’Twas the night before Halloween, when all through Conduit, many creatures were stirring, even a … punk-rock Frankenstein’s monster?
In a truly frightful fashion, haute couture taking on campy horror films and eerie classics is exactly what’s in store for audiences with Ednah’s Gorey and Glory Fashion Show this Devil’s Night. Leaning far askew from the typical runway show, each model will embody a hybrid of alternative subculture and horror, whether it be a hapless victim or a creepy doll.
The mind behind all of this madness is Ednah Miller, executive producer and creator of the show. The idea came together after one of Miller’s many “what if” contemplations. As an avid lover of horror and drag, Miller says she didn’t simply want to put on a fashion show.
She wanted to create an experience.
“I want to inspire people. I mean, yes, I kind of want to gross people out a little bit, but it’s the same thing that a film director would want to do,” says Miller. “Stephen King is a good example for horror movies. They don’t want to just make you have a jump-scare a little bit. No, they want to tell a story. And that’s what I’m doing, telling a story.”
The show is comprised of two separate acts, a murder category and a monster category. In the murder category, the models portray people who have died in mysterious and unbelievable ways. If you’re a real horror fan, like Miller, you’ll be able to catch all the references intertwined within the art. The monster category features high-fashion takes on iconic creatures of the night, paired with intense music and flashing lights.
“There’s a total shift in the vibe. You go from feeling bad for the person that you’re seeing in front of you to, like, extremely scared. Which is the point,” says Miller. “I wanted to give a very dominating, intimidating vibe with these characters.”
Despite her involvement in numerous fashion shows and projects throughout the years, the Gorey & Glory show will be Miller’s first time acting as an executive producer. Though she majored in business at UCF, her love for fashion started while watching her grandmother put together intricate and color-coordinated outfits before going out. It also came from an early obsession with the art of drag she saw on RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Miller says that one of her biggest influences in creating the show has been drag — specifically, the ability of drag performers to tie seemingly clashing pieces together and turn something that might look insane into something beautiful. Considering horror to have this same strange type of beauty, she wanted to bring that into her fashion show.
“I was just so inspired by how creative the girls always have been. Like they were given a challenge of, ‘OK, make this out of a shower curtain,’ and then somebody would walk the runway in a gown made out of a shower curtain,” says Miller. “That type of creativity, even when you’re on a budget, is just so inspiring. And it makes you feel like, dang, if they can do it, I could definitely do it too.”
Besides high-fashion frights, Miller is looking to provide a creative space for a spectrum of young local artists like herself. With an all-student team of models, designers, makeup artists, creative directors and photographers, the show is giving a boost to many new faces.
Another UCF student involved with this show is designer and model Anne McGrath, who got Miller involved in her first modeling gig after recruiting her for a magazine project. Besides copious amounts of frilly lace, McGrath’s design for the show involves a chic look inspired by the Universal classic Creature From the Black Lagoon.
Although it’s completely volunteer-based, McGrath says the show offers a space for several artists to show off their work for the first time. McGrath posits that a lot of the models are not what might be considered “conventional” runway stars.
“Maybe they’re not tall enough, maybe they’re too short, maybe they just don’t fit the bill for what a modeling company might sign or what a modeling company might recruit for a show,” says McGrath. “We tried to recruit those people to get their foot in the door with modeling.”
Indeed, Miller wants her models to be fully themselves on the runway and not feel they have to fix in any sort of outmoded aesthetic box.
“This show allows me to let everybody be themselves,” says Miller. “Someone’s walking down the runway as Frankenstein, but it’s more than just being in a costume. It’s genuinely self-expression.”
Knowing how hard it can be to get a foot in the fashion industry door, Miller says she wanted to counteract closed-minded casting on the runway.
As a Black, alternative, queer creator in the Orlando area, she feels it’s important to give people from marginalized communities a proper shot at the spotlight.
After three months of planning, sourcing and modeling meetings in campus parking garages, the countdown for the show’s premiere is nearly over.
Miller says she’s excited to see the audience’s reactions when the looks are revealed and the hard work of all her amazing designers and makeup artists is on bold and bloody display.
“People normally aren’t that excited for a fashion show unless their friends are personally in it, but even then, they’re excited to see their friends and not the show as a whole. I’ve been getting DMs from people telling me that they’re so excited about this show, and that is exactly what I want,” says Miller.
“That’s exactly the vibe that I want to exude to people, that positivity, that excitement, because they know that they’re about to see some creative people in their element, and that’s exactly what makes all of this worth it.”
So come to Conduit … if you dare.
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This article appears in Oct. 29–Nov. 4, 2025.
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