story by Elsa Feigenbaum, photos by Hannah Bredar

Mad for Plaid is a “Project Runway”-styled competition that acts as a fundraiser for the Fine Arts Boosters, or FAB. Teams of students create outfits incorporating the STA tartan plaid skirt for a chance at $500.

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Models from the 15 teams walked the fashion show towards a panel of judges consisting of a designer, a teacher, a vocalist and a Fashion Forum Kansas City Co-Founder. Though these were the deciding votes for first and second place, there was also a People’s Choice award. The audience voted by donating money to their favorite outfit.

First thing  students had to come up with a design. One team, The (Plaid)sticks, took a preppy approach, creating a pair of pleated plaid shorts and a vegan leather top.

“[For] our top, we [all thought,] ‘Let’s do something fun,” sophomore team member Katie Donnellan said. “We thought the leather would make it kind of edgy.”

The Lil Tartans team, consisting of Emma Fernandez and Violet Cowdin, made a grey crop top and pencil skirt with plaid piping, along with a tailored plaid jacket.

“It’s kind of a business look,” Fernandez said. “It’s very high fashion and sleek.”

To create these looks, teams dedicated hours of sewing and fitting to reach their final products.

“It takes so long,” Cowdin said. “You think little things will take a really short time but everything takes so long. Fitting it to your model and stuff is pretty hard too.”

In addition to the outfit, teams also had to create videos and commentaries. The videos played before their model walked to introduce the team, and commentaries explained the outfit as they strut the runway.

“I thought it was a good experience overall,”  Donnellan said. “I had never really made my clothes from scratch. It was pretty cool.”