Every March, McCallum students present their designs in the annual fashion show, however, the preparation begins as early as October. Without an official club or program for the fashion show, the entire production is student-led with some assistance from Business Information Management teacher Sondra Primeaux. The show’s senior directors must find a theme, designers and models and help organize the show throughout the year in order to have things run smoothly come March. Senior director Sterling Bradley has been coming to McCallum’s fashion shows since she was in elementary school.
“I saw the show in my freshman year and I had a cousin who in the past was also a part of it so I’ve been coming to the fashion show since elementary school,” Bradley said. “I thought the show was really amazing, it was a really great artistic outlet for students at McCallum that I hadn’t seen before and I really wanted to be a part of it.”
In her sophomore year, Bradley auditioned for the position of sophomore intern and has been helping run the show since. Now, as a senior director, Bradley had a say in what this year’s theme would be.
“This year it was difficult to choose a theme because we definitely heard a lot from the designers and models of what they wanted and so we talked amongst ourselves with the junior and senior directors and came to a decision,” Bradley said.
The directors landed on the theme “Living Paintings: Meeting the Muse,” which allows designers to draw inspiration from artists or artwork for their designs. Senior designer Charlie Brewster said he is happy with the theme decision.
“I love the theme,” Brewster said. “It’s very fun and I’m excited to explore it. I think it’s very broad, which is nice. I am just going to take inspo from my favorite painter, so I’m excited for that.”
Part of the challenge for designers is finding materials and workspaces to create their looks. Last year, the fashion show worked with Austin Creative Reuse in several workshops, but this year, that is no longer an option. However, Sondra Primeaux has created some space in her classroom for designers to come in and work throughout the year. Brewster believes that finding materials and time to make his designs will be the biggest hurdle this year.
“I think sourcing materials and making time for the show will be hard,” Brewster said. “Designing is very time-consuming and this year, especially because I’m a senior dealing with college applications and just trying to get my credits, it is going to be a challenge.”
The show isn’t all stressful, though, and has given Brewster a chance to meet creative, like-minded people.
“I love the community aspect,” Brewster said. “Meeting new people and being able to relate with people through similar interests, I think that’s very easy in the fashion show because we’re all there for the same thing.”
As the year continues, designers will keep meeting once a week to plan and create their looks, as well as get to know the models they will be working with.
“There are meetings every week and as we get closer to the fashion show, they will become more frequent, and then we have a weekend that is just full of fashion show prep both days, all day,” Bradley said.
New to the directing team, sophomore intern Wren Britton joined the show after being influenced by her older sister.
“My sister did the fashion show for three years in high school,” Britton said. “She was an intern and then a director and she designed a bit too, but she loved it and she said it was such a nice community and a really great way to make creative friends.”
After modeling in her freshman year, Britton moved up to being a sophomore intern.
“I signed up as a model in my freshman year, hoping to make new friends, and I really loved it and realized I wanted to be more involved, so I interviewed to be an intern,” Britton said. “Mostly we [the interns] just watch what the directors do and train to be a director and then there’s a lot of Google Docs and organization stuff like making posters.”
On the director’s side of things, Britton is hoping that designers stay on track over the next few months in order to have things ready for the show in the spring.
“This is challenging every year, making sure that designers are connected with their models and that designers are on top of everything,” Britton said. “A lot of designers drop out every year so that will be challenging to deal with.”
Even with the hard parts, the fashion show has formed a creative community on campus.
“The show has really introduced me to a lot of interesting people,” Bradley said. “I really enjoy watching people be so creative and use their skills for what they’re interested in, and I think it’s really great to see.”
Going into this year’s show, Bradley and the other senior directors are hoping to make it even more amazing than past shows.
“I am so excited to continue to make the fashion show even better than the years prior,” Bradley said. “All of the senior, junior and new sophomore interns are super excited to work on it.”
