More Mesa College Golden Scissors Fashion Show

Here are just a few more images for our recent fashion show at Mesa

The Finale Catwalk at the end

Various garments and ensembles




Our amazing Fashion Promotion Students (who produced the show), taking their walk on the runway at the end of the show

Andrea Marx, Professor of Fashion, announcing the Award Winnders

President Cepeda and myself, handing out the awards

Mesa College Golden Scissors: Collections

Each year, our senior students develop, design and create a collection of garments to be shown at the Fashion Show. Below are two Collections. The first is created by Svetlana. Her structural work was phenomenal. She won the award for the best collection. See the top three images. The second collection was developed by Mariel, and her focus was on luxury beachwear (Mariel is originally from Cancun, Mexico). One of her bathing suits was drafted in Garment Designer! See the lower image

Mesa College Golden Scissors: Fantasy

Our Fantasy Category is one whereby students are not allowed to use regular fabric as the material for their garment. Rather, they are to push the edge and create something crazy out of non-fabric materials. Check out Noel’s dress, made using paint swatches. Although I don’t know for fact, which students created the next two, you will be amazed at the child’s dress made from yarn samples, (I believe this was designed by Crystal), and the dress made from Dryer Sheets. The students said the latter garment smelled great!

Mesa Golden Scissors: Retro Redo

Retro Re-Do is a category of clothing whereby our fashion students must recycle existing clothing or fabric items. Here you can see two examples. The first is a garment made by Patty, who took numerous, numerous of her husband’s black T-shirts and created a garment. Next you can see Irene’s restructuring of a mattress pad.

Mesa College Golden Scissors

Every Spring, our Fashion Program produces the Golden Scissors Fashion Show and Awards. This year, it was our 28th year. The show is entirely student-produced, and it is a major event which involves other disciplines such as Dance, Multi-media, Cosmetology, etc.







Here you can see a few shots of prepping for the show. You can see setting up the ballroom, makeup, setting up of the silent auction, and practice runway walks. You can also see a shot of the student exhibits, specifically the fashion dolls my Fashion History class makes, dressed in period styles.

I am pleased to say, that our San Diego local council-woman, Donna Frye proclaimed May 15th, as Mesa College Golden Scissors Day. This was a great way to commence the show. In addition, KUSI’s style guy Leonard Simpson opened the show with opening remarks on Fashion as it pertains to Mesa College and San Diego.

Now, may I introduce you to a few shots of the actual show. You can see our students’ creativity. It abounds. I am so proud of their skills. See some of the garments that came out on stage, and then, the finale walk at the end, Then you will see our Fashion Promotion class students (in black). They are responsible for producing the show. The task is large, but they always rise to the occasion, and they should be amazingly proud of what they achieve.

After the fashion show itself, awards are given. Earlier in the week, the clothing is judged by our advisory board, and ribbons are given in various categories. Below you can see our President, Dr. Rita Cepeda (in the white jacket) presenting the Golden Scissors to students. I am there with her, assisting. Andrea Marx, my peer and co-producer of the show is reading the winners of the various awards.


In the next entry, I will share with you a few of the special categories we have in the show. This includes Retro Re-Do (recycled clothing), Fantasy (non-fabric clothing), and the Collections.

A Couture Wedding Gown

The big news in my family is that my son Blake is getting married this July. We have been busy planning for the wedding, and I have enjoyed being involved with his fiancé’s family. I am so pleased to contribute where I have skills. This involves announcements, invitations, and, some sewing.

I did not want to tackle the wedding gown (I gave up making wedding gowns many years ago), but I did know someone who would be perfect for the honor. One of my past students at Mesa College, Elena Ham, had started a couture wedding gown business. Elena is Russian, and came to the U.S. some years ago. She began taking courses at the college to refresh the skills and talents she already possessed. She now owns and runs Va Lena Valentina Couture. (www.valenavalentina.com)

The process of designing the gown started last fall. I will take your through some of it here.

First of all, meet Elena and Kendra (my future daughter-in-law).





Kendra, her mom Keena, and I met with Elena to begin the process. Kendra and Keena had looked at many commercial wedding gowns, so they had some idea of what they were hoping to create. They sat with Elena, amidst wedding magazines and many pictures of gowns, and discussed the features they were looking for. Then, Elena began to sketch. Together they came up with the image of the gown they believed would work. It was so fun to be an observer to the creative process. We looked at many fabrics, (all silk), and Kendra chose a silk dupionni, which is utterly gorgeous. I have a particular fondness for dupionni, as it is a fabric, created initially by two silk worms who spin their cocoons together. I like to call it ‘love silk’ in my textiles class.


Next came the measuring. Elena took body measurements of Kendra, and recorded these for her use. She told us that there would be several fittings, some in muslin, and some in the final silk.




I will keep you updated on the process of the gown’s development. I don’t have all the photos we’ve taken with me (as I am working abroad at the moment), but I do have some that I can share. It is utterly beautiful. More in an upcoming blog.

Back in Action

It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged. The last few months of our Spring Semester at Mesa College are consumed with the production of our year-end fashion show. This occurred on May 15th, and is immediately followed by final exam week, massive grading, and whoosh… it is over. I become a free woman, ready to re-focus on Cochenille development.

So, I’m back in blog action. The summer is here, and I’m already in retreat, working on new products or updating past software. I am doing this currently in Verona, Italy. My many United miles of past, allow me to continue to travel “free” to parts of the world. Combining that with a wonderful relationship with an Italian family that has taken me into their realm, I am able to afford luxuries such as staying abroad, working on projects, and living the life as a local (sort of). My Italian is rusty and basic, but I continue to study.

So, prepare to be caught up via this blog, on various fashion and design things of past, and to be introduced to what I am seeing and learning fashion-wise here in Italy currently!