Friday, November 30, 2012

Fashion Class: Trashy Fashions

Special treat for you today...straight from my classroom! I'm teaching Fashion Merchandising this fall, on a 4x4 block, which translates to 1 semester of class delivered in 9 weeks! (i.e. I'm locked in a room with the darlings for 90 minutes each day.  90 MINUTES WITH 27 TEENAGE GIRLS.  That explains alot, huh?   Nah, they're all really sweet and most of the time they're not giving me the eye glare of doom.)

It helps they still think I'm fashionable.  Lord help me when they figure out how old I really am.

 The week before Thanksgiving, they had a project to practice their understanding of the elements & principles of design, and basic garment shapes (straight, a-line, bouffant, bustle, etc.)  I like to call it Trashy Fashion, and it was inspired by the Season 6 episode of Project Runway, where they created fashions from newspaper:

In essence, each group has two days to design a garment and accessory from newspapers, packing tape, and any recyclable materials they bring from home.  On the 3rd day, we have a little fashion show and then they get to parade through a few classrooms of willing teachers. (We've never been invited through the math hall. I have no idea why.)  This year's fashions may be the best bunch ever!  They're amazing!  Group shot (heads chopped off for obvious reasons):


And some closer detail shots of the dresses!  The hot pink on this dress is recycled Forever21 bags:


Some of the little trims I allowed because these girls are master negotiators.  Their argument was..."but it's leftover from a previous project, so technically it could be considered trash".  Um, OK. Pickin my battles, daily.  And that's not one of them! haha!


There was so much detail on this next one, I wish I had taken closeup shots of each little piece.  It was incredible!!


Yes, this is a boy, and his girlfriend is in the class.  She insisted he be the model for their group.  He was cracking me up in his runway walk.  By far the best runway model!  The dress is beautiful. It has an intricate woven/pieced bodice that this photo doesn't do justice to.  And the fanned ruffle placement on the skirt?  So well thought out.


The colors on this dress come from recycled color copy paper.  I love the pops of color!  


The zebra duct tape snuck in under the radar of "is this allowed".  She was taped into that dress pretty darn fast, on the principle of "ask for forgiveness later".  haha!  It really is cute.


Pretty cool, huh?  Keep in mind, they had roughly 3 hours to make the garment (and an accessory), and they're "fitting" real people, not rail thin models or a perfectly proportioned dressform.  (well, for the most part.  Of course they're little things, they're teen girls!)

In any case, I'd say the PR folks should be paying attention. We're gunning for them! :)

I have some other projects from Fashion and my Graphic Design class that I can share.  I will try to find time this weekend to upload the instruction/activity/project sheets to the blog and to my TPT/Scribd sites this weekend.  Let me know if you are interested in any specific unit/subject matter.  I have a TON of projects for all conceivable design units.  Hit me up!  I'm happy to share!

4 comments:

  1. I love this! I am your newest follower!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is just amazing!! My hats off to the young ladies who can take everyday ordinary literature and utilize it to the fullest. Who said reading can't be fun?!?!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am not sure where you are getting your information, but good topic. I needs to spend some time learning much more or understanding more. Thanks for excellent information I was looking for this information for my mission. Fashionsty

    ReplyDelete