DEBORAH Tissington’s
French Laundry label is
featured at Matinee.

SUNDAY, MAY 16: Hatz
Hair Design holds a cut-a-
thon to benefit Wild Bird
Trust, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at
Pacific Environmental Science

Centre and the conservation -

area at Maplewood Flats,
2645 Dollarton Hwy. North
Van. Cuts: $10 min. dona-
tion.

MONDAY, MAY 17:
UNICEF B.C. will celebrate
its 30th anniversary with a
fundraising luncheon and
fashion show at the Pan
Pacific Hotel, 11:30 a.m.
Fashions from 1969 (the year
of Woodstock and the launch
of Apollo 11) will be present-
ed by costume historian Ivan
Sayers, with contemporary
clothing from = Marilyn’s of
Caulfeild. Tickets, $100, by
calling 874-3666.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 19:
Matinée Fashion in Motion, a
runway show sponsored by
Imperial Tobacco’s Matinée
Fashion Foundation, features a
preview of the fall/winter 99
collections from Vancouver
designers including 1999 grant
recipients RozeMerie Cuevas,
Yumi Eto, Yoel Farzan, Patricia
Fieldwalker, Frou-Frou
Designs, Ron Leal, Christine
Morton, Ron et Normand,
Deborah Tissington and Feizal
Virani. Show is 7:30 p.m. at
the Hyatt Regency. Tickets,
$21.50, through Ticketmaster.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 19:
See more page 19

north shore news

.& PASHION

Sunday, May 16,1999 — North Shore News — 15

tudent show is a real class act

Sasha Alexandra Straub
Contributing Writer

DURING the last year,
more than 200 students
from Rockridge, West
Vancouver and Sentinel sec-
ondary schools prepared for
this year’s Mannequin
Parade.

The annual district-wide fashion
show Thursday at Sentinel high-
lighted the ralents of West
Vancouver's budding designers.

Numerous hours of hard work
were put in by teachers and students
enrolled in clothing and textiles pro-
grams.

Their efforts and progress in the
past few months were seen ina slide
show presented during the fashion
show.

This slide show features the
process involved in creating clothes
— everything from sewing, serging
and unpicking scams to just plain
having fun.

The West Vancouver home eco-
nomics departments at Rockridge,
West Van and Sentinel Secondary
have experienced growth in their
clothing and textiles programs. At
Sentinel, student participation in the
fashion show has doubled in just the
last two years.

Students have taken a shining to
the wonderful world of sewing and
are participating in clothing and tex-
tiles courses at the Grade 8 level
right through to Pattern Drafting,
and Design at Grade 12.

The clothing and textiles curricu-
lum not only includes sewing, but
also researching fashion history,
learning about care labels and fab-
tics. Students are adapting commer-
cial patterns and using new sewing
techniques to create their own style.

In recent weeks, several scudents
at all schools, if not practising their
routines for the runway, could be
found busily designing and sewing,
their garments.

Mannequin Parade 1999 includ-
ed a variety of clothes from sports-
wear to evening wear and a special
student designer collection. Many
students not only modelled their
creations but were involved in orga-
nizing, this year’s show.

Alysa Downs, Christie Cryer,
Adrienne Glen, Colette Komm and
Sasha Straub were Sentinel’s student
coordinators.

They were assisted by teacher
coordinators Alison Sawers, Donna
Allen and Val Hodowanski from
West Van, Connie O’Connor from
Rockridge and Maria Morabito from
Sentinel.

Mannequin Parade °99 featured

NEWS photos Paul McGrath

SENTINEL. student
Colette Komm (above,
right), with schoolmate
Kristina Jahn, presented
a collection of 50
designs Thursday
during the West
Vancouver schceolts’
district-wide fashion
show. Her Alien
invasion collection
included the futuristic
creations worn by (left
to right) Kristina Miller,
Alysa Downs and Malia
Baird.

an original collection by a young and
talented Grade [i Sentinel student,
Colette Komm.

Colette showed more than 30 of
her one-of-a-kind creations on 25
models.

Her phenomenal talent was evi-
dent in each outfit, ranging from his-
toric costumes to everyday clothes to
futuristic space suits.

Colette is a self-taught designer
and pattern drafter. 1 asked Colette
what inspired her to design her own
clothes at such a young age.

She replied: “All of the clothes that
T used to want were only in American
magazines or they were foo expensive
to buy.

“After using three commercial pat-
terns I thought it was a waste of
money and if I did it myself (draft pat-
terns), I could make it fit and look
exactly how I want it to. I just went to
the library one day, took out a book,
and learned to draft patterns by
myself.”

Colette has a clear picture of her
bright future when asked abour her
plans.

“I want to move to New York, go
to the Fashion Institute of
Technology, become a fashion design-
er and eventually have my own label
of clothing.”

Colette has already had a prelimi-
nary porttolio interview with FIT. She
worked on her collection for the show
for the past year.

“1 decided to treat my section of
the fashion show as a real collection.
Ie needs to be totally crazy, full of
energy and have many surprises. I
wanted to take on this project because
I want to become a fashion designer. 1
wanted to see if I could handle ali of
the stress and planning thar comes
with putting on such a production.”

Colette’s clothes look extremely
professional. The jeans she wore dur-
ing our interview could easily have
borne a famous designer label.

Her skill level is evident in the cus-
tom-made clothing she has sold to her
friends and peers.

When asked what her greatest
accomplishment was she said: “My
10-feet-tall fairy costume that I made
for a charity Christmas play.”

The students would like to thank
the following hair professionals for
their support of the show: Jessica
Enright, Hollyburn Hair Salon; Joji’s
Hair Academy; Leon’s Hair Shop;
Dina’s Hair Vogue; First Impression
Hair; Beauty Club; Raymond Salons,
Holly’s On The North Shore
Hairdressing School, and Blanche
Macdonald Centre for Applied
Design for the models’ make-up.

— Sasha Alexandra Straub is a

Grade 11° student at Sentinel
Secondary.

abriclang. Sewing
embers: Value Hotline!

fa

a the Infetnel