Merced Union High School District

The fourth annual MHS Fashion Show was recently held as advanced fashion design students showcased their outfits in a Met Gala themed event. Student models were able to strut their way down the runway in the program’s biggest fashion show to date.

 

The event takes months of planning and is a collaboration of six different CTE pathways on campus as the Advanced Fashion Design students team up with students in marketing, culinary, floral design, photography and graphic design to put together the event. 

 

“Every year, the Fashion Show gets bigger and better,” said Geena Wade, MHS Family and Consumer Science teacher. “When we first started it in 2023, there was no stage or vendor fair. I may have had 50 chairs out for people. People barely knew we even had a fashion class in Merced. The categories in 2023 were called "tops" and "bottoms" because we were just starting and didn't really understand how creative we could get with it. This year, our vendor fair had 13 local businesses in attendance. We set out 300 chairs and had people standing still. We had categories based on past Met Gala themes, and students were creative with what they could create to fit the category theme while still keeping true to their own personal style.”

 

Students in the Advanced Fashion Design class start brainstorming possible fashion show themes back in December. They create shoebox diagrams to present their ideas to the class. Once a theme has been voted on, the event planning begins from there.  

 

“While everyone in the Advanced Fashion Design classes are creating outfits for the event, the class is broken up into four teams for planning the actual show: Stage, Model/Garment, Hospitality, and Publicity,” Wade said. “Each team has leads and managers, and various job titles assigned to each student that go along with tasks that need to be completed for the event. We are planning throughout the entire Spring semester, all while creating our garments as well.”

The fashion students get plenty of help for the event with the Marketing Pathway students creating advertisements on campus and social media posts about the event. Culinary students help cater the event by providing free cookies for the audience and the food and drinks available backstage for the models, designers, makeup artists and vendors. Floral Design pathway students create the floral arrangements and fit them to match the theme of the show each year. Photography students host photoshoots to showcase the garments and then their photos are used in the slideshow during the show. Digital Art students create the logos for the show, including this year’s  logo , which was designed by Garret Klock.

 

For the fashion design students, the show gives them an outlet to express themselves. “It highlights the incredible talent, creativity, and hard work of our students in a fun and engaging way,” Wade said. “In addition, the cross-curricular collaboration between multiple classes demonstrates how successful events like this require teamwork, communication, and contributions from many different groups rather than just one program alone.”

 

Students were able to design garments that fit under a variety of themes, including spring-inspired outfits that included florals and soft colors, streetwear and everyday attire which expressed creativity without rules, sustainable chic in which students were asked to transform everyday and unconventional materials into creative runway designs and varsity vogue which celebrated school spirit.

 

“It’s definitely a rollercoaster of emotions,” Wade said. “Students usually start excited and eager to begin planning, but as the months go on, they can get tired of constantly talking about the show and working through all the details. However, once the day of the event arrives, the excitement comes back in full force. You can see the nerves kick in while everyone is getting ready with hair and makeup, but after they step off the stage, they are filled with adrenaline and immediately start saying they want to do it all over again.”

Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.