The Cupertino Courier

Cover Story

Photograph by Marjan Sadoughi

Sante Kotturi (left) of Monta Vista High leaves the stage while Leah Davis, his partner in the prom segment of the fashion show, exits from the opposite side of the stage.

Dress Rehearsal

Students create a fashion show to learn about real world of business

By ANNE WARD ERNST

For a group of high school students putting on a fashion show for the first time, fashion became less about style and more about business.

Students who are members of DECA--a marketing association--from Monta Vista, Fremont and Lynbrook high schools plotted, organized and implemented a fundraising fashion show. Because they were responsible for the entire project, from developing the program to building the set and selling tickets to the show, the students learned that behind the glitz of a runway lies a real business with obstacles and the satisfaction in overcoming them.

They raised money through after-school snack sales to pay for such things as the stage backdrop and show program, and they sold tickets to the show, the proceeds of which were intended for Muscular Dystrophy Association and scholarships for DECA.

Ticket sales barely covered expenses, according to Monta Vista teacher and DECA adviser Carl Schmidt, but he says that was irrelevant.

"In terms of achieving most of our objectives, it was successful. The students were able to plan and execute a fashion show, and the important thing is that it was totally student-run. If we were able to make money, that would have been a bonus," Schmidt says.

DECA--Distributive Education Clubs of America--is an international organization dedicated to furthering education in the areas of marketing, management and entrepreneurship in business, finance, hospitality and marketing. There is a DECA club on each of the three campuses.

Showcasing teenagers' clothing styles is an unmet need in Cupertino, Schmidt says, and he had tossed around the idea for a couple of years. He pitched the idea to the local DECA clubs in the fall, and the students brought it to fruition on March 25 at Fremont High School.

The event was treated as a business venture. From developing the program to selling tickets, all organizational details were carried out by eight student committees. Schmidt chose the project's director, 18-year-old Monta Vista senior Amanda Moy, and together they interviewed and selected the students who would lead the committees, which were commentary and program, promotion, finance, merchandise, human resources, staging, hospitality and security.

Candidates faced questions that would be asked of them in the business world. They explained why they wanted the job and what qualified them. They were asked to define success and give an example of how they overcame a failure. They had to relate their extracurricular commitments, such as being on a swim team or being part of a dance group, and convince Schmidt and Moy that they could make room in their schedules for the work on the fashion show. They also had to articulate their vision for their committee's role and explain how they would achieve that vision.

The accomplishment could not have been realized without the help of a lot of friends who were not DECA members.

Monta Vista ninth-graders Danielle Wang, 14, and Shreya Pramarick, 13, volunteered to help DECA's staging manager Maria Chimishkyan. Maria, 14, also a Monta Vista ninth-grader, designed and supervised the building of the backdrop. She had help from DECA members on some days, but on others, she depended on her pals who pitched in after school to help construct frames for decorated screens in the backdrop.

During the fashion show, the screens were backlit, and models struck a pose behind them before emerging--an idea borrowed from the television show Project Runway.

The models, all students, wore clothing borrowed from local stores such as Trudy's, Tuxedo Warehouse, Canyon Beachwear, Mermaid's Closet, Etcetera, and Younique.

Convincing stores to loan garments to high school students was no easy task.

"Most of the big clothing stores are corporate, so you have to go through all this paperwork, and lots of companies won't lend out clothes to such an amateur fashion show," says Lucy Zhang, chairwoman of the promotion committee.

The show was segmented into themes such as "casual twist," which included swimwear and street clothes; evening wear with a prom-like theme that paired boys and girls as models; and "decades," which featured styles from the 1920s, 1950s, 1980s and present.

The students had to figure out their target audience, Schmidt says. The fashions were geared to teenagers, but DECA club members recognized that parents would be in the audience and that the entertainment needed to engage them as well.

San Jose student band Red Horizon got things started, and the hip-hop dance group Fifth Element entertained during intermission. Christine Ninh, who was the program chairwoman, is also a member of Fifth Element.

Between regular classes, homework and swim team practices, Christine says preparing for the performance was a lot of work but proved to be a bonding experience.

She was also responsible for creating programs to hand out and finding a printing company to produce them. Overall she said she worked an average of three to five hours each week, including an "all-nighter" that resulted from a group decision to change from a 10-page booklet to a three-panel brochure.

Like Christine, other DECA members said the additional time required by the project was more than they anticipated.

Lucy started out as a model but ended up chairing the promotion committee.

"Little did I know that it'd become this time-consuming monster," she said.

She isn't complaining, and though she said she'd do things a little differently next time, she would do it again.

"Even though it ate my life and raised my stress level to previously unreached heights, it was also a huge learning experience. It pushed me out of my comfort zones and made me experience new things and meet new people, and that's always a good thing," she says. "Also, I'm really proud of the end result. It was really fun to watch everything come together."

This real-life experience was not without mishaps, such as those that may happen to them in their careers, Schmidt says. Miscommunications and misunderstandings happened throughout the project, but it was how the students overcame those obstacles that impressed him.

"It gives them an opportunity to present other talents they wouldn't normally be able to," he says. "It gives them a feeling of such accomplishment. It's something they will remember for the rest of their lives.

"They were exhausted, but their eyes were aglow."