F.A.B.S, a new club at Capital High School, is here and is ready to talk fashion. Co-creators, Nola Mcgrath, Lucy Lien, and Molly Merchant are here and are looking for members. “We’re so excited to share our love of fashion with the school!” they say. Let’s unpack. 

Throughout history, one of the many things that bring people together is fashion, “When shamelessly dressing the way you want with others, there is a sense of shared freedom and expression. Fashion introduces people to one another by acknowledging their tastes. It is a form of communication that can lead to friendships and consistently be a source of bonding.” Says Creators Network. 

Fashion is more than what meets the eye. Fashion is a form of self-expression: “helps define the identity of humans.” The cuts, seems, sweat, tears, and fabrics from the past are what make up clothes, into what you’re wearing today. Clothes celebrate, bring luck, show honor. They even show personal traits or interests. Emo, streetwear, Harajuku, y2k, weird core, coquette; all the styles, for the most part, are entirely different, but share one thing in common; self-expression through fashion. At the end of the day, the statement remains that fashion has a wide variety of styles. That’s what makes it so unique and important. It’s what unites people. 

Talking with the F.A.B.S., I came to a couple of realizations. For one, the acronym is way too similar to fabulous which is way too immaculate to not point out. Secondly, calling the club ‘the F.A.B.S’ is, for lack of better words, a mega-power move on the club’s end. Imagine talking negatively about a club, but then having to refer to the people in the club as an acronym that, on the face of it, refers to fabulous. 

But the name has more meaning to it, rather than just the iconic sound that rolls off your tongue and forms into the coherent words of the Sharpay Evans/HighSchool Musical song. 

[“F.A.B.S equals fashion, art, business, and sustainability. These are all key factors to the fashion business.”] One of the three initiators of the club, Molly Merchant, speaks up, Merchant isn’t wrong.    

Mcgrath explains some more about what those four words making up the acronym have to do with CHS’s fashion club. 

“Fashion is used generally. In loose terms, fashion applies to what the club is at its surface. Art is fashion. In the club, we plan to sketch and design clothes, getting into a more artistic aspect in the art! As for business, we want to explore marketing, promoting fashion, and learning about what it would be like to enter the workplace [fashion industry.] Sustainability is important in fashion because it has become a large part of environmental problems: between fast fashion and over-consumption, excess clothes are filling up landfills and emitting an abundant amount of carbon emissions. Additionally, the exploitation and abuse of the workers result from the fast fashion business. We want to spread the message of how to do fashion sustainably, without supporting child labor and participating in the destruction of Earth.”  

Ambitions for clubs? 

     With aspirations for the club to have deep discussions about fashion, conversing between topics on modern fashion and sustainability, to history and culture that impacts fashion, the club also has some other goals. Lien explains, “Some hopes for the club is to do some sort of volunteer work relating to clothing. With our teacher having a degree in fine arts, we hope to start learning how to make fashion sketches.”  

Who is the fashion club’s targeted audience? 

  The target audience for the club is students who are both interested and curious about fashion. Regardless of your current love and knowledge of the surrounding aspects of the fashion industry, the club hopes to add to it. 

“We will teach important and useful skills like how to design, manufacture, and market!” Molly announces, with Lucy adding in, “Our club will have a key focus on sustainability relating to fashion.” 

The club currently is planning to do activities like volunteer options and donation drives. They hope to have social events based on fashion to feed fellow fashion connoisseurs and anyone who cares to join them.  

In Mcgrath’s final statement, she emphasizes and reiterates. “It’s for anyone interested in sharing their opinions. Whether that be their favorite Met Gala look or their most hated one.” She adds that Blake Lively’s 2017 look was her personal favorite and to come to chat with her on it, “Stop by and join our conversations!”

Co-creator Molly tells, “Our goal is to share the power, importance, and the work behind fashion throughout the school, and maybe even wider. Fashion can bring people together, and be a very versatile and meaningful thing.” If that’s something you want to be a part of, check out the F.A.B.S. in Room A1 on Wednesday, during club time!