Both elegant and vintage styles will be featured in the senior fashion collections created by Western Wayne High School students for their yearly fashion design show. These designs will be a featured part of the Road Trip to Fashion Show to take place Friday, May 31 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Western Wayne High School Veterans Memorial Auditorium, 1970A Easton Turnpike, Lake Ariel, PA. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
The event that is open to the public and is an opportunity for student designers to compete and show their fashions with all proceeds donated to local food pantries and the Dessin Animal Shelter. Admission is $1 for students and $2 dollars for adults.
Sophomore Emily Pavlicek is collecting the money from the event for her senior project and worked closely with show director and fashion teacher Colleen Carmody to ensure that all proceeds go to both very worthy local causes.
Emily is highly interested in fashion design and helping the local community. Therefore, she thought this would be a great way for her to incorporate her senior project into her studies at Western Wayne.
Carmody is excited for the community to join her and her students on Friday evening, May 31, to support good causes and see the fantastic work they have created.
Carmody explained how there will be much for the community to enjoy at the fashion show. She described how the hallway leading to the auditorium will be decorated and will feature senior displays and displays of pieces from her intro to fashion class.
The show itself will feature pieces that students in her textile, fashion I, and fashion II classes have created and chosen to show.
Some of the student pieces will feature fashion creations that are up-cycled, when an item like an old pair of jeans is made into a skirt, and creations that are recycled, when a designer takes something like jean fabric and makes it into a newly designed piece.
In addition, her two seniors who have taken fashion for four years Victoria Petrosky and Isabel Valentin will have their senior collections featured in the show on the runway. Victoria’s is titled “Elegance” and Isabel’s is “Inspiring Vintage.”
Along with these pieces and collections, the highlight of the evening will be collections created by fashion students working in teams. This part of the event is run much like the popular show Project Runway in the respect that Carmody will release the theme of the team-created fashions the week of the show. Then students have a limited time to design and create their fashions.
There will be two teams of five student designers each working on the collection, one team led by Victoria and the other by Isabel. The fashions will be shown on the runway to music with lighting design to go with the pieces. Carmody explained how her students work closely with students in video production and stage crew students.
Both seniors are very excited for the competition and to showcase their senior collections at the event.
“It is important to keep calm and stay focused,” Victoria said of her mindset for creating fashions for the show with her team under a strict deadline. “It’s exciting because I get to let my creativity go wherever it wants to.”
She is also thrilled to share her senior collection called “Elegance” with both her classmates and the local community. The students will show Road Trip to Fashion to the high school student body during the school day on Friday, May 31.
The in-school fashion show is judged by a panel including members of the District Office, past alumni, and others. The winners of the show will be announced at the evening presentation.
Victoria is especially excited to show the gold, flowing skirt in her “Elegance” collection.
“My collection mirrors the elegant style I like to wear to formal events,” Victoria, who will go on to earn a bachelor’s in sociology from East Stroudsburg University, explained. “My gold skirt is one of my favorite pieces because of how pretty it looks when I spin in it. It is a floor-length skirt made of gold satin.”
Another piece she is especially proud of in her collection is her purple high-waist pants made of cotton.
“I like them because they are fitted and have pockets,” she said.
Victoria explained that she first developed her love of sewing through her work with the local Explorers 4-H Club in Hamlin. She also developed her sense of confidence and a love for expressing herself through her time dancing at a local studio for ten years and in three Western Wayne musical productions in her high school career.
Victoria’s classmate Isabel Valentin is just as excited as Victoria to share her senior collection at the show. Her collection is titled “Inspiring Vintage.”
“I like really old styles,” Isabel, who plans to student dentistry at Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport next year, explained. “My designs are unique. One of my favorites is a jumper with a puffy sleeve blouse. I like the look of flowing garments that aren’t the norm to wear.”
Another piece Isabel will feature in the show that she especially enjoys is her kimono.
“I like mostly Japanese fashion and how traditional it is,” she said. “I am very excited for the show itself and to show off my garments for the last time at Western Wayne.”
Isabel is also a member of the National Art Honor Society and was named artist of the month by the Scranton Times for May. She enjoys doing acrylic painting and making ceramics when she isn’t busy fashion designing.
“With art it’s easier to go into my pieces and fix them as I go,” Isabel explained. “With design I need a very precise plan, because it is not as easy to change once you start going with a piece.”
And Isabel is ready to take on that challenge when she works to lead her team in creating their designs for the competitive portion of the Road Trip to Fashion event.
All of the students are excited for the public to come out and see the designs they have worked on this year. They cordially invite the community to attend their show and donate to local food pantries and the Dessin Animal Shelter through their admission fee on Friday, May 31, at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium.
Isabel and Victoria did a recent photo shoot in preparation of the fashion show event and were excited to wear some of their completed pieces.
“I like how I feel in my clothing,” Isabel explained. “It helps me feel empowered and elegant.”
