Skills-for-youth project turns to fashion business
[attach]1319[/attach]Like plenty of her 17-year-old peers Nafissa Pinas has dreams of becoming a fashion designer.
But this high schooler’s dreams were given a boost of reality (television) recently when she was given a mentoring session by Project Runway Canada winner Evan Bidell.
The talk was part of a class on Feb. 18 — week three of a seven-week program put together by PACT, an organization that provides at-risk youth and youth in conflict with the law with life skills training. This group, made of up six girls including Pinas, meets Thursday evenings and features an industry guest on odd weeks.
This is the inaugural project for the fashion division of PACT. Other skills-development programs deal with skills like cooking,
filmmaking, carpentry and forestry — and so far things seem to be running smoothly.
“I love it,” said Pinas.
As part of the program the Sir Sanford Flemming Academy student will have to design and construct prom dresses. The dresses will be awarded to other high school students who have won an essay contest on the theme of “Why I Deserve to Win a Prom Dress.”
Over the course of the program participants learn to sketch, design, sew and construct the dresses under the tutelage of designer Irene Stickney.
Stickney runs The Make Den, a vintage-inspired workshop located at 69 Vintage in the Bloor West area, where she hosts the classes.
The designer, who herself has had work featured in most of the city’s major publications as well as at Toronto Fashion Week, said she’s
proud to be a part of the program.
“I think it’s great. I’m excited to be part of something where fashion can give back to the community. I think it has a lot to give.”
In addition to inspiring the young girls toward careers in fashion, Stickney believes there are more basic things that can be taken away from the lessons.
“I think that sewing teaches a lot of life skills. You learn patience, you learn to see details, you learn to be proud of your work,” she said.
The schedule for week three of the program was jam-packed. In addition to studying the delicate arts of boning and fusing event dresses, the young designers met the winners of future prom dresses and listened attentively to Bidell.
“It was great, he’s a cool person,” said Pinas. “I was actually excited because me and my mom would watch Project Runway and he was one of my favourite ones.”
Bidell offered the students advice on how to succeed in a tough industry, including the suggestion to start a business early with a trusted partner, something Pinas said she is keen to do.
Meeting a celebrity of the Canadian fashion world surely provided plenty of inspiration to the girls, Stickley thinks meeting the eventual consumers of the young designers’ dresses had a serious effect.
“They were so excited after the girls (who will get the dresses) left, they just wanted to keep sewing all night,” she said. “It gave them a real sense of purpose.”
Like the other PACT programs, PACTFashion is set to run continuously into the foreseeable future.
As for Pinas, she has plans to attend Ryerson’s fashion design program in the fall.
But for now, she’s got a dress to make.