Oakland art students showcase skills at annual fashion show

OAKLAND, Calif. - The bright lights of the New York, Paris and L.A. fashion scenes are always looking for fresh new talent. So, where better to find it than right here in Oakland, at a professionally produced event put on by high school students?

The Oakland School for the Arts held its much-anticipated annual fashion show, a year in the making. It's such a show that not only do friends and family gather, but so do fashionistas and fashion pros, all packing into the legendary Sweets Ballroom on Broadway.  

"The professionalism and the drive and, yeah, just the experience they're getting is just incredible, but they’re also getting real-life skills," said Fashion Department Chairperson Stephanie Verrieres.

This is where fashion industry skills, from designers to dressers, from models to make-up artists, trainers to technicians, intersect with the hopes and dreams they all have.

It is a multicolored tapestry of energy and talent. 

"Teamwork is the most important thing. We're partnering with Fashion Design, and you need to have good communication skills and how to work with each other," said show production leader Cole Chan.

Working with each other is exactly what they do. 

"All of the arts work together to make one production. So, it's very close-knit, and we have so many memories. Everybody helps to make each other do their best," said make-up artist and stylist Zanche Jones Grachis. 

"I can truly be in the scene of movie making or fashion design and have a good sense of it. And, we appreciate the school for giving us an opportunity," said model and actress Amya Wiggins.

It is altogether a remarkable charter school in the heart of Oakland. 

"I think it's really gonna help me, just being in an art school, seeing all the arts and how they all work together. That also helps me appreciate, like you were saying, the team effort before," said fashion designer Ellla Martial. 

"This is my first time doing anything like this. But it's just like wonderful how everything comes together so nicely, and it fits together perfectly," said model Yaretz Garcia-Valenzula.

An actor, from the stage and screen school, came to help however he could. 

"And it's like that with a lot of other productions, like doing theater or being on set for a film, there are so many other pieces that go into making it," said DaMarcus Gray.

This is a bright light on the future. 

"Most of these designers are going off to design school. Parsons, F.I.T., UCLA, Otis," said Verrieres.

In one sense, a runway is the perfect analogy for a school of the arts. Because this is the place from which you take off and soar.