Costume design program at CMS school gives students real-life production opportunities

CHARLOTTE — It’s not ‘Home Economics’ anymore — at Northwest School of the Arts, it’s a gateway to a career in fashion.

The Apparel and Costume Design program teaches students the fundamentals of sewing and design. Students also get to design costumes for the plays and musicals the school hosts.

Students have to audition for the program. Jean Brendel, a teacher in the program, explained how involved students are with the rest of the arts.

“Right now they’re working on costumes in a stylized play manner for NCTC,” she said. “Then we’re going to be doing some masks and animal costumes for Suessical Jr. which is a middle school play that will be here in November. In between that, they are learning different aspects of the theater world and costumes.

At the end of the school year, students put on a fashion show where they feature two costumes per student.

“It’s exciting for them to see what they have in their head based on what the producer or director wants and seeing that come to life and going on stage and seeing their work actually being used in a real-life production,” Brendel said. “It’s like ‘Oh my god I did this.’”

Edwin Lopez is taking the class for the third year. Although he’s passionate about the design and fashion of it all, he also knows the class teaches life skills.

“Having a program like this, especially at our school, has really helped me because I could not imagine myself going to another school because there’s no other way I could have learned how to sew and design,” Edwin explained. “This just makes it really accessible to everyone, even if you don’t want to pursue this, knowing how to sew is really valuable.”

NWSA is well-known for the arts, and the program focuses on getting students ready to work in amateur and professional theater productions.

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