Walking into Fashion Club, students picked up cupcakes before settling down in their seats, red velvet and chocolate crumbs falling on the table during the excitement. Colorful fabrics–teal, purple, black and white–lay draped on mannequins as people stepped up to sewing machines. 

As the meeting progressed, Room 4161 was filled with the comforting smell of baked goods and the whir of sewing machines, a dull hum under the animated chattering of students talking about their newest creations. 

The Oak Park and River Forest High School Fashion Club was started by OPRF Junior Ahmyas Blanchard during his search for a place to develop his skill and fashion portfolio. 

Blanchard started the club to provide a space for all those interested in fashion: the creators, the designers or those who simply enjoy clothes. “I love fashion,” Blanchard said, adding that he hopes to pursue fashion as a career. 

The sponsor is Clothing and Construction teacher Elissa Raymond, who decided to sponsor the club because of her immense love for fashion. Raymond has a degree in fashion and photography, and owns a clothing line. She has “lived and breathed fashion for 30 years” and is currently a working wardrobe stylist when not teaching.  

She described the club as a place where students can feel “welcome, appreciated and valued. They can learn a variety of sewing techniques with my help and can bond and collaborate with other students interested in fashion.” 

Meeting Wednesdays at 3:30, the Fashion Club is a hub of creativity. Members and visitors explore their version of fashion with little limit; they are given free rein to create. 

Those creations will be on view April 30 when the Fashion Club puts on its annual fashion show.  The show will occur during periods 4 through 5 in the main lobby area. Models will show the clothes designers have spent months creating. 

Students said they have enjoyed the creative freedom. Eleanor Porterfield, a junior at OPRF, described her experience with fashion as “open and like, almost like anyone can include their ideas into something and create something beautiful out of it.” 

Porterfield joined the fashion club as soon as it was created. Inspired by the legendary Parisian designer Elsa Schiaparelli, known for surrealist, eccentric designs, Porterfield is drawn to Schaiparelli’s embrace of femininity and the way that she “makes clothes to fit feminine bodies in a way that isn’t objectifying or uncomfortable.” Porterfield seeks to explore fashion on her own terms, utilizing her admiration of Schiaparelli in order to acknowledge the way clothing fits on different people, herself included. 

Junior Kemen Carbajosa’s interest in fashion is fueled by his appreciation for clothes and brands. He “likes appreciating the effort and passion people are putting into this stuff,” he said. 

The Fashion Club promotes future careers in fashion as it grants students opportunities to expand their portfolios. Blanchard explained that his inspiration for starting the club was based on the difficulty of pursuing fashion past high school, describing it as  “very very hard work and a very very hard career to pursue.” 

But some students are already beginning successful careers. Matthew Bell, a junior, is the founder and designer behind the fashion brand 14th Pharaoh. His designs were featured during Chicago Fashion Week in October and on CBS News. 

Bell said he would like to expand his already successful fashion business into his “own brick and mortar store” and then go to Paris Fashion Week. Bell’s ambitions are only fueled by the Fashion Club, which grants him the ability to work on his designs and creations. 

Bell described fashion as a way to “express myself and for me to explore different areas of who I am and express that.” 

While some students in the club are serious about fashion as a career, one does not need to have an interest in fashion beyond high school to visit the club or even to join it. As Blanchard said, “Some people do their homework, people will make things like a bag, sweatpants, whatever … eating cupcakes, working on mannequins.”  There are many possibilities and opportunities for anyone interested in joining.