A Goodwill store on the far West Side was transformed this week by high school seniors showcasing their fashion design work — sustainable design, because the brightly colored outfits were curated and altered from donated clothes found there.
The Fiesta-themed fashion show Wednesday evening saw 20 student models walking a runway to the sounds of “Angel on the Catwalk,” by DJ Chillout Sensation, passing through a crowd of about 100 parents, community members and some surprised thrift-concious customers who happened to wander in.
The seniors behind the show are part of Stevens High School’s entrepreneurship and fashion program. They’re learning about marketing, display design, customer service and fashion curation because they dream of not just working in fashion but owning a fashion-related business.
The program has had fashion shows before, but this one was a first. It was held at the Goodwill store on Potranco Road, where the class volunteers twice a week.
“Fashion is a way to express yourself,” said Che’ron Brown, a senior at Stevens, in the Northside Independent School District. “I have a twin and when I was younger everyone always saw us as ‘the twins,’ they never saw me as an individual, I felt like when I had my outfit on or we had different outfits on, people finally saw me as me.”
When Brown joined the class, she never saw herself owning a retail shop, but it has “kind of opened up my eyes” to it, she said.
At Goodwill each week, the students find outfits for the mannequins, design the endcaps, greet customers, and learn the business side of the non-profit Goodwill’s operations.
“I’ve gained a new understanding with how to deal with people in customer service,” said Jessyka Ruiz, a senior who hopes to own a personal styling business one day. “It sort of opened up my social skills because before this class, I was very shy and now I’m learning in this class how to get out of my shell.”
Jaznett Lopez, a senior in the program who aspires to be an interior designer, was most excited about an outfit she designed featuring a green embroidered dress and white pants.
Che’raye Brown (left), Alejandra Aguilar, Karina Gallardo and Valerie Cena laugh while waiting to model in the Fiesta Sustainable Fashion Show. The Stevens High School students design their own garments and volunteer at a Goodwill store to learn about retail. (Kaylee Greenlee Beal/Contributor)
Kaylee C. Greenlee Beal /
“I feel like (the outfit) is kind of about my culture,” Lopez said. “I’m Hispanic. My little sister wanted to be a mariachi, so (this outfit) kind of reminds me of old times and I wanted that to come together.”
The most rewarding part for Lopez happened after the fashion show: when customers had the chance to buy the look she created.
“To see customers say, ‘Oh, I want this one’ and then grab it quick and it is gone,” Lopez said, “is a really good feeling.”
The fact that the students can practice their trade using the “excess amount of clothing in our world” available at their neighborhood Goodwill rather than new clothing is not lost on them, said Christine Donovan, a fashion instructor at Northside ISD, which has seven such programs altogether.
A lot of students have “a passion for sustainability” and more of them are shopping at thrift stores, she said.
“It shows that you don’t need the high fashion, top of the notch clothes to have good outfits and be able to express yourself,” Brown said.
The Goodwill store sells items dating back to the 1950s, says Agosto Cuellar, Goodwill’s customer experience manager and a local sustainable fashion designer who has been working with the Stevens High School fashion program for about five years.
“Because of that, (Goodwill is) able to draw in different clientele, which shows the students there is vitality in the retail business,” Cuellar said.
The Stevens High School principal, Ryan Purtell, was sitting in the audience, cheering for some of his students who don’t usually get to put their work on display.
Victoria Garcia walks in the Fiesta Sustainable Fashion Show at the Goodwill store on Potranco Road. Stevens High School students design their own garments and volunteer at a Goodwill store to learn about retail. . (Kaylee Greenlee Beal/Contributor)
Kaylee C. Greenlee Beal /“There are a lot of things that our kids do that naturally lend to (being on display): fine arts, athletics, it is really easy to get together and clap together,” Purtell said. “But there are a lot of really cool things that kids do (for which) it is hard to create a venue like this to celebrate them.”