School's brown bags to highlight fashion show / LJWorld.com

Archive for Thursday, October 30, 2008

It's time to don the finest in grocery-store couture: art students at Free State High School have been working on making costumes of mythological characters from paper bags, and will present them in a fashion show on Friday.

By Lindsey Slater

October 30, 2008

Lindsey Slater/6News Photo

Chase Hoag, Free State senior, paints part of his costume in Advanced Placement art class Wednesday for the school's Brown Bag Fashion Show. The show takes place at 7:30 a.m. Friday.

Some Free State High School students are brown bagging it. Only they won't be using the sacks to carry their lunch, they'll be wearing them.

It's all for this year's Brown Bag Fashion Show. The theme is mythology. Students in multiple classes in the fine arts department are making costumes out of paper bags, and on Halloween, they'll get to strut down the runway and show off their work.

Senior Chase Hoag is going Spartan, compete with helmet, spear and skirt. "It's pretty short," he said. "Basically, my (outfit) is paper bags and duct tape."

Carolyn Berry, the Advanced Placement art teacher, says going 3-D in design is something new for her students.

"It has to fit on the body, on the human form," she said. "We talk about taking a flat material that isn't really flexible. We talk a lot about how to make sure it fits and stays on for 15 minutes."

Senior Samantha Ott is a Graeae sister from Greek mythology and made a dress, painted it green and added sparkles.

"I basically formed it around one of my dresses that I already have. I have Velcro on both sides, so it's easy to put on," she said.

Others opted away from clothes. Senior Cale Moore and two of his classmates will be walking the runway as a Chinese dragon made out of cardboard and brown paper.

"None of us really wanted to make a dress or something that fit around our bodies," he said. "It's taking a lot longer than we thought it would."

At 7:30 a.m. on Halloween morning, the fashion show will begin in the Free State High commons. The students will have to pull walking skills from their bag of tricks and will take the stage to Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

"We try to do it as close to Halloween as possible," Berry said.

While it might be hard work that takes many hours, the students like their venture into mythology and brown bags. "I think it's really awesome," Ott said. "It lets you get into another kind of media."

Hoag agrees.

"I think it's pretty sweet," he said. "I put a lot of time into it, but it's definitely wo