As of fall 2020, students will be able to choose Advanced Fashion Design as a creative arts elective credit. With the help of Family and Career Sciences teacher Lauren Gjini, the class was approved at the start of first semester, two years after its envisionment. Before its approval, there were questions about whether enough students would sign up to take the class.

The first level, Fashion and Interior Design, was not available to students at SC, Gjini said. The class had to be made available to students at SC first to ensure that there would be enough students eligible and interested to take the second level.

“Last year there were four classes of fashion and interior design at SC as a result; eight sections in total,” Gjini said. “That showed there was enough students interested [in fashion] to run [a second level].”

The class is part of a desire to better prepare students for careers in fashion and make them more aware of the options they have in the fashion industry.

“I aim to increase the students’ competence level of their technical skills,” Gjini said. “That’s their drawing and illustration techniques, construction and body analytics. We hope that adding a second level gets students more passionate about the art of fashion and interior design; and that it acts as a launching pad for a student to say ‘yes I want to do this as a career.’”

The class also has another purpose besides career readiness.

“This class was designed because we are trying to serve all the students at this school,” Global Studies Division Chair Paul Houston said. “The Family and Career Sciences division has been consistently responsive to student need and interest. Whether students are headed to a four or two year university or straight into the work force, they are prepared.”

The class will continue to build on concepts that students have learned in the first level of the class. However, the second level will not include units on interior design.

“[The division] chose to be more focused,” Houston said. “[If fashion and interior design were both included] the class still wouldn’t have kids ready for the workforce.”

While there is arguably a good reason for the exclusion of information on interior design, some students have expressed some dismay.

“I’m sad that interior design won’t be in the program, but we only had a small two units in the beginner class so I’m not surprised [interior design] is not in it,” Fashion and Interior Design student Kayleigh Caruso ‘21 said.

However, Caruso still maintains that Fashion and Interior design was one of her favorite classes. “For anyone wanting to pursue a career in fashion or anything that involves clothes I definitely recommend they take it,” she said.