Standing backstage with the rest of the group, junior Rubi Marroquin is surrounded by the blinding blue lights, upbeat house music and a closed curtain. She stands ready, talking to her new friend and Fashion Show coordinator, sophomore Paige Bean.
East’s student-run fashion show occurred on Oct. 5., bringing designers, fans and East families to the auditorium to celebrate student artists and raise money for her ChargePoint Charger project. This project was created by Bean to fund electric car charging spots in the East parking lot.
Bean puts a hand to her heart as she struggles to get her words out. She feels rewarded for all her work emailing students, getting permission to use the East auditorium and setting up in person and online ticket sales to prepare for this moment.
Since the show got approved in July, Bean has spent the last three-and-a-half months reaching out to East artists who would want to design or model pieces.
Her summer spent watching fashion shows at Interlochen Art camp in Michigan inspired her to bring more opportunity to the fashion side of East students. Which resulted in a runway-style fashion show with the theme of the elements earth, water, fire and wind.
“I wanted to have something related to the environment that was easy to be creative with and tied back to the initial cause,” Bean said.
Model and designer duo sophomores Makena Pruitt and Eliza King spent hours outside of school working on the dress. From measuring to sewing, King was busy crafting up her asymmetrical satin dress that warped around and tied in the front for Pruitt to model in the show.
“I would often get texts from Eliza saying ‘Hey I need your measurements for this’ or ‘Hey come on in and try on what I have so far,” Pruitt said.
While Pruitt was mostly “hands off,” she was happy to help throughout the entire process even if that meant having to constantly try on Eliza’s designs.
Pruitt walked down the makeshift theater runway to the pop background music while focusing on aligning her toes parallel and keeping her feet stationed in her heels.
“I walked out and saw a couple of my friends in the crowd,” Pruitt said. “So that gave me a lot of confidence.”
King’s dress, designed to fit Pruitt, took over ten hours to make sure it fit her vision for her dress. Between purchasing the fabric and sewing each individual stitch perfectly, King says she spent around ten hours working on her design.
“I designed a green dress with a satin fabric from JoAnn’s using my home sewing machine for Makenna to show on stage,” King said.
The duo successfully presented the dress leaving King proud of her hard work without matching any particular element.
However, not all designers needed a partner to help them throughout the show process.
Senior Elsa Thornhill and sophomore Maria Rocca both designed and modeled their own dresses for the show. According to Thornhill, she thought it would be less of a challenge when it came to measurements for the dress.
“Some people had other people model their designs but I decided to design my own because it’s easier to sew to my own proportions,” Thornhill said.
After spending the past three years waiting and searching online for an opportunity to design her own piece for a fashion show since her previous fashion show experience, she figured this was her chance.
“I did [a fashion show] when I was in eighth grade and I’ve loved fashion ever since,” Thornhill said. “So I’ve been looking for another one to get my designs out there.”
Sewing the dress was one of the coolest things she’s ever done, according to Thornhill.
“I ended up doing the earth [element],” Thornhill said. “I went to Joann’s and I saw this fabric and immediately got the idea for my dress because it was a pretty mesh and floral fabric.”
Fueled by the same interest in fashion, Rocca decided to participate in the fashion show after her mom read about it online. When she couldn’t find a friend to help model for her, she decided to do it solo.
Rocca started off following the theme, then later deciding to use an old design idea to make her dress fit perfectly with her expectations. She decided on a black dress with a blue top, blazer, corset and a tulle skirt underneath to puff out the dress.
Bean says her favorite part of the whole process was artists emailing her weekly with updates on their design processes. These updates allowed her to collaborate with the designers and navigate her way throughout the final touches of the show.
“It was such a cool experience and now I have a dozen new friends I would’ve never met,” Bean said.