Baldwin High students debut sustainable fashion show benefiting Bethany House

Students at Baldwin High School recently showcased their original clothing designs, transforming the district’s first student-produced fashion show into a schoolwide collaboration that blended creativity, sustainability and community service.

The event, organized through the school’s Fashion Marketing and Design pathway in the Global Business and Entrepreneurship Academy, featured original student designs, upcycled clothing and handcrafted jewelry.

The fashion show, held at Baldwin High School on June 1, also served as a fundraiser, with half of all ticket proceeds benefitting Bethany House of Nassau County, a nonprofit that serves women and children experiencing homelessness.

Rather than presenting a traditional runway show, students built the event around the growing role of sustainability in the fashion industry. Working with Glorybeezzz Thrift With Atwist, a thrift store located on Merrick Road in Baldwin, they transformed donated clothing into new designs while pairing the looks with custom jewelry created by students in Baldwin High School@Shubert’s Future Jewelers Academy.

“They were really looking for an authentic way to showcase their design, but in addition to that, they really wanted to be able to give back to the community,” Gabriella Franza, assistant director of instructional programs, said. “We made a real focus on looking at both fashion design and sustainability.”

The production brought together students from the eighth through the 12th grades across multiple academic pathways. Fashion students designed garments, jewelry students created accessories, Baldwin’s Fine and Performing Arts Academy developed the marketing campaign, the Sound Studio program produced the music, and technology students built the runway and staging.

“It was basically its own little mini corporation,” Franza said. “From stage to design, to music to marketing, it was completely built by students.”

The months-long effort required students to work across disciplines while relying on one another to complete different parts of the production. Franza said the experience mirrored how creative industries operate in the professional world.

“I think they learned that in order to make something successful, there are a lot of subsectors that work together,” she said. “At the beginning, many students thought about their work in isolation. Then, they saw how every piece comes together to make the event successful.”

One of the project’s defining moments came when students from the fashion, jewelry and arts programs gathered for a collaborative planning session. Fashion designers pitched their Mediterranean-inspired concepts to jewelry students, who selected projects that matched their artistic styles, while marketing students helped each team develop promotional strategies.

“It was really a true think tank,” Franza said. “They came up with an executive plan on how to move the project forward.”

For junior Mia Wint, who addressed the audience during the show, the finished product represented months of work that many spectators never saw.

“Fashion shows are kind of like icebergs,” Wint told the audience. “You all see the lights, the music, the outfits, the confidence on the runway, but underneath all of that are thousands of Canvas messages, countless Google Sheets, emergency safety pins, people sprinting backstage for missing shoes, and at least three mini existential crises per person.”

Wint said the event celebrated not only fashion but also sustainability, with several garments being thrifted, redesigned and given a second life.

“Fashion doesn’t always have to mean buying something brand new,” she said. “Sometimes the most meaningful looks already exist — they just need someone creative enough to give them another life.”

The show’s charitable mission also left a lasting impression on participants. In addition to donating proceeds, students collected clothing to support Bethany House.

“We are incredibly grateful to the students of Baldwin High School for choosing Bethany House as the beneficiary of their fashion show,” Katie Swanson, the organization’s executive director, said. “Their compassion and generosity reflect an understanding that not everyone starts life with the same opportunities, and that we all have a role to play in helping level the playing field.”

Franza said connecting classroom learning with real-world experiences reflects Baldwin’s broader educational philosophy.

“Baldwin is built on ensuring that students learn from the real world,” she said. “This was another prime example where students connected what they learned in the classroom to what actually happens in the fashion industry, while making an impact in the community.”

The enthusiasm surrounding the inaugural event has already sparked conversations about its future. Franza said students began asking about next year’s theme almost immediately after the show ended.

“Literally, the day after, students were coming up to us asking, ‘What’s the theme going to be for next year?'” she said. “They already had all these ideas. That tells me this is something that’s going to continue.”