Sew Close To The Deadline

From left, Lake Havasu High School senior Briana Mauldin, junior Tracy Jacobs, junior Kady Riggan, and junior Samantha Zachary work on their line of clothes for the runway fashion show Wednesday. Jackie Leatherman/News-Herald Photo.

Sew Close To The Deadline
Havasu high schoolers put finishing touches on clothing lines for city’s first fashion week

By JACKIE LEATHERMAN
Sunday, January 17, 2010 7:07 AM MST

Kady Riggan said she designed her first dress as soon as she could pick up a crayon.

“It was forever ago,” said the 16-year-old Lake Havasu High School junior. “You couldn’t really tell what it was, it was just an outline, but it had a matching purse and shoes.”

For almost four months, 22 LHHS juniors and seniors have been cutting, sewing, pinning and tweaking while their deadline to make their first appearances in the fashion world moved closer and closer.

That deadline is now only days away.

Sixty garments designed and created by the students will debut on the runway Wednesday in Lake Havasu City’s first fashion week.

“I’m really nervous because I still have a few things I need to finish,” said 16-year-old Carla Rae Westermeyer. “I do work really well under pressure.”

Havasu Fashion Week

“I actually stole the idea from another town in California,” said Jeanne Nelson, executive director of the Lake Havasu City Main Street Association. The local organization is dedicated to revitalizing Main Street business and events.

“First of all, how cool is it to have a fashion week in Havasu?” Nelson said. “To have fashion week come to you in your tiny little town. Designers are coming from out of town, real designers.”

Fashion Week, sponsored by Edgardos Jewelers, kicks off Monday with a runway show highlighting outfits from four Main Street boutiques.

The LHHS students will premiere their own creations Wednesday and the week culminates with a runway show Friday featuring designers from the Phoenix Fashion Week and from San Francisco.

In its roughly five-year history, this is the first time the Phoenix Fashion show has extended its talent to another city, said to Brian Hill, the executive director of the Phoenix show.

Hill said he was “overwhelmed” by LHHS fashion and merchandising teacher Deb Strother when she and her class visited Phoenix for the show in October 2009.

“She was so behind Phoenix Fashion Week from Day 1,” Hill said. “I’ve known for a fact that there are a ton of high school-age fashionistas that want to have a career in fashion. But they don’t have the experience. We saw that there was a total opportunity to go and give real world experience. Tucson and Flagstaff will probably be calling us very soon.”

Almost all of the models for the three runway shows will be LHHS students.

On Tuesday, attendees will be able to tour Main Street salons and spas, and on Thursday, there will be a home décor tour among Main Street’s shops.

Tickets for each night of the event range from $15 to $25 per person. A five-night package of tickets ranges from $60 to $85.

Nelson said she estimated that about 60 tickets have been sold for each of the three runway shows at Grace Arts Live Theatre, which seats 200 people.

“It’s kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Nelson said. “How often does something like this come up? If you miss this, and the next day when you start hearing about how fun this is, you’re going to be sorry. If you don’t come this year, there may not be a next year. You have to support them if you want these first events. You have no idea if one person is going to show up or 10,000. So you put on the best show, and cross your fingers.”

Room J-134

Within the infant fashion world behind the doors of room J-134 at LHHS, Riggan is not alone.

Students chattered recently during their two-hour class over the inconsistent whirls of sewing machines. They were trying to figure out why the waist line didn’t come out right on a skirt, wondering if the strapless top will work, and placing the last few star decorations on homemade bathing suits.

This is the room where the students’ work doesn’t stop when the bell rings, but overflows to after school and the weekends. Where young creators get their inspiration from colors on the back of tire covers they see driving down the road, from their mothers and from their rock bands.

Where almost every girl has their own sewing machine at home, and she started her expected careers with a simple pillow or purse made from pockets of denim jeans years ago. And where clothes shopping isn’t a hassle because they will alter it when they get home anyway.

The 22 students were broken down into six teams, and each team made its own line of clothes with 10 garments in each line. This is the first time the students have created an entire line. Some of the students also snatched a chance to volunteer help with the main designers for the Friday show.

Strother said for the past four years her class has ended with a smaller school fashion show in the spring.

But this year, the students were pushed to finish more projects in a shorter time — and with a much bigger audience.

“(This is) a huge educational experience for them,” Strother said. “They have brought the sketches to life. They are doing everything from conception to completion. It’s just amazing. Some of the garments, even I’m blown away by it. This is more than they would normally do. They were pushed.”

One week from their runway debut, most of the students said the butterflies hadn’t kicked in yet. But smiles spread across their faces, and they said they expected Wednesday night to be different.

“It’s just nerve wracking trying to get all these clothes done at the last minute,” said 17-year-old Corie O’Neil. “Mind-boggling. Nerve wracking. But it’s fun playing with all these fabrics. It takes a lot of patience, I’ll tell you that right now.”

And Strother added that, “you never know what kind of opportunity can come from this.”

“When someone has the ability to stick with something from conception to reality, that is pretty amazing for high school students,” Strother said. “If nothing else, the confidence that they are getting by actually making this happen, whether they are models or designers, they get amazing confidence just walking down (the runway) and showing off what they made.”

You may contact the reporter at jleatherman@havasunews.com