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The holidays are here and with them, high school winter balls. Glitz, glam
Deborah Gibson directs the show
highlight formal attire
Board members soughtBy Stephanie Kendrick
Star-BulletinFormalwear for teens has come a long way since the days of ruffled bridesmaid dresses and stiff polyester tuxedos. The Windward Mall Teen Board presents a fashion show Saturday designed to demonstrate just how much those choices have evolved.
More than 20 teens, including four male models and six ROTC escorts, will show off party clothes from the Body Shop, Gary's Tuxedos, Wildflowers, Sears' junior department, Ethels and Jeans Warehouse.
"The focus this year is all on glitz and glam," said Deborah Gibson, director of the teen board. "Girls want to sparkle, they want to look pretty."The softer side of the season appeals to Denise Woolsey, a junior at Kalaheo who will model in Saturday's show.
She's excited about the angora sweaters and other "furry" accessories on display at local stores.
Spaghetti straps and fitted contours also are big this year, according to Gibson. But there are attractive fashions for teens who don't want their bodies to be on display, she said. "Not everything is going to be skin tight."
The ROTC escorts will sport dress-white uniforms. Options for other young men include silkier, more colorful fabrics than in year's past, with more of an emphasis on texture, according to Gibson.
"It's something they call lounge-wear now," she said, which is less formal, but still dressy.
"A lot of the (winter balls) are more on the casual side," she said, so there will be a variety of styles shown.
"There are a few high-end (outfits), but most of it is very affordable," said Gibson.
Fashion show
What: Winter Ball Fashion Show
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Deborah Gibson's mother likes to tell people that when her daughter was 3 years old and was turned loose to play with other toddlers she would come back pressed and clean when the rest were covered in dirt. Running the teen board
By Stephanie Kendrick
Star-Bulletin"I'd say I liked clothes and fashion from day one," said Gibson, a free-lance fashion coordinator and teen mentor. "I was always kind of a girly girl that way."
By the time she was 12, Gibson said, peers were coming to her for fashion advice.
In 1971, "at a very young age," Gibson was crowned Miss Hawaii USA, then lured away from college by a modeling career before settling back in Hawaii in 1980. Shortly after moving home, she made a shift from model to fashion show organizer.
Her clients include Windward Mall, and the Hawaii Kai and Royal Hawaiian shopping centers. She also works with individual clothing lines and community groups.
One of her main commitments is to the Windward Mall Teen Board, where she is director. She helped form the board six years ago, and in the process, has become something of an expert on teen trends, a distinction she credits to the youths she works with.
"It's just listening to them," said Gibson. "When we first started it, I really had no idea."
She gets help from her daughter Rachel, a junior at Iolani High School. "I'm learning from her and vice versa," said Gibson.
The board provides 30 teens a year with the opportunity to do community service while learning about appearance, posture, wardrobe, public speaking and other social skills. The group stages several fashion shows each year in conjunction with mall merchants. Scholarships totaling $3,000 are awarded annually to teen board members; about 90 percent of whom go on to college, said Gibson.
An equal mix of public and private school teens are chosen for the board, and she works to get a mix of body types represented. "We're not looking for 30 Barbie dolls. We want real kids," she said.
At least one of those kids, Lashauna Perreira, is on her way to a modeling career. Perreira was on the board for two years, a rare occurrence.
Perreira just finished modeling for the French Festival, and Gibson hires her whenever she can for her professional shows.
"She hasn't left Hawaii yet, but she's just barely turned 18," said Gibson, who expects her to have a strong career if she sticks with it.
But while modeling skills have value, said Gibson, the career is not for everyone. "I warn them. If you don't have the right personality for it, don't even go there," she said. In her own career, she had to deal with a lot of rejection, usually based on just not being right for the part being filled.
"That's always hard for a young person," she said. "You have to really examine what you're doing it for, why do you want to get into modeling?" said Gibson. "Ideally it leads you into other avenues," such as retail, fashion design, art, makeup or production.
The danger is becoming obsessed by appearance.
"Forgetting all the other meaningful things in life and basing who you are on what you look like" is a hazard, said Gibson.
Denise Woolsey, a junior at Kalaheo High and teen board member, enjoys the fashion shows.
"I always wanted to model," said Woolsey, who admits to being fashion-obsessed. "I go to the mall all the time," she said.
While Woolsey pays attention to trends, she cautions against following them blindly. "People should wear what looks good on them," she said.
Standing out is important to her as well. She recently spent an entire evening adding silk flowers and beads to a shawl so her royal blue ball dress would be distinctive. "I don't want anybody having the same dress as me," she said.
Woolsey is involved in the ROTC program at school and doesn't see that as inconsistent with her work on the board. Both teach comportment and responsibility, she said. And both allow her to serve the community.
She enjoys the time the board spends doing arts and crafts with kids at the mall. "The little kids they really dig it; it gives them somebody to look up to," she said.
That aspect of board activities has a lot more appeal for Lopaka Purdy than the fashion shows. The Kalaheo student body president moved back to Hawaii in August last year after spending most of his life in Nevada.
"I was really involved in community service there. I figured this would be a way to get out in the community," Purdy said.
It's also taught him the importance of sticking to commitments.
"There's been a couple times when I've sort of slacked on responsibility," he said. He's failed to show up at events without calling. He knew it was wrong, said Purdy, but Gibson's disappointment was a wake-up call.
Gibson admits to being a stickler for commitment. "What frustrates me most is not standing by your word," said Gibson.
She sees family support as the determining factor, irrespective of economics or anything else, in whether teens will succeed or fail.
"Teens will model what they see, not just what you say to them," she said.
Overall, she is impressed with the young people. "Some of these kids, they're so clear about where they want to go and what they want to do. I wasn't as focused as my daughter is. I'm just amazed at the things she does."
Windward Mall Teen Board
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