To give students an opportunity to showcase their creativity and skills, juniors in Fashion III are participating in the annual Fashion Forward competition run by the Junior League of Las Vegas. 

“Fashion is a very competitive industry and the Fashion Forward, by nature, is a competition,” Fashion Design teacher Dana Sargent said. “When students become seniors they have to put together a fashion line so this experience will give them a little taste of that so they know what to expect.”

Each designer is provided a pattern of a shirt to follow. After tracing and cutting out the pieces, students sew them together creating to create a shirt. 

“If I do make it past the first round I want to do something that would stand out and that no one else would think of,” junior Megan Ruiz said. “I know in the past the winners have done different things like turning their fabric inside out and I want to do something memorable like that.”

Students will be judged on the quality of their garments by a group of professionals who will determine which designers will move on as finalists. Finalists are then assigned to sketch an outfit for a Hollywood actress. With requirements for the students to only work at school and not at home, time is a variable they will need to consider.

“By participating in this competition, I think I’ll improve my sewing skills and I feel like I will also improve my time management,” junior Abigail Fitzpatrick said. “I think the judges are going to be looking for people who made high quality products, since this will be more challenging then other garments we have made in the past.”

The designers can model their own creations or choose someone else to do it for them. The spring runway show will feature products of over 50 students from various local high schools.

“In the past years, our school has done very well at this competition and has won almost every year,” junior Megan Ruiz said. “We have high expectations but I think with our training we can rise to the challenge and live up to them.”

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