What is the fashion show
The Fashion show is a yearly event at Taft High School which demonstrates the creative and professional sides of our students. It empowers students to get creative and learn the professional skills it takes to create the Fashion Show.

“The fashion show is a culmination of advanced fashion students to put on professional shows in high school.” -Mrs. Viadero

What goes into it
Students who are already in Advanced Fashion begin planning months ahead to have the final project as ideal as possible. In the class, students practice entrepreneur and business hierarchy. The fashion show itself includes many roles such as designers, show coordinators, creative directors, hair and makeup, technical, security, hospitality, and boutique managers. Students are given tasks to create the Fashion Show and organize it to be suitable for perfection. L’Atelier allows students who are not in the class to be able to participate in the Fashion Show with positions like hospitality, security, and catering. It’s a complete team of students working hard, as a company would, to create a product, the Fashion Show.

What was this year’s theme?
This year’s theme is a flashback from the ’80s, memorializing all the trends and styles that existed in the 1980s as a historical reference. This theme gives the audience who went through the ’80s the nostalgic remembrance of that decade in their lives with all the fashionable upgrades added through L’Atelier. Each year there is a different theme based on what the students in Advanced Fashion decide. This year, the theme was a tribute to Mrs. Viadero, outlining her favorite decade and strutting it on the runway. Sometimes they hold the option of two events a year, the other being a Fashion Museum, but this year they just held the regular Spring Fashion Show. For the 2020 Spring Fashion show, Mrs. Viadero is looking to showcase a literature-themed show.

We interviewed head-coordinator, Mrs. Viadero, on her take for the fashion show.

Ms. Eileen Capinha-Viadero is L’Ateliers’ Fashion teacher in C115. She helps organize and coordinate all fashion activities at Taft. She claims that although people may view the fashion show as just a show for clothes, it is much more than that. The show is about students working as a team and learning sets of skills that they would use in the real world for events such. The most important thing, according to Ms. Viadero, is students learning and practicing professional behavior, working with a team, and coping with problems together.

What’s the creative process of the designers?
Many of the designers and coordinators were interviewed for her experience in the Fashion Show. Eva Jotkowitz, a junior at Taft, was the logistical show coordinator that ran everything from finances to catering to hospitality. She was also one of the designers who created the line inspired by Prince, called “Purple Reign.” For her line, her creative process was gaining inspiration from some of Prince’s wardrobe choices, like the frills on his shirt and iconic purple suit with gold accessories, and incorporating them into the 80’s Fashion trends for a night out in town. She wanted her pieces to resemble the structured look that Prince would have. Although there was a considerate amount of stress from her workloads, she explains she advanced from the whole experience in general. The job entails a lot of pressure and trying to cope with everything that could go wrong. Everything is unexpected, and you have to prepare for the worst to put your best foot forward. She explains that there were minor problems, but with a great team and cooperation, they were able to solve everything. Eva feels she was able to attain specific skills from her experience from the show.

“I feel I got better at my communication and time management skills, and it overall gave me the experience of how a real job like this would work.” -Eva

Students can gain sets of skills, like Eva did, from the Fashion Show that helped her improve overall in areas that adults would need to know. In the end, Eva was pleased with the overall outcome of the show and how professional and prepared everyone was.

Jack Andrews Zisfain, a senior, was an executive, set designer, model, and the designer of four of the lines included in the show. This year being his first modeling in the show, he briefly admired how fun and thrilling the involvement was and that he felt like a natural doing the catwalk on the runway. As a third year executive in the show, Jack grows to love working in the show more each year, alongside Mrs. Viadero. This was Jack’s first year as a designer, his lines showcased were “Rise Against,” “Hands On,” “Legendary House of L’Atelier,” and the show’s grand finale, “Wedding Hells.” Each line had its Jack in different creative processes. From old TV shows to help from Mrs. Viadero, Jack had assistance in creating the four lines. The stress amount for Jack felt bearable because of some shows in past years that he’d dealt with. As for the benefits, Jack feels he enhanced his time management skills and to plan better
rather than stressing in the last minute.

“Working with others and asking for help is a big step because you need to work with a team to tackle on different issues. Being able to delegate a team and to trust them was very important.” -Jack

Even though he’s a senior soon graduating, he feels in the following years there’s a likely chance he will visit back to Taft to see the shows in the future.

How can other students get involved?
Students who are not in Advanced Fashion or Regular Fashion have Positions available like modeling, hospitality, security, and catering. Modeling is a unique position in which students are carefully selected to display the clothing in the show. They are expected to have the grace and professional attitude that an actual model would in the real world. Security is guarding the outside, and inside during the show of any harm, hospitality seat guests and VIP guests before the show, and catering helps with the food offered to all staff members of the show. Most of these jobs create a base for the real world which students aspire to, such as a student who would want to go into law enforcement, they could work in security during the show.
Benefits to Students Who Participate
Students who participate in the Fashion Show benefit from it in many ways. Other than gaining leadership skills and cooperating with teams, students can include on the college applications that they were involved in Taft’s L’Atelier Fashion Show. It’s important because it says who the student is as a person and what they had done. Adding this tells colleges that the student can be professional and works well with other people in teams. This program itself is a Regional Occupational Program (ROP), meaning that it provides career pathways for students who want to pursue specific fields in the Arts, Business, Health, Technology, and many more.

Finale
To students who want to join the upcoming Fashion Show next year with a leading role, like a coordinator, or if you’re interested in fashion and aspire to be in a professional fashion position in the future; join Ms. Viadero’s Fashion class and expand your range of creativity and leadership!

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