The Paper Dress Show 2010

March 2010

Video by Gary Olsen Brandon Noel

ost of Crazy Cam, Justin Noel, is clearly one of our funnier hosts on this popular cable show, and in this coverage of Prescott School's fun and fanciful district-wide Paper Dress Fashion Show for 2010, he does not disappoint. But what is truly entertaining in this exercise are the paper dresses and the students who designed and fabricated them.

Inspired by Project Runway, art teacher Scott Lammer thought, "What would happen if the kids became fashion designers with an ambitious project like design and make a dress, a real fashion statement, and then mount a fashion show of epic proportions?" Well, it didn't start out that way.

The first year (three years ago) it was in the Activities Room with a handful of students and parents attending, but by the second year it had to move to the gym. It has become an evening affair, and other schools have been invited to participate. Now the place is packed with fashion enthusiasts, a judging panel that includes the mayor of Dubuque, Roy Buol, and other perhaps more qualified fashion industry folks helping out. It's an entertainment extravaganza with participating sponsors like Nordstrom's, Cheryl-Ann Bridals and Formal Wear, Graham's Style Store, and others.

Making a dress out of paper is, as expected, a challenging of design and materials engineering. It's more difficult than you can imagine, and some dresses have to be glue gunned to the models. It's got to fit and survive the walk down the runway.

And it's not all fun and games, but real learning as the curriculum for the program is integrated with the students' lessons on the human body. In studying the bones, muscles and how the body is constructed and how it moves, the Paper Dress Project provides an Expeditionary Learning project that motivates and inspires the students to make the dress not only fashionable but fits correctly and allowing the body to move comfortably.

The parents play their parts in this reality television show. In one of the neatest scenes, as the models walk down the runway, digital and cell-phone cameras flash like lightning at the end of the runway only adding to the authenticity of the moment. There were more than a few video cameras in the audience, too.

The learning doesn't stop with the dress or the fashion show. The kids have to learn accounting because they are given play money with which they must form a budget, buy materials, and outsource whatever labor they may need. Finally, the kids must hone their presentation skills as a designated team member must read the team's design philosophy and approach describing their creation. For some students, designing and making a dress our of paper is far easier than speaking into a microphone before a gym full of people.