Tailor-Made Education

In Fairfax, Fashion Fits New Model of Technical Preparation

Janetta Saul, 20, of Hayfield Secondary School, left, high-fives Candace Marshall, 17, of West Potomac High School as the classmates make final adjustments to garments before tonight's fashion show. (Photos By Linda Davidson -- The Washington Post)

Kendall Barry set aside her textbooks and her worries about standardized tests yesterday morning to put final touches on her latest school project: a full-length, black satin Audrey Hepburn-inspired gown she designed and sewed.

Barry, 17, is also creating her own prom dress, a baby-blue chiffon number with a pink inset that will flow when she dances. The high school senior recently delivered two of her custom-made skirts to a teacher. And next year, she's headed to Marymount University to study fashion design.

"I do really good in academics, but fashion is my favorite. It's what I want to do with my future," Barry said. "The people who are more the science and English majors who are going to big schools don't understand. I like that you get to work with your hands."

Tonight, Barry's black strapless gown and dozens of creations made by her classmates in West Potomac High School's fashion design courses will be showcased in a fashion show to benefit the American Red Cross. The classes, among a growing number of career and technical offerings in Fairfax County schools, are filled with students with dreams of becoming the next Betsey Johnson or Carmen Marc Valvo.

But the program's 35 students have also learned that glamorous gowns, gem-encrusted jeans and floral handbags are just the beginning where fashion shows are concerned. There's also music and special effects. Models will sashay down the runway to tunes -- remixed and original -- put together by students in the music technology class. A video montage made by television production students will flash on the walls. Posters created by graphic design students have been publicizing the event.

"We're teaching collaboration and teamwork," said Maria Kappel, career experience specialist at West Potomac Academy, the portion of the high school where technical classes are taught. "In the real world, on a production team, you'd have someone in charge of television and someone in charge of graphic design and you'd have a client. You have to coordinate and really be able to communicate."

Vocational education classes that give teenagers skills to enter the workforce -- or just a taste of what a career might be like -- have been growing in scope and sophistication in high schools nationwide, educators said. Students in Fairfax and Montgomery counties build houses from the ground up and learn to repair cars. Culinary arts students run mini-restaurants in schools and cater events. High-schoolers take classes in occupational therapy and animal science.

In Fairfax, where overall enrollment has leveled, more than 3,800 students enrolled in career and technical education classes at high school academies this year, up from about 3,300 in 2003-04, a school spokesman said. Many students leave their base schools, traveling to the academies for courses. Next year, West Potomac Academy will add a pharmaceutical tech class.

Janet Bray, executive director of the Alexandria-based Association for Career and Technical Education, which lobbies for funding for technical education and offers teacher training, said 95 percent of high school students take at least one career or technical education class. Classes once considered places to warehouse students who struggled academically are now places to learn job skills or get a head start on job training.

"It used to be it was the problem kids or the dummies," Bray said. "These kids are going on to college. They are learning leadership skills. They learn how to solve problems."

Tonight's fashion show is about highlighting student skills and creativity. But the teachers wanted them to learn that perfect stitches or eye-catching posters weren't enough. Each component of the fashion show had to work with the others and measure up to the expectations of the client, in this case, the fashion design program and, in particular, teacher Tu-Anh Nguyen.

When the graphic design students were asked to create a poster for the event-- called "Some Like It Hot" -- they came up with a vibrant design with flames and flowery text. Too flashy, said Nguyen and her students, who wanted a simpler look.

"She made us redo it and redo it," said senior Sergei Dubograev, 17.

Eventually, the class produced a sleek design, featuring one of Barry's sketches, that satisfied everyone.

And Carlo Canlas, 17, an accomplished violinist, had the models in mind when he wrote a number titled "Rise Up" that will play during the show. He made sure the pulsing beat was strong but slow enough to walk to. "I tried to make it so my music will help get to the center of the emotions they are trying to convey: sexiness and energy," he said.

Nguyen tells her students that they have to be able to handle tough critiques if they enter the fashion world.

And if a student-made dress isn't up to her standards, she sends it back.

"She makes sure we understand this is a competitive business," said Kelsey Morrison, 17, as she hand-stitched pearl buttons on a red satin dress. "You can't just design a collection and have it be in New York Fashion Week. You have to have so much passion and be able to take so much criticism."

The fashion show will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Springbank Auditorium at West Potomac High School, 6500 Quander Rd., in the Alexandria section of Fairfax. Admission is $10 at the door.