

Western Wayne Fashion students are thrilled to invite the community to their annual CatWalk Fashion Show on Thursday, May 22, at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium. This year the show titled “Eco Floral Fusion” is focussed on the theme of eco- sustainability .Doors will open at 6:15 p.m. Free admission! The students will also host the show for an audience of their peers during the school day on Thursday, May 22.
Pieces made by students in grades 9 through 12 will be featured. The students also worked in teams that represent fashion collections based on the four seasons. The lead designers for the collections are senior Lily Kieva, spring collection, sophomore Bella Kolp, winter collection; sophomore Emma DeNunzio, summer collection; and sophomore Addriana Cangas, fall collection.
Show director and fashion teacher Andrea McCleland explained the way the students created their seasonalities collections to reflect the theme of the show.
“The designers thrifted what’s on stage,” she explained. “We studied in class how the fashion industry has been a burden on the environment, so for the seasonalities portion of our show, we have set an example of not burdening the environment for these collections.”
Senior Lily Kieva is excited to debut her Lily of the Valley collection for the spring portion of the competition.
“It is a perfect theme for me,” she explained. “It is an eccentric spring theme with a reference to my name and Pennsylvania flowers of the valley.”
Lily is a four-year fashion student at Western Wayne. Upon graduation, she will attend Marywood University with a major in secondary education history with the intention of also earning a special education certificate.
She is most fond of the memories she has made through creating fashion and plans to continue to create designs after graduation with her sewing machine at home.
Fellow designer Bella Kolp also owns a sewing machine and learned how to sew at a young age.
She is thrilled to debut her winter collection called Whispers of Winter and other pieces in the show.
Bella shared how she has tied in another meaningful part of her high school years to the fashion show.
For the past two years, she has been a part of a program called EF Language Abroad which has given her the opportunity to study Japanese language and culture abroad in Japan both last summer and again this upcoming summer.
“I got the opportunity to study the language for about four hours a day and then travel throughout Japan,” she explained.
She discussed how one of the pieces she created for the show was inspired by her time in Japan. Bella aspires to study business in college.
Fellow sophomore Emma DeNunzio, who was encouraged by her aunt to start sewing years ago, is also excited to share her summer collection.
Emma just played the supporting role of Ali in Western Wayne’s production of Mamma Mia!
“One of my more beach-themed pieces was influenced by the musical,” she explained.
Her fellow fashion classmate sophomore Addriana Cangas is also happy to debut her fall collection at the show. She has greatly enjoyed her experience creating fashion and can’t wait to present her work to the community with her classmates and teacher.
McCleland and her students feel so grateful to be able to invite the community to their evening show on Thursday, May 22, and they look forward to creating more designs to share with the Western Wayne community in the future.
From left, standing: Chloe Gilpin, model; Clare Coccodrilli, model; Avery Ullner, model; and Davis Sheppard, model. From left, kneeling: Lily Kieva, designer; and Bella Kolp, designer.