On September 16th 2023, our T-shirt design workshop’s kids strutted the runway at the Santa Clara county fair in three rounds of colorful and impactful displays that both showed their creativity and an advocacy of defending the environment.
We began the preparation process back in August of the same year where we hosted two T-shirt design workshops that allowed the students to create the T-shirts they would eventually be strutting down the runway. The students were all gathered in a room at Canon Music where they were given a blank sheet of paper to draw a design. They would then project the design onto their equally blank, white T-shirts using techniques such as sewing, embroidering and drawing with fabric markers.
Workshop in action
The first workshop was a definite success, the session ending in various t-shirt designs of a myriad of colors and themes. The room that had once been organized had been turned upside-down with fabrics flying alongside creativity.
Students using many fabrics and textures to create designs
The second one was executed similarly and also was a big success.
We made sure the students also kept in mind that an optional theme was to design a shirt that displayed a message to halt the growing concerns of the environment. This could include anything from drawing an animal to trees to nature.
Here are some of the designs with the theme that the students came up with:
After both workshops concluded, on September 16th the real runway began. Hosted by Yujia Dong (10) and Ellie Shen (9) the designs were finally displayed in an organized show. We also invited Anushka Rala (12) to the show to first introduce a club running at Santa Clara High School who talked about combining design with technology.
Then the real fun began:
The first round were people who had brought their own designs in, consisting of a trio with green ties and black blazers, and two with a y2k approach to fashion.
The next round was kids who had made their own designs and were walking down the stage. Up came many designs of t-shirts with ribbon full of ruffles, shirts with elaborate drawings of hot air balloons, and others of dogs, flowers, hills.
The last round mainly consisted of kids that had signed up to model. Wandering in a spiral, they walked along to the hype playlist we had created for the event. Though confused at first, the kids walked with a sense of kiddishness and went along with the flow.
The show then displayed a powerful and emotional lyrical dance show conducted by Noreen’s Dance Collaborative which wowed the audience.
In the end, everyone had a dance party with the song “Cha Cha Slide” which concluded the joyful yet informative event.
You can check out the instagram post on the event here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CxkAeVxuy7w/
