In case you haven’t heard, we have a sweet Green Prom Challenge going on right now — and after we launched it we heard from students around the country rocking successful eco-fashion events!

Students in the environmental club at Evergreen Valley High School in San Jose, California, threw a wildly successful eco-fashion show on campus this spring with more than 300 attendees, amazing fashion creations from students, and even high-end clothes from boutiques around the area! Learn how they did it (and Do It Yourself!!!):

An interview with Kausar Mohammed and Tara Kostmayer, students at Evergreen Valley High School.

Q: Kausar, how did Evergreen’s Environmental Club start?
A: Our club was started 3 years ago when we where sophomores.  My friend Tara and I got the idea to do this after realizing the impacts of global warming. We got together with 3 other amazing officers who are still with us today. We are now a club with up to 30 members and play a large part on campus activities. We hold the annual Earth Week, Campus Wide Clean Ups, and represent our school to show our support for green change.

Q: How did you decide on an eco-fashion show?
A: There is so much going on in Green Fashion right now! So many people enjoy fashion shows and we wanted to incorporate a green feel into ours.

The eco fashion show was one of the funnest events our club has planned!  When we got the chance to collaborate with our Senior Class of 2010 for their annual fashion show, we took the opportunity to be co-producers.

Q: How did you decide on your theme The Aviary?
A: We thought it would be a fun theme that a nature feel could creatively be incorporated into.  We could work off of birds and birdcages as directions. It would allow for an abstract theme that is flexible and fun.

Q: How did you plan the fashion show? Who made clothes – and how!?
A: We recruited students on campus and also talked with local and area designers. We also got some clothes donated from the boutiques so we had a table where we sold these clothes for club profits.

The Aviary line itself consisted of both student designers who made outfits from sustainable materials as well as boutique designers.  We had such gorgeous and impressive outfits that students ended up making: a legitimate sweater hooded made from a garbage bag, a dress out of magazine papers, and a birdcage dress (to fit our theme) made from old brown bags.  They were so creative and it was amazing to see all that talent in our school.

We also got clothes from designers like Satori, Two Star Dog, Synergy, Jinkys, and Fair Tribe.  These were green fashion stores we had mostly met at the Green Festival in San Francisco and they were so supportive of our cause.  It was great to work with them because they liked what we were doing and in turn future relations were also formed.

Q: How did the fashion show turn out?
A: The fashion show was on May 1st, 2010 at our high school, Evergreen HS, and people from our school and community were invited.  There were about 300+ people. We had to keep adding more seats on the day of the show!  We chose to also include different types of artists within the show itself.  We had a live painting demonstration going on throughout the show and April Chase, a really popular local band, perform for us as well.

Q: What was the best part of the show, in your opinion?
A: The best part of the show was the great pieces the student designers created!  They were so well done and professional looking.  I didn’t even know we had that much talent at our school.

Q: Have you seen an ACE presentation? If so, what was your favorite part?
A: Yes, we arranged ACE presentations as a part of our earth week celebrations. My favorite part was how our speaker, AshEL connected with the students on high school level. People were able to listen because it was delivered so casually and entertainingly.

Q: What did you learn about climate change during the Assembly that you didn’t already know?
A: I did not realize the impact of other countries on global warming and basically the specific facts shared.  That was a huge help.

Anything else you want your readers to know about your project?
It is surely one of the projects our club is most proud of.  It felt good to not just have this eco-fashion segment in the school fashion show, but many people enjoyed it as well.

Thanks Kausar!! Learn about more eco projects you and your environmental club can take on by checking out ACE’s online toolkit full of club project ideas!