ROSEDALE — When Taneeya Alexander was a student at St. Clare Catholic Academy back in 2007, she would often look at her blue and gray uniform and imagine that she could design something with brighter colors to wear to school.
She never designed a new uniform, but her love of fashion followed her into adulthood, and she is using it to inspire a new generation of fashionistas.
Alexander, who teaches journalism at St. Clare, is the founder of a non-profit organization called the Fashion Design Youth Sorority. The group meets after school on Fridays to design and make costumes for school plays.
The meetings take place in a classroom that Alexander has turned into a workshop that could rival a fashion house, complete with sewing machines, mirrors, measuring tapes, mannequins, sketch pads, and fabric swatches.
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For their latest project, the sorority’s dozen or so members — ranging from second graders to eighth graders — worked on their own costumes for the school’s December show. Members sketched their creations, made patterns, gathered material, and then sewed the costumes.
The theme for the show was “Winter Wonderland,” and so the costumes contained a lot of blues, whites, and creams — “a very light palette,” as she described it.
Alexander founded the non-profit in 2022 with six members, which has since doubled.
The goal of the Fashion Design Youth Sorority is to foster students’ creativity and boost their self-confidence, Alexander said. “I have always loved fashion. It’s a wonderful form of self-expression,” she added.
Catteya Carnakie-Brown, an eighth grader, said her self-confidence has gotten a boost from being in the sorority. “What I like most is that after I make my clothes, I get to look back at my work and say, ‘Wow, I did that!’ It’s so cool,” she said.
Principal Deana Maynard, who called the sorority “an amazing program,” said she loves how it unleashes the hidden talents of students. “It gives them an outlet,” she added.
Alexander has enjoyed fashion as an outlet since she was a little girl. Her grandmother worked as a seamstress and taught her and her sister how to sew. “We started out making doll dresses, and then it gradually became making our own clothes,” she said.
After graduating from St. Clare, Alexander attended St. Francis Prep and then Delaware State University, where she majored in mass communications and minored in textile and apparel studies. She designs and creates her own clothes and is starting a company to design handbags.
While fashion design is the sorority’s focus, Alexander said it also teaches students things that benefit them in other subjects.
“For instance, math is extremely important to do fashion right,” she said. “You have to be able to take measurements. And when you go to the store, you have to tell them how much fabric you need.”
Science also comes into play, she noted.
“Textiles is a whole other ballgame,” Alexander said. “I tell the girls all about synthetics and natural fibers. Fashion is fun and creative, yes, but there are a lot of moving parts behind it. And there’s a lot to learn.”
Eighth grader McKenzie Courtois said she has learned something valuable. “I think I’ve learned patience during this whole experience. I make a lot of mistakes when I try to go fast, and it has taught me to be patient,” she explained.
Alexander, who will next lead the sorority in creating costumes for the school’s spring show, said she would be proud if, years down the road, one of her students pursued a career in fashion.
“There are different career paths they could take within the fashion world. People limit themselves, and they shouldn’t,” she said.
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