Fashion for Food

Models wearing unique designs created by fashion students at Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES, Southern Westchester BOCES and Westchester Community College will strut the runway tonight to raise awareness about hunger in Westchester County.

The event, sponsored by the Food Bank of Westchester and the Westchester Business Journal, will be held at the Food Bank in Elmsford from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.. Fashion experts will judge the designs, all of which were made from food and food packaging.

Jessie Grossman, a junior from Lakeland High School, used brown paper bags and supermarket flyers to create a ball gown skirt and bustier. Mirian Lazo, a senior at Ossining High School, took her inspiration for her dress from her love of coffee. Lazo, who will attend Dutchess Community College in the fall, used coffee beans and coffee filters to create the dress.

Carly Lembo, a senior at Lakeland High School who will be attending the Fashion Institute of Technology in the fall for fashion design, created a skirt from collard greens and a top from Dasani water bottle labels. Lembo’s design also was used in flyers to advertise the event.

Laura Elizabeth Walther, a junior at Hendrick Hudson High School, made a gown from silver and white cupcake liners, and took her inspiration from the red velvet cupcakes her mother makes for her birthday.

Gabriela Zhagui, a senior at Ossining High School who plans to attend FIT for fashion merchandising and management, designed a cocktail dress, using rigatoni and bow tie pasta for her design. She was assisted in the design by Stephanie Bishara.

Judges included Rolando Santana, a fashion designer; Catherine Cioffi, associate director of public relations at Mercy College; Mary Jane Denzer, owner of Mary Jane; and Ravi S. Rajan, denan of the School of the Arts at Purchase College, State University of New York.

Fashion Design and Merchandising students at the PNW BOCES Tech Center in Yorktown gain hands-on experience throughout the year, and produce a fashion show each spring to showcase the work of seniors in the program. Numerous graduates of the program have gone on to study at prestigious fashion design programs and have entered the fashion industry.