Sabrina Maggart's RHS seventh period fashion merchandising class.

Ravenwood designers to strut their stuff today
By CARRIE MCCLOUD
For Brentwood Home Page
The disastrous flooding last weekend forced Ravenwood Runway 2010 to postpone its Saturday show.  However, fashion enthusiasts will get their chances to see the work of Ravenwood High School designers this Friday, May 7, from 4:30-6:00 p.m.

Crea Petty shows us her formal wear for the show.

Cassie Karl shows some feather fashion sense.

Amber Bradford, Samantha Schultz, and Ashley Patton show a piece from their line of fashion.

Photos by Carrie McCloud

According to Sabrina Maggart, fashion merchandising teacher, “It is all original designs sewn by my 50 fashion design students featured in a Project Runway-type judged show.” Inspired by Bravo’s Project Runway, a panel of judges from O’More School of Design in Franklin will critique each collection.

In addition, 14 private collections were completed outside of the classroom by students with dreams of a career in fashion.

Proceeds from the event benefit the Susan G. Komen foundation. One lucky, young designer also stands to gain from the event. “The winner gets a trophy, $1,000.00 from our student production club (FCCLA), and O'More is presenting $14,000 in scholarship awards if winners choose to attend there,” Maggart says.

This is the second year for Ravenwood Runway, and also the second time for many of the participating designers.

One such designer is senior Crea Petty, who plans to attend FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising) in Orange County, California this fall. Petty’s collection, “Sweet Melodies,” includes two evening gowns and mostly casual clothing, including shorts, high-waisted skirts, short dresses and tops.

“Mine is a mix. Most of it is satin, but I mixed a lot of fabrics,” Petty says. As far as the process of preparing for the show, Petty says, “I like the design aspect. Last time, the show was definitely my favorite part though.” Petty, whose aunt first taught her to sew for 4H fashion shows, describes the work as “very time consuming.” Even though flooding gave the students almost an extra week to make alterations, Petty says, “I might make some more, but probably not.”

Fellow seniors Amber Bradford and Samantha Schultz also plan to embark on the fashion world while attending O’More School of Design next year. But when it comes to personal style, the girls’ choice to attend O’More is about the only thing they have in common.

Bradford’s private collection, “Lovely Heartwrecker,” fuses girly with edgy. “There’s a lot of florals and eye level pieces

with studs,” Bradford says. Meanwhile, Schultz describes her collection as having “no leather or studs in mine.” Instead, Schultz’s “Vida Loca” collection offers Latin-inspired looks with “a lot of beads, shells and bronze,” she says.

While working on the group collections, Schulz says, “It was interesting being with a group and compromising.” Each of the six members had to work to incorporate own visions. As far as learning to sew and other required skills, Bradford says it best. “Pillows are easy, but clothing is different.”

Juniors Bailey Sharpe and Ashley Patton also collaborated on a collection inspired by recycled items called “Bashful”—a combination of the pair’s names. “We used her mom’s old bridesmaid dresses and one Goodwill dress and some fabric scraps in the class,” says Sharpe. The girls were able to rework a collection requiring no cost at all. The best part, Patton says, was “making our own types of clothes. Everything looks like what I would wear. I liked seeing the finished product.”

Another future FIDM alumna, Cassie Karl will participate in the show for the first time this year. The senior’s collection is called “First Blush.” Karl plans to attend FIDM for merchandise marketing, but continue in fashion design as a hobby. Her collection is “more romantic, flowing pieces with some rough edges and florals, too,” Karl says. After slaving over the pieces since winter break, Karl says, “It’s been very stressful but fun, and I’m excited to see it happen.”

In conjunction with the show, Ravenwood has also entered a publishing competition with its new fashion magazine called Threads. The magazine is “featuring about 50 percent of the work in a creative photo shoot as a collaboration project with the photography students for everyone's college portfolio,” Maggart says. Pages include fashion spreads, sketches of original designs and style articles—all done by the students.

For those hoping to see the young designers’ hard work come to life, tickets to Ravenwood Runway will be pre-sale only for $10 at the Ravenwood Bank.