By Natalie Delcorps
On Fri., Jan. 16, after hours of preparation, inventive students from Batavia High School debuted their fashion pieces in the Batavia Fine Arts Center during “Rock the Runway.” The whole auditorium was filled with attentive students, parents, and teachers ready to see all of the intricate, beautiful fashion artwork. To start the night off, a select batch of dancers took the stage to show some moves. Soon, it was time for the fashion show to begin. During the fashion show, each model took the opportunity to strike their own poses with the song that was picked out to go with their theme. It was evident that each and every designer who participated set aside a lot of time and planning for this event.
“I started constructing my project around Thanksgiving. There was a great deal of planning that went into it beforehand. I sketched probably 6 ideas, then combined them to come up with my final idea. The sketching and idea process in total took about 2 days in class,” said junior Jessica Duschean. “The actual construction took much longer, of course. From the standpoint of how many hours it took, it’s a little difficult to tell, but it most likely took over 75 hours. I finished the dress the Thursday before the show. Using seeds is the reason it took so long. The reason I used the seeds is because of the theme of the show: Legends, and the legend I chose to represent- Frænir. Thinking of materials to go along with my legend and how to manipulate those materials (seeds and feathers) also took some time.”
It looks like her hard work paid off: Jessica Duschean won best dress for her talents.
Another element of the show that takes a lot of consideration for the designer is picking a model. Senior Alison Warren picked senior Madison Theurekauf as her model. Her piece of work was titled “Nike the Goddess of Victory.”
“Our criteria as far as models go is pretty simple, you just want to pick somebody who can work your piece,” said Warren. “They should have confidence and be able to own the stage from the second they step on. It works best if you choose someone you know because in most cases the designer and model have to work pretty closely and be together a lot to work on the design. I chose my friend Maddy because I knew she could bring it on stage and really bring my work to life. She was confident, beautiful, and patient enough to put up with me during the design process, even when I got her with the hot glue gun one too many times.”
Rock the Runway was judged by Cassie Sychta, Clare Sychta, Mary Popiel, Odile Joassin, Kim Fuller, and Kate Norkus. These people were the ones who essentially picked who won the competition. During intermission, people from the crowd could place money or paper votes as an incentive towards the judges.
“I’ve been doing Rock the Runway for three years (sophomore to senior year), the shows I participated in were Disasters, Fusion, and this year’s Legends,” Warren said. “I wish I had been ambitious enough to have done it my freshman year but the three years I was in it were fantastic! My favorite part of the process was definitely the night of the show. We’d been planning it since summer and people had been working on their pieces all year, so when it finally all came together it was amazing. The hours we spent making tickets and decorations all paid off and once the models had their hair and makeup done it was just unreal. The end product lived up to all the expectations we had for it.”
I thoroughly enjoyed going to see Rock the Runway this year. This was my first year going and I really wish I would have gone in previous years. The quality of these fashion pieces were incredible and I am glad I went to support them and all of their hard work. Fantastic job to all of the designers, models, teachers and everyone who helped out to make this show as eventful as it was!
“There was a huge adrenaline rush leading up to actually walking on stage. It was a lot of fun and I felt very fabulous while walking,” said sophomore Anastazja Konieczko, who debuted Devin Couturier’s baseball dress. “My favorite part of the night was intermission, when I got to see my mom, boyfriend, friends, and the audience. Many people were taking pictures of the design and I felt very proud to model my friend’s work. I can’t wait till next year, I definitely want to do it again.”
Best Dress – Jessica Duschean
2nd Place – Joanna Manning
1st Place for the Accessories Boutique – Maria Isley