On May 17, Wilcox High School’s annual fashion show was set to take place in the evening at the Mission City Center for Performing Arts. According to Mindy Trisko, Fashion Design and Marketing Teacher, two-and-a-half hours before the show was about to begin, a power outage hit the theater and rippled through Monroe Street.
The show’s runway relocated to a cement stage at the quad of the high school campus. Helpers brought folding chairs, long extensions and speakers from the Associated Student Body building to the quad. An estimated 300 people-including parents and other family members, students, alumni, and community members- attended the outdoor fashion show.
An estimated 80 students from the Fashion 1, 2 and 3 classes showcased a time period alongside the show theme, “Through the Decades.” One of these student designers was Alex Dumas, 18.
“I designed my Wedding Collection ‘Till Death Do Us Part’, trying my best to be inspired by wedding dresses in the 1950s,” Dumas said. “I got inspiration from the song ‘The Masochism Tango’ by Tom Lehrer, the Addams Family, vampires and horror elements. These are all things I hold close to me. I’ve always been interested in non-traditional but still graceful outfits.”
One of the garments in Dumas’s collection is a cherry red satin dress with black lace details.
“Because the lace and satin refused to be sewn together on the bodice, I had to use fabric glue to connect them before I could actually sew the bodice together,” Dumas said. “Other than that, it was just the average sewing styles, and a bit of hand sewing for the flowers on the waistline and a bit in the skirt that I used to actually cover a hole I made when cutting the fabric out.”
Student designer Charlotte Hall, 17, created an ’80s inspired collection channeling punk style, using chain trim and leather as some of the materials.
“I constructed two jackets, two bodysuits and two pairs of pants from scratch,” Hall said. “The rest of the garments displayed were ones that I altered and embellished…For example, I made essentially a double-legged hoop skirt with leather bands held up by plastic chain.”
Hall explained the characteristics associated with ’80s fashion.
“It’s often characterized by bold and often neon colors, synthetic fabrics and voluminous tops, all which lead to a distinctly artificial vibe,” Hall said. “For my collection, I leaned into the bold colors to make an electrifying collection focusing on bright pink, red, yellow and purple.”
“The power at the Mission City Center went back on half-an-hour before the show was going to start,” Trisko said. “But by then, we’d already moved all the garments and equipment to the quad so the show remained at the quad.”
“I’m proud of how the students went with the flow,” Trisko continued. “I’m so happy with the resilience the kids showed. They were flexible and open-minded about it all.”
For more details about the Wilcox High School Fashion program’s events, visit the organization’s Instagram page.
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