Student designs grace runway of Birmingham Fashion Week
Brooke Lindsey’s favorite thing to design is wedding dresses, so she incorporated those styles into a cherry blossom-inspired design for Birmingham Fashion Week. Her design along with several other Vestavia Hills students' walked the runway on Thursday evening.
The 16-year-old Vestavia Hills High School student is one of the 38 semi-finalists whose designs were in the Rising Design Star competition. Each contestant crafted a garment representing one of Alabama’s major industries (agriculture, livestock, transportation, technology, fishing, forestry and mining) with recycled or alternative materials such as glue, staples, tape, safety pins and paper clips. These garments were on display at the Birmingham Museum of Art through April 26.
On top of a paper mache base, Brooke created pink rosettes from packing paper and folded them to look like cherry blossoms with a pearl bead in the middle. She then used crushed green glass to create a belt and flower design for the top, and porch screen to create a lacy effect around the neck. For the skirt, she cut long strands from painters plastic and pulled them apart in different styles.
“The whole dress is covered in sparkle spray paint, so when the light hits it, it shimmers and gives a Cinderella feeling to it,” Brooke said.
Semifinalists will move on to the final round of judging during the finale runway show on Saturday, May 9, with the winner will be announced that evening and awarded a $500 scholarship.
More Rising Design Star Semi-Finalists on the Runway
Cam Miceli
Age 13, Pizitz Middle School
Cam enjoys going to the lake and fishing with dad, and now her pastime has served as her fashion inspiration.
She created a flowing skirt out of layers of fish netting that she painted with an ombre affect at the bottom. To create the bodice, she used blue water bottles to resemble water, crafting a sweetheart neckline. Her favorite element is the thinner layer of fish net around the beck line.
Cam, who was a semifinalist in last year’s competition, said she has always enjoyed fashion, picking out clothes, hairstyles and makeup.
Camille Cooper
Age 11, Pizitz Middle School
Camille’s inspiration came from the symbol of Vestavia Hills, the dogwood tree. She looked closely at the dogwood outside her house and found photos of a pink variety online to use as the base of her design.
She cut plastic spoons to make the dogwood petals, put them in the oven to make them curl and then painted them, placing Styrofoam ball halves in the centers. Leaves she painted on top of construction paper complete the blooms. To create the trunk and branches, she painted spoon handles brown. Beneath them, she draped plastic table cloths to look like dress fabric and added a corset in the back.
Sarah Anne Pfitzer
Age 16, Vestavia Hills High School