Nadia Attmore is merging scientific discovery with creative design
At 7 years old, Nadia Attmore '25 drew her first original fashion design, not from a stencil, not from a book, but straight from her imagination. Her mother’s eyes widened, and she proudly shared Nadia’s sketches with anyone who would look. That moment ignited a calling.
Nearly two decades later, the spring 2025 North Carolina Central University (NCCU) graduate is transforming fashion in an unexpected way, blending science, sustainability and digital fabrication to create garments inspired by the human body itself.
“I’ve always known what I wanted to do,” Attmore said. “Every choice after that was to hone my skills and refine my vision.”
A Campus That Felt Like Home
Attmore was drawn to NCCU not just for its fashion, apparel and textile design program, but for the sense of belonging it offered.
“On my first day on campus, I knew I was in the right place,” she said.
Within the program’s close-knit department, students became collaborators and professors became mentors, encouraging young designers to experiment and develop their creative voices. That environment helped Attmore sharpen her artistic instincts while learning the fundamentals of fashion construction and design.
An Unexpected Discovery
Then came the Fab Lab, a space where science meets design.
Opened in 2015, NCCU’s Fab Lab is the first at a historically Black college or university (HBCU), established through the collective efforts of the Innovation Inclusion Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Title III support from the U.S. Department of Education. The lab serves as a digital prototyping hub where students can experiment with tools such as 3D printers, embroidery machines and fabrication technologies that turn ideas into tangible creations.
Fab Lab Program Manager Eric Saliim recognized Attmore’s potential immediately.
“I would say she’s kind of a visionary,” he said. “Once you give her a concept, she can take it places you didn’t think. And not only that, she has the execution make it happen.”
Attmore first encountered the lab during a class project.
“We went over to use some of the equipment for an assignment, and I remember thinking, I didn’t even know we had all of this here,” she said.
Curious, she returned the following semester to complete internship hours. Working alongside Fab Lab mentors, Attmore learned to code, experiment with biomaterials and transform unconventional substances into wearable textiles.
Her curiosity quickly evolved into something more interdisciplinary. At one point, Saliim even gave Attmore a new title: fashion engineer.
“She was designing in CAD (Computer-Aided Design), working with electronics and looking at circuitry,” he said. “She was actually doing the work of an engineer. She just hadn’t thought of what she was doing as the merge of those two worlds.”
Learning at the Edge of Innovation
Unlike traditional classrooms, the Fab Lab encourages experimentation and discovery.
“One is the application piece, because you are going to get your hands on the technology,” said Saliim. “And two is awareness of emerging technologies. Because of the Fab Lab and its network, students are exposed to things that represent the future of different fields.”
The open environment allows students to chart their own creative paths.
“In a class there’s a script, a syllabus, a course of study,” said Saliim. “But here in the Fab Lab, you kind of own that path.”
That freedom sparked new possibilities for Attmore and eventually led to a larger opportunity. After graduating from NCCU in May 2025, she was accepted into the Fabricacademy Textile and Technology Academy, a globally recognized program blending digital fabrication, textile technology and biology. Hosted at NCCU’s Fab Lab, the nine-month program connects students to a worldwide network of designers, engineers and researchers, while allowing them to develop hands-on projects locally.
The Fab Lab serves as the only university node for the program in North America. Through the program, Attmore expanded her creative toolkit, mastering tools such as 3D printers, embroidery machines and digital fabrication software.
“Traditional fashion design focuses heavily on garment construction,” Attmore said. “But the Fab Lab opened my eyes to a whole new side of design, thinking about materials, technology and what’s possible before the garment even exists.”
When Fashion Meets Biology
Attmore’s signature project is “Blood, Sweat and Tears.”
Each component of the garment interprets the phrase ‘blood, sweat and tears’ using sustainable biomaterials and digital fabrication techniques.
The ‘blood’ element is represented through BioYarn, a sustainable fiber Attmore learned to produce during the program. The material symbolizes the creativity, sacrifice and energy poured into her artistic work.
The ‘sweat’ component takes form through kombucha leather, a biomaterial grown from fermented tea cultures. By cultivating the material herself and transforming it into textile, Attmore captures the endurance and growth required to bring ideas to life. The design will also incorporate a 3D-printed spine, representing resilience and the backbone of creative labor.
Finally, the ‘tears’ element explores how struggle can transform into beauty. Attmore uses crystallized bioplastic to form sculptural textures that shape the garment into a corset-like structure, symbolizing emotional release and artistic transformation.
“I’ve cried while making this project,” Attmore says. “I’ve bled, I’ve sweated working so hard on it. All of those elements truly bring the design to life.”
Projects like Attmore’s illustrate how the Fab Lab expands students’ thinking.
“When students move from traditional techniques into coding and digital fabrication, they start seeing themselves in spaces they never thought they would be,” said Saliim. “They start asking, ‘What if?’ and that opens up what they believe they’re capable of doing.”
A Designer Without Limits
Cultural identity and Black creative expression also shaped Attmore’s vision.
“Central gave me the freedom to be expressive in my skin, in my culture,” she said. “My HBCU experience reinforced my commitment to pour creativity back into Black fashion and culture.”
After graduating from the Fabricacademy program in June 2026, Attmore hopes to explore creative directing, costume design, trend forecasting and sustainable textile innovation while continuing to push the boundaries of fashion and technology.
“I see her definitely being a trendsetter in fashion,” Saliim said. “Now that she has these new techniques to add to what her genius already is, it really blows the lid off what she can do.”