Oak Mountain student selected for Birmingham Fashion Week

Hayley Anderson said she remembers enjoying fashion from a young age, when she would participate in fashion weeks hosted at The Summit, but cannot pinpoint the day she was first drawn to it.

“It’s just always been something I enjoyed,” she said. 

As a rising senior at Oak Mountain High School, Anderson said she chose to apply to be a Birmingham Fashion Week Rising Design Star after seeing another Oak Mountain student participate last year.

Although she said she didn’t know the student, she thought the experience sounded like a good way to try something new.

Birmingham Fashion Week is a yearly event that brings together local and national designers and boutiques. The weekend event also includes a Rising Design Star Challenge, which gives middle and high school students the chance to design garments and show them off on the runway.

Each year, these garments are made of nontraditional items and are put together through alternative methods such as glue, staples or tape rather than traditional sewing. This year’s theme is “Future of Fashion,” which Rising Design Stars are encouraged to factor into their designs.

For Anderson, the theme led her toward an idea that used items that will one day become obsolete. CDs, buttons from television remotes and tape from VHS cassettes all come together to make up her outfit. 

“I just picked things that I figure we won’t be needing in the future, so we would recycle them into our daily fashion,” she said.

Although she has not previously participated in other fashion competitions, Anderson said her art teacher and art classes at OMHS — where she will take Art III this school year — have helped prepare her.

“Before, I really was not good at drawing at all, and so learning how to draw has helped me be able to draw the designs, and it’s helped me use my creativity more and express it in a different way,” she said.

As a Rising Design Star semifinalist, Anderson will showcase her outfit on the runway Aug. 25 or 26 during Birmingham Fashion Week. Attendees will be able to cast their vote for “2016 People’s Choice Winner,” and top-scoring designs will move onto a fashion finale on Saturday. The top three garments will receive grand prizes.

Anderson said she is excited to get an inside look at Birmingham Fashion Week and to see other rising stars’ designs.

“I think it’s really cool,” she said. “I’ve never been able to do something like this before, so it’s really neat that something I’ve envisioned is coming to life and other people get to see it.”

Birmingham Fashion Week is at Boutwell Auditorium in downtown Birmingham from Aug. 25-27. For more information, go to bhamfashionweek.com.