Students at the Raymond Hill School have the opportunity to learn a wide variety of practical skills from their creative and enthusiastic teachers. One example of this can be found in the art room, where teaching assistant Rachel Brookman used her several years of design experience last fall to teach a fashion design elective for interested high school students.

During the course of the elective students were introduced to several influential designers, past and present; learned basic hand sewing techniques, which they practiced by making small plush monsters; sketched models; and created 2D designs using paper. The final project was to play the role of a designer such as can be seen on shows like Project Runway. A volunteer staff member acted as a client who needed a dress to wear to a red carpet movie premiere. The students had to create sketches to convey their design ideas, incorporate the “client’s” feedback, and create their ideas on dress forms using newspaper.

As you can tell by the results, the students learned a lot in the class and had a blast creating these gorgeous newspaper gowns!