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Vestavia students finalists in fashion week competition

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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. 

The 16-year-old Vestavia Hills High School student is one of the 38 semi-finalists for 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.

“It bounces when you walk in it,” she said. “It has a little big of elegance to it and it’s a little sassy.” 

The design doesn’t end there, though.

“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. 

A select number of Rising Design Star contestants will advance to the final round of the competition to showcase their design on the Birmingham Fashion Week runway Thursday, May 7 and Friday, May 8. In addition to their initial runway look, the design students selected to progress to the next round will also be required to create a second look from recycled Buffalo Rock Co. materials to walk the runway and compete for the sought-after title of Birmingham Fashion Week’s Rising Design Star. 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.

Sarah Anne Pfitzer, a 16-year-old Vestavia Hills resident, and several others were also semi-finalists for the competition. Read more about them to the right.

More Rising Design Star Semi-Finalists

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.

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