigenous fashion and design.
Emmerich’s artwork and designs have been featured in such museums as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, MoMA PS1, the Denver Art Museum, La Biennale d’Art Contemporain Autochtone, the Musee McCord Stewart, the Textile Museum of Canada, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and Institute of Contemporary Art Boston.
She has presented her work in Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week, Indigenous Fashion and the Arts Toronto, Santa Fe Indian Market’s Couture Runway Show, New York Fashion Week and Indigenous New York Fashion Week.
“Receiving the Pratt Institute Fashion Visionary Award is a recognition not just of my work, but of the communities I work with, advancing Indigenous futurism, and industry resistance that shape it,” said Emmerich. “It affirms that fashion can be a place of disruption, and revolution. Holding power in building new systems rooted in care, reciprocity and transparency.”
Previous recipients of the Pratt Fashion Visionary Award include Nicholas Daley, Francesco Risso, Robin Givhan, Lindsay Peoples, Kerby Jean-Raymond, Gabriela Hearst, Thom Browne and Diane von Furstenberg, among others.