A band begins to play an instrumental of The Raconteurs’s “Steady As She Goes,” a large crowd applauds, and an MC is heard announcing the start of the show. Girls walk down the runway in student made designs that vary from bright blue and pink feathers to dark Victorian inspired accessories to white aluminum flowers.

This year, Shawnee Mission South students Tierra Meysenburg, Michelle Chan and Lauren Brannan participated in Shawnee Mission East’s Annual Fashion Show, a district wide fashion show open to middle school students and high school students to showcase their fashion designs encompassing a theme. As models walked down the runway, there were three judges present scoring each design. In the end, there was a total of $300 in cash prizes awarded to a variety of categories including Best Accessory, Best Styling, Best Altered Design, Best Original Design, Best 2D Artwork and Best 3D Artwork.

The event was put together by Shawnee Mission East’s National Art Honors Society, with AP Studio Art and Photo teacher, Adam Finkelston, as their sponsor.

“This will be the fifth year that we have it in a gallery downtown,” Finkelston said.

It was held at the Studio B Gallery on First Friday, where on the first Friday of each month, the Crossroads Community’s art galleries, studios, and restaurants showcase local and national artists. The event allowed students to display their work to the art community with practicing artists and it also allowed the community to see what schools were doing with their art programs. “It gives students an experience at preparing and really going through the motions of what it takes to get your work together and out in public,” art teacher Jennifer Hudson said.

Each year, there is an abstract theme chosen by Finkelston. This year’s theme was resonance, meaning the ability to evoke or suggest images, memories, and emotions.

“There’s lots of ways that that word is used in context,” Finkelston said.

Meysenburg and Chan worked as a team to design an outfit for Brannan to model. Their design incorporated many influences from the Victorian era.

“We decided to go for Victorian modernism,” Chan said. In the end, their design resembled a combination of Victorian modernism mixed with elements found in Alice in Wonderland. While their fashion design was inspired by the Victorian era, other designs were inspired by things such as recycling and music.

Juniors Maddie Fowler and Emily Jackson contributed pieces of their artwork to the show. They agreed that music influenced their artwork the most. Jackson made an effort to incorporate music into her piece, claiming that music was a big part of her life. Fowler on the other hand had played violin in the past, and incorporated a violin into her piece.

“I pulled the strings off the violin in my picture because it’s like everlasting,” Fowler said. “Those strings go on forever.”

Although the group only met a few times before the actual show, Finkelston said that by the time it was time to walk the runway, there was a sense of family between the contestants and the models. That close and friendly environment presented itself once it came to show time, and was easily felt among the audience.

“It’s all about building community,” Finkelston said. “And that really, I think, is what happens with these shows.”