St. Augustine Fashion Week!

Featuring Bartram Trail High
​School Fashion Academy

Photography by Mindy Kerr of Nature's Child Photography

​This year St. Johns Magazine attended St. Augustine Fashion Week (STAFW) featuring Bartram Trail Fashion Academy student designers.  Young and full of passion, creativity & motivation, these designers along with the staff of STAFW put on an amazing show.  The first of two runway shows was held at a stunning venue, Art N Motion in the San Marco neighborhood.  SJM was able to speak with Rebekah Marsh - Fashion Academy Director and Teacher - to learn more about the designers and the program.

​SJM: How were the competitor’s chosen for the runway show on Friday night?

Rebekah: Students from all four years have the option of participating in the competition portion of STAFW. 

SJM: What did they do to prepare for competition?

Rebekah: The students who chose to participate in the competition worked independently since January, sketching, selecting materials, constructing and fitting their final designs. The students worked on their pieces in their “free” time and had to do several check-ins with me, so I could track their progress.

SJM: Could you tell me a little about the competitors and the winner of the competition?

Rebekah: Rachel Williams and Katie Hayes are sophomores in the program. They first learned to sew when they joined my class last year and have really challenged themselves with this competition. 

Liddy Dow is also a sophomore, she is interested in an occupation in the fashion industry and has even started her own fashion blog to get a head start on her career. Lexi Burditt, Carla Moceri and Marta Miles are all juniors in the program. They have been in fashion for three years. Carla participated in STAFW last year, while this was Marta and Lexi’s first time entering. 

Lauren Donalson is an outrageously talented seamstress, learning from her grandmother at a very young age. Although she is only a junior she has been making her own clothing for years. This was her third time entering into the competition and she was elated to have won. She is inspired by historical fashion and most of her design reflect such. On most days she can be found sewing a new creation sometimes from a pattern and sometimes from her own method and often wears her own hand-made garments. Sewing and designing is a passion of Laurens and she recently received an internship with Limelight Theatre in St. Augustine for the summer. She has already started planning her feature collection for next year.  

SJM: What do you like most about teaching young designers?

Rebekah: I choose to be an educator in a subject that enables students to leave school feeling like they have learned a new skill, are efficient in that skill and feel more confident and successful for doing so. I have the advantage of having students for all four years so I get to watch them grow from novice sewers to designers right before my eyes. You see them struggle with concepts and techniques at the beginning and then one day you watch the light bulb come on and they are able to apply all their skills to be independents and create on their own. It is incredible to see their minds at work and to be able to give them the opportunity to express their creativity in such a unique way, and to give them a break from the crazy busy and stressful lives that teenagers live today. It’s a lost art and they are gaining skills that not many people have; it really is an amazing matchless program.  

​Fashion Academy Teacher, Rebekah Marsh is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and went to school in Scranton, PA she received a degree in Family and Consumer Sciences, the subject formally known as Home Economics. 

"The incredible thing about FCS is that it is an all-encompassing subject area, where I have the advantage of both educating and creating. I have always had a creative mind; growing up I was a dancer, and a performer and would often provide my own costumes for performances and so I was a self-taught sewer. Although performing was a passion that I could have pursued, I always knew I wanted to be a teacher. When I learned of FCS and had the opportunity to learn to be and educator and hone my design skills in college with courses in apparel design and merchandising, I knew I had hit the jackpot. Moving to Florida and finding this fantastic school and program was a one and a million chance and I am beyond lucky to be in the position I am. I love to learn and there are always new skills to be had so I am consistently looking at courses and classes to stay current on industry sewing that I can then pass along to my remarkable and talented students."

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SJM: What are the entrance requirements the Fashion Academy?
Rebekah: Students must apply for the program through an online application, with their enrollment to BTHS and are selected through a lottery system. 

SJM: What happens on a typical day in class?
Rebekah: There are four levels to the fashion academy and six different sections of classes. In a day I see six different groups, all working on different projects. They come into class where each student has their own work space and sewing machine, they take out their materials that they store in their lab tables and begin working on their respective project. On non-sewing days they may be sketching, take notes, or presenting a final project. 

SJM: What are some of the projects students create?
 
Rebekah: Underclassmen have completed projects such as a t-shirt redesign project where they are given a large plain t-shirt and are instructed to use 90% of the shirt to make a new functional design, an eco-fashion project where they use unappreciated clothing and recyclable unconventional materials of their choice to create a wearable design. They also work with a number of sewing patterns to build their basic sewing skills such as pajama shorts, totes, an A-line skirt, and a crew neck shirt.

Upperclassmen complete projects such as the history of fashion project which is a yearlong adventure where               students do extensive research on a particular period of time and compose a design that combines aspects of both their era and modern day attributes, they then learn about draping and finally construct their one of kind piece. They also work with patterns, making kimonos, rompers and other garments. An exciting project that seniors participate in annually is an unconventional materials competition, put on by local designer Linda Cunningham. Each year she chooses a new material such as post-it notes and rubber bands or cupcake liners and students have two months to design a one-of-a-kind gown using those materials. They are then displayed at Jacksonville Fair and voted on by the public. Seniors also participate in St. Augustine Fashion Week each year, working in groups to create unique clothing lines which they design and construct themselves, then finding and fitting models for their looks. They then use those clothing lines to create their own theoretical boutique with which they select all the elements one would choose when opening their own store. 

We also do a multitude of service projects for difference organizations within the community such as Children’s Hospital, Jacksonville Humane Society, local nursing and hospice centers, and many other establishments.

SJM: After graduation what skills will students have?
Rebekah: Students will have the skills of all the basic functions of a sewing machine, hand sewing, fashion sketching, clothing construction and repairs, and basic design concepts. 

SJM: How about opportunities?
Rebekah: The academy itself is a wonderful opportunity to gain professional skills and combine academic and occupation-related course requirements that aim both to promote applied learning and to satisfy college entrance requirements. The academies at BTHS establish partnerships with local employers to build sequences of career awareness, with mock-interviews, resume and cover letter help, dress for success days and many other work-based learning opportunities for my students; whether they choose this specific career or not. Although most students choose fashion as a hobby students have had the opportunity to network with local designers to get jobs in their privately owned shops, working for theatres in their costume department, or combining aspects of business and seek jobs in fashion merchandising.  If they so choose to continue their studies in higher education they are opening up themselves to start careers as a fashion professional in a wide variety of settings, including corporate offices nation-wide in positions such as Fashion Designer, Buyer, Merchandiser, Wholesale Account Manager, Technical Designer, Product Developer, and Visual Merchandiser, as well as in entrepreneurial roles such as boutique owners and independent designers.

SJM: Where have some of the past graduates (that have gone on in fashion) gone to college?

Rebekah: SCAD, Miami University of Art and Design, UF College of the Arts