It was standing-room only for the “Les Jardins de France Spring Fashion Show,” presented by the Portola Middle School fashion design classes.
The show could have rivaled any New York fashion event. The Portola team, who are students in the fashion design and merchandising career training program, created colorful invitations, featuring an illustration by Shayla Dinh, with coordinating tickets, programs and swag bags for guests. Two video screens reflecting floral scenes from Paris flanked the flower-bedecked runway.
The event began with student models showcasing paper dresses and ornate masks. These beautiful, delicate and creative confections all elevated paper art to its highest form.
A video segment highlighted the work of the first-year students, showing them researching, creating idea books, sketching, and learning to sew pillowcases. Then, those students modeled their incredible T-shirt transformations. The simple shirts were totally transformed into unique and highly individual statements: they were embellished with embroidery, lace and jewels; shortened, painted, fringed, beaded, belted and so much more.
The second-year students were then highlighted in a video montage, emphasizing the six to nine months they worked during class, before school, at lunchtime and after school to research, experiment, sketch and sew 36 striking ensembles. The students had visited the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising and looked to Chanel, Degas, Matisse, Dior, Vionnet and French royalty for inspiration and teams collaborated to create ensembles for their models.
Ensembles in “A Walk in the Park” featured a boxy black and white herringbone jacket, saucy berets, Matisse-like flower graphics painted on a black skirt, and a Matisse-inspired blue painted top with coordinating black jeans splashed with yellow.
The “A Night in Paris” ensembles included a superb selection of evening wear, all accentuated with matching headpieces. A simply-cut, but stunning, black dress with florals; a black velvet dress with deep red rose sleeves; and a burgundy tulle dress, accentuated with gold trim, were among the designs.
The final grouping, “The Royal Flowers” was spectacular. The gowns were all gorgeous, but the final one was the pièce de résistance. The “Dream Team,” comprised of designers Claudia Dubon Hernandez and Leslie Patrino, created a breath-taking wedding gown. The white strapless, fitted gown was bedecked with exquisite fabric flowers in a variety of sherbet colors, grouped on the bodice, in the full headdress, and strategically scattered on the skirt and down the long train. Model Wendy Madrigal was poised as she wore the work of art on the runway to thunderous applause.
Fittingly, teacher Deanne Weiser bestowed the Outstanding Achievement Award to Claudia Dubon Hernandez, and the Future Fashion Designer Award to Leslie Patrino, the creators of the bridal gown.
Cerro Villa fashion show
The Cerro Villa Middle School “A Stitch Through Time” fashion showcase, coordinated by CTE Fashion Design and Merchandising teacher Roni Hanke, was a fun romp through United States – and fashion – history.
Guests found student vendors offering food, drinks and ducktape wallets outside the entrance, fundraising for school clubs. Inside, guests had an opportunity to meet with fashion students and hear about their months of research and learning that culminated in the event’s fashion showcase that would include 16 runway looks and six dance routines, with numerous set changes, props and choreography.
The colorful programs, highlighting historical happenings, were designed by students. The ensembles, with unique hair and make-up, were student-curated. In a fun twist, the models were all teachers.
The CV Vikings cheer squad, now in its third year, warmed up the crowd with a high-energy performance. The emcee kept the pace lively, beginning with the Victorian era: top hat and tails for the gentleman, and a stunning black and white floor-length gown, with a lovely white-draped neckline accentuated by a red rose and a small, charming hat. The styles then jumped a century to the 1980s with a cropped top, neon leggings with socks and bright shoes, accompanied by tutus and denim.
Ricocheting back to the 1920s, the Age of Women featured the famous flapper styles. Bouncing to the 60s, against a colorful paint-splattered backdrop, teachers wore go-go boots, and colorful mod styles to do “the swim”. A backdrop scribbled with “totally” was the perfect setting for the Grunge and an early-Madonna look of the 1990s. The showcase also featured, in its time capsule view, a look into a 2030 “Future Odyssey” with teachers in sleek geometric black and royal blue futuristic apparel.
The high-energy finale featured a 1950s vibe, beginning with students and teachers in colorful circle skirts in a boogie routine, interrupted with the Greasers strolling in to take over. A fun dance scene ensued.
The enthusiastic audience loved seeing the styles, and the students loved that their favorite teachers stepped out of their norms to work with the student designers to hone and bring to life their fashion concepts.
Sadly, there will be no more brilliant fashion shows, as the CTE Fashion and Merchandising programs at the middle school level have been cut, per the school district.
Send your photos and school news to Andrea Mills at OCSchoolNews@aol.com.
