Project Overview

As part of their Clothes topic, Kindergarten students at St. Paul's School organized a fashion show to be their end of year presentation to the school community. Outfits were completely done by the pupils from beginning to end. They had full autonomy and decision-making power regarding cut, the color combinations, the fabrics, the details, the accessories and the styling of their outfits.

The theme of the show was the four seasons. Each Kindergarten class was assigned a season and asked to create a fashion collection related to it. Pupils were given lessons by a fine artist, a fashion stylist, and a fashion designer to learn about color theory, color analysis, metaphorical representations in fashion, and pattern-making and styling. They used this knowledge to create a collective class mood board to serve as inspiration for their individual outfits for the collection as well as to decide on an element that would run across the entire collection of the class (in the case of the class representing Autumn, concentric circles loosely stitched to represent the leaves falling from the trees).

During math, pupils learned how to make a paper pattern for their outfit and how to adapt it to their own size using regular rulers and a pattern-master. They were also taught how to do a variety of basic hand stitches and how to use a sewing machine. In science, pupils explored properties of materials and what different fabrics would be best suited for.

After making a first draft of their outfits pupils had a peer critique, after which they could choose whether to take the given suggestions on board. After this, they cut the fabric and sewed it using their preferred method. Some pupils also chose to make accessories.

The fashion show was presented to an audience of nearly 200 people.