Every year the Advanced Fashion Design class takes a trip to New York City. A visit to Mood Designer Fabrics store, a tour of Parsons School of Design, and a look at Times Square are a few highlights of the study tour. However, due to the rising cost of flights and other travel expenses, the trip would cost each of the 19 advanced fashion students around $1270. The class needed a fundraiser, so they came up with a new idea to earn some money: Game Day Dresses.
“I saw kids and heard kids talking about them at the colleges,” advanced fashion design teacher Bonnie Turnbo said. “We’re so much like a college that we just had to have them.”
The dresses are maroon and white, complete with a wildcat embroidered on the front. The dress also comes with options, such as having “PSHS” embroidered under the mascot.
“It’s just cute as can be,” Turnbo said. “In my wardrobe, I have a ton of PSHS t-shirts, and to have something different and girly that’s going to show spirit is just an awesome idea.”
The dress costs $25. Students can fill out an order form, and once it is turned in, the advanced fashion design students will sew the dress themselves.
“It’s definitely well made,” senior Vanesa Garcia said. “With the teacher there and always helping us, it turns out to be a really good product, and I recommend it to a lot of people. I even got myself one.”
The class created an assembly line, with some students cutting out the dress from a pattern they made themselves, others sewing it together and some putting on the finishing touches. The dress is made from a ponte knit and is 100 percent polyester. This kind of fabric does not wrinkle and is machine washable.
“It’s a good dress, it’s very cute and I love it,” Garcia said. “I’m in love with the dress. I don’t want to take it off.”
The class began planning for the fundraiser during the first week of school. They kept the project a secret while they created the first dress and made a few alterations for the pattern. When they were ready to sell it, they started producing the garments. This kind of fundraiser has never been done by an advanced fashion design class at PSHS before.
“The kids are learning a lot from it, especially about production,” Turnbo said. “This group seems to be very in tune to quality control and the actual styling and fit of the dress.”
The advanced fashion students are wearing the dresses around school on game days to advertise them. They have also set up a table in the cafeteria where they collect money and order forms.
“We’re hoping to at least make $50 per person towards the trip to New York City,” senior Rachel Ruhman said. “It’d be awesome if everyone could get involved and help.”
There is a dress on display in B building by the fashion design room. The dress is the only garment on the mannequin, but Ruhman points out the dress can be worn different ways.
“You can dress it up with cowboy boots, a belt, a jacket, sandals or anything so you can make it your own style,” Ruhman said. “It’s really cute and comfortable.”
The advanced fashion design class will be selling the dresses until the end of September.
“I would love to see the whole student body, all of the girls, dressed all feminine and cute,” Turnbo said. “And every other school in the area would be so envious of how PSHS has taken the lead in the spirit fashions.”
