Juliette Munyon is President of the FIDM Fashion Club at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Corona, California and hopes to one day work as a fashion merchandise buyer. We recently chatted with Juliette to learn more about her club and their upcoming sustainable fashion show.
Tell us your recent club activities: Our most recent activities have been based on teaching members how to sew. Hand sewing is the basis of fashion in my opinion. It’s where we started from and it’s a very important and useful skill, so I’m pushing very hard with our projects so they understand how. Our second meeting was practicing hand sewing on scrap pieces of fabric. I taught them how to do a running stitch, cross-stitch, and hemming. At the next meeting, we applied these same stitches by making scrunchies.
What are your personal goals for the year ahead? My personal goals for the club would be to have a fun and comfortable space for everyone. I think being comfortable no matter where you are is very important and I want the members to feel that way at our meetings. I want to make friends and have special connections with every member, so the club feels like one big family when you walk into the room.
How do you create engaging activities for your club? I get most of my ideas for club activities from projects I’ve done myself or ideas I’ve seen online. More than half of the projects we’ve done are ones I’ve done myself so I know that people just starting to sew can do them. When we do projects in the club I ensure that all the activities are in group settings so that the members can engage with one another to help each other out. Even if some members are quiet and shy, I bring them together in a positive way so that they feel welcome and supported.
Tell us about the fashion show you’re planning: I have always dreamed of having a fashion show at the school but it’s such a big challenge! You need so much fabric, money, and most importantly your members need to know how to design and sew. I plan to keep having them practice sewing by hand, move into the designing aspect by doing vision boards and sketching, then finally going to a local thrift store, buying items, and then making it into something completely new and wearable, to be put on display for a fashion show at school to show how sustainable fashion can be.
Do you have advice for future clubs? Plan ahead! Turn in all of your club documents before the beginning of the school year, meet up with your board members and make a list of all the projects you want to do for that year. Communication, planning, and organization is the key to success. Last year, I was also on the board and saw that the biggest issue was not getting to all the projects we had thought out at the beginning of the year. If you plan everything ahead of time, you will look professional and organized.
Keep up with the FIDM Fashion Club at Eleanor Roosevelt High School on Instagram @fashionERHS.
