BreeLayne Ring and Jennifer MacDonell (l to r)

High School Students Take Over Nordstrom
Store for ALS Benefit Fashion Fest

By James Klein, Editor

The Nordstrom store at the Westfield Topanga mall in Canoga Park opened its doors May 17, 2009 to the Oak Park High School Fashion Club for its “Fashion Fest,” a store-wide event that raised almost $13,000 for The ALS Association Greater Los Angeles Chapter.

The Fashion Club’s President and Founder, BreeLayne Ring, a junior at Oak Park High School, started the student-run group three years ago and organizes an event each year with the club’s 30 or so other members to raise money for charity. This year, it was called the Fashion Fest, and attracted more than 200 people, including students from other high schools, who arrived an hour before the store officially opened to support the club’s efforts.

The Fashion Fest featured a host of activities in the Nordstrom store, including style shows, raffles, hairstyling and makeup displays, a breakfast and other refreshments, store discounts and promotions, and two DJs playing music on separate floors. VIP ticket holders also received wine and other special treats, gift certificates, and a private class with renowned makeup artist Jeffery Bara.

It was unique in that it took place throughout the entire store,” explained Raina Ring, BreeLayne’s mother. “On each floor there was something special related to the fashion event. On one floor they had coffee and cake. On another floor they had drinks. And then in each department there was something going on, either a giveaway or a two-for-one discount, or you could enter to win a free item. If you went to the sunglasses department, for example, you could enter to win a free pair of designer sunglasses.”

The accessory department featured a local hair dresser who volunteered to give the event’s attendees free hairstyles, which Raina Ring said, “Nordstrom loved because then they would use their accessories…so Nordstrom sold accessories, and people got to have their hair done.”

The Chapter’s Special Events Assistant, Aimee St. Pierre, and Director of Special Events Giovanna D’Angelo (l to r)

“People were in the store before it opened, so they had an entire hour of shopping to themselves and to take advantage of these promotions while all this great music was playing and the girls from the Oak Park Fashion Club were modeling adorable outfits throughout the store from the different departments…It’s a good joint venture. We brought a lot of people into Nordstrom for a Sunday morning.”

The Oak Park High School Fashion Club chooses a different charity each year to benefit from its fashion event. This year, its members voted unanimously to name The ALS Association Greater Los Angeles Chapter the event’s beneficiary after they were visited by Giovanna D’Angelo, the Chapter’s Director of Special Events. D’Angelo was invited to speak to the Fashion Club because two of its member had immediate contact with ALS patients among their families or friends, and they wanted the other girls to know more about the disease.

Last year, the club’s fashion event raised money for the National Breast Cancer Research Foundation. “It was highly successful and raised over $8,000,” said Raina Ring. “Nordstrom thought it was so professionally produced, and the kids were so involved and mature, that it was like an adult event. So Nordstrom said, ‘If you’d like to do it again we’d be interested’…Last year, the girls provided their own goody bags, but this year Nordstrom provided the VIP goody bags.”

Even so, the event’s success was not guaranteed. “Considering the state of the economy, we were a little worried about how it would go this year,” confided Raina Ring. “They had to do it on a Sunday morning, which presented a problem because no teenager wants to get up on a Sunday morning, and there were 10 other events going on in the city, not to mention the Lakers game.”

As it turned out, the group had little to worry about. The money is still being counted, but the total may hit $13,000 for the Chapter, which is remarkable for a student-led fundraising effort. Nordstrom has already invited the Oak Park High School Fashion Club to hold next year’s event at its store.

BreeLayne Ring learned about charitable giving first-hand from her mother Raina, who is involved in a number of philanthropic efforts, including one she organized with her company, Calabasas TravelStore. “It’s called Sail with the Stars. We would take people from around the world, famous child celebrities, and we would have them on a ship interacting with the public for a week, and each cruise benefitted a different children’s charity. BreeLayne grew up on those ships and she watched what a difference it made in the lives of those families and the children who were suffering.”

As well as the annual fashion event, the Fashion Club also supports a number of other charitable projects, including Soldiers’ Angels, a nonprofit organization that supports military personnel, and the Fairy Godmother Program, which collects slightly used prom dresses for underprivileged students.

The Oak Park High School Fashion Club provides serious creative and educational activities for students interested in design and fashion. Special guest speakers from well-known clothing stores have addressed the club on issues related to the fashion industry. The group also goes on field trips to places like the Fashion Institute for Design and Merchandizing (FIDM) and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, where they attended an exhibit of the gowns worn by First Ladies of the United States.

Club members also conduct “trend spotting” sessions at different locations to see what people are wearing, and will then recreate the designs they’ve seen for their own lines of clothing, accessories, and shoes, which they present to the group for review. For a contest they held among themselves, they submitted bathing suit designs to a well-known manufacturer, who chose the winner. They also held a contest to design the front of the brochure for this year’s Fashion Fest, an event that proved successful by any measure.