Fashion Design and Illustration is an art class where students work on designing and making clothing. In the class, students learn how to make bags, shirts, pants, and dresses using a sewing machine. Other projects include making dresses that are inspired by Met Gala looks, and upcycling by making clothes out of found objects like water bottles, garbage bags, and shoe laces. At the end of the year, students present their looks at the library. Fashion Design and Illustration is a great class for people who love fashion and who like to bring some new ideas to the table.

Ms. Rottkamp is the Fashion Design and Illustration teacher. She expanded the class from Introduction to Fashion Design and Illustration to Advanced Fashion Design and Illustration 1 and 2. In Advanced Fashion, students learn how to sew, make clothing, and work on dress forms. Students study different designers, they get to look at fashion in real life, how it’s used, and jobs in the fashion industry. Ms. Rottkamp’s favorite projects are when students make clothing and work on the dress forms, especially the found object project. She says, “We have gotten the best feedback from those projects because the kids are so creative with it. They end up being really beautiful pieces.”

Fashion student, Sebastian Moyano Gonzalez, says, “This class is very unique for me because it gave me a platform to be creative and gave me space to experiment with different things. This class has an environment that’s unbeatable, especially because Ms. Rottkamp is such an awesome teacher. More than anything, she’s the one who really pushed me to expand my horizons and be creative.”

When asked what fashion means, Sebastian said, “There’s a difference between fashion and just wearing something. Fashion is an art form, but it’s practical and wearable. It’s liveable, something that other people can see.”

If you’re interested in fashion and consider yourself a creative thinker, take this class! It can bring out new skills that you didn't even know you had, and teach you new things about yourself. Ms. Rottkamp says that Fashion Design and Illustration is an “opportunity for students to be creative and think outside the box, [there’s] a lot of problem solving in the course. When something doesn’t work out how they think it’s going to work out and where they go from there.” This class is a really good experience, you can make anything you put your mind to.

Fashion Design and Illustration at Harborfields High School