UM alum shows how every student path—and career—is a custom fit.
By Katie Chalmers-Brooks
The drawings of designs for the label Kolye TJN look more scientific diagram than fashion sketch. No surprise given the visionary behind them, Tijen Roshko [BID/91, MSc/86], is a trained nuclear physicist. She came to UM from Turkey to do a master’s on the subject but, while here, felt the artistic pull of architecture and ended up pursuing a degree in interior design next.
“I was always artistically oriented. I just wanted to give it a try,” says Roshko.
After a decade working in interior design in the United States, she returned to UM to teach and is now an Associate Professor. Her latest venture? A side-hustle in fashion that got lots of buzz when it took her all the way to New York’s Fashion Week last year, with her models appearing on the giant screens of Times Square.
An unconventional journey, no doubt. But there’s a common thread across her range of the scientific to the whimsical, she says. Curiosity and drive.
“Once you’re educated as a scientist, it affects every aspect of your life, the way you approach problem solving, how methodic and determined you are to reach a solution,” says Roshko, during a visit to her studio at the St. Norbert Arts Centre.
In fact, her foray into fashion began with a problem: an allergy to metal, which prevented her from wearing conventional necklaces. She made herself a bold red, felt collar (her company name, kolye, is necklace in Turkish) that turned heads while out for dinner, sparking the business idea for these avant-garde and sustainable accessories.
“Every person in the restaurant came up and asked where I got it,” says Roshko.
In her studio space, not far from campus, a wall of clear tubs stack toward the ceiling, storing limited quantity inventory, all assembled by hand in Winnipeg. Her collections are made from 100 per cent wool and fully sourced in Canada, offering a new take on a textile that’s been around for millennia and is entirely recyclable and compostable. She creates bold Elizabethan-style collars. Oversized floral rings. Unique cage-like skirts.
Each is made from a series of interlocking units of felt (cut via a digital blade) that require no fastening so no glue, stitching, or wires. Instead, Roshko take cues from Euclidian geometry. The units are shapes that have 12 flat surfaces—called dodecahedrons. Her pieces merge art and science.
“There’s no scaffolding. The geometry and mathematics hold them together. It is a platonic solid,” she explains. “You don’t perceive the harsh edges of the dodecahedron. You see this beautiful flower bag that is carrying the strength of science.”
Using renewable sources like wool helps counter fast fashion (when trendy clothes are made on the cheap and overwhelm landfills once discarded.) Roshko initially received guidance from IDEA START, UM’s hub for innovation and entrepreneurship. An invitation to Toronto’s Fashion Week led to New York, and now she’s got her sights set on Paris.
The designs take cues from nature, she says, fluttering her fingers while wearing a bestseller: a ring in the form of a giant red bloom.
“When you’re working on your keyboard, it moves with your hand. It is supposed to make you feel joyful.”
The felt bloom can also be used as a brooch, with a scarf or on a chain. Her vest design is particularly universal. It would look great paired underneath a man’s suit jacket or layered over a bride’s wedding dress, she notes. Roshko reiterates how consumers find the way that works for them—a theme of custom tailoring that runs deep in her philosophy, and her own education and career path so far.
“I love that everybody makes it their own.”
Tijen Roshko likens finding her teaching role later in life to “finding her last love.” She’s welcomed students and former students to her business to experience the field of sustainable fashion first-hand, mentoring them along the way.
“To do something with your own hands is the best teacher in life and I love to guide them through the process. That is the best gift I can give as a teacher,” she says.
In the past year, Roshko travelled to Baku, Azerbaijan, where a local university is establishing a department of interior design, to share her insights on instilling entrepreneurship skills in students.
“An entrepreneurial way of teaching is getting the students out of interior design studios and really doing something from beginning until end, from the creation to sales to business management. They’re engaging in every stage of this learning system. And then once they’ve graduated, they’re ready. The sense of pride, sense of discovery and of trusting your abilities—all of these beautiful feelings come with that sense of achievement.”
At UM, we encourage life-long curiosity while providing tools – inside and outside the classroom – to suceed in a rapidly changing world. Empowering learners is among the priorities you'll find in MomentUM: Leading Change Together, the University of Manitoba’s 2024-2029 Strategic Plan.
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