This school year, students in Lexie Crusciel’s fashion design program at Indian River Charter High School were invited to participate in a unique extracurricular project. They were asked to create fashions aligned with the semester’s interdisciplinary thematic curriculum Romantic & Industrial Era (1800–1914). The only hitch? The fashions had to be designed out of wallpaper.
It was clearly an out-of-the-box assignment—something none of the students or their teacher had attempted before—but seven volunteers enthusiastically collaborated to create four distinct designs for the project they aptly named “Gilded Seasons: A Victorian Garden Party.” The wallpaper they ordered, courtesy of Oodles of Wallpaper in Vero Beach, features a mix of muted powder blues, dusty pinks, and grayish purples, also incorporating florals and geometric patterns that would have been popular in the late 1800s.
IRCHS students have shown increasing interest in the school’s fashion curriculum, which Crusciel developed when she joined the faculty in fall 2024. Last year, 50 students enrolled in the first of two class offerings: Fashion Essentials: Elements of Design & Style and Fashion Applications: Apparel Branding & Marketing. Many of those students were eager for more. So, this year, a third class, Design Services Core, was added to introduce students to hands-on fashion design. Now, 70 students are enrolled across three separate fashion classes, some with more than one section.
“I think the culture here fosters an interest in fashion design,” says Crusciel, who hails from Pennsylvania and earned degrees in fashion merchandising, textiles, and business administration. “We have a strong visual and performing arts program, and giving students another creative outlet has opened more doors for them. Our students are very artistic and creative, and now they can pour their hearts and souls into fashion design and fashion styling.”
Social media has also spurred more interest in fashion design and trends, she adds. “When I came here, I assumed that the students would be more attuned to digital media. However, I learned very quickly that they were eager to learn some hands-on sewing skills, which has been really fun.”
For inspiration, students created mood and Pinterest boards of Victorian-era fashions. Fusing those designs with some of the vibrant florals in the wallpaper prompted them to put a modern spin on the project with a garden party theme. As a result, they designed mid-thigh or tea-length rather than floor-length skirts and dresses.
As they began work on their designs, students quickly learned that creating clothing out of wallpaper is no easy task, especially when the clothes are to be worn by a live model rather than pinned onto a mannequin. “Since the corset was a dominant fashion item in the Victorian era, some of the students made casts of corsets for each of their models by wrapping them in plastic wrap and duct tape,” says Crusciel. “That gave them a mold to which they could attach the wallpaper.” While some used glue and adhesives, others sewed the wallpaper to fabric and shaped it to the desired silhouette.
“Because it [the wallpaper] was so stiff, I decided to go with a more fitted design, working with flat panels that we attached to muslin to create curves and give extra structure and support,” says Caitlin Swanson, a 17-year-old senior with a strong arts background. Her design features a sleeveless corset with sweetheart neckline and paneling worn over a flared tea-length circle skirt in dusty shades of blue and brown floral.
Johan Fontanilla, a 16-year-old junior, teamed up with sophomore Lizbeth Garcia to create a green floral structured corset and pleated mid-thigh skirt with dramatic 3D elements. “We took inspiration from Chinese culture,” says Fontanilla, “because during the Victorian era, Asian textiles and silks were very popular to trade.” The pleats and folds, he says, were inspired by origami and hand fans, which bring sculptural design and soft movement to the overall look.
Garcia, who took Crusciel’s fashion essentials course last year, relished the opportunity to design something with an unconventional material such as wallpaper. The experience, she says, reinforced her desire to take additional fashion courses and explore a career in the fashion industry.
Sophomore Madyson Focco, also a second-year fashion student, and her partner on the project, Maryn Snyder, leaned into a structured modern look with layers of floral wallpaper panels for their ensemble featuring a mid-thigh skirt topped by a sleeveless corset with sweetheart neckline and boning. “I’ve worked with wallpaper on other crafts, but never in a sewing project, so that was probably the most challenging part for me,” says Focco.
As for a future career in fashion, she is exploring all her options. “I know for the rest of my high school career, I would want to continue being in the fashion program because it is something that has been very successful for me. Even if I don’t go into it, like in a career path, I definitely would pursue it recreationally. It’s one of my biggest hobbies.”
Senior Lillian McCullough and Sara Hallen, a junior exchange student from Dusseldorf, Germany, teamed up to create a strapless, drop-waist high-low dress and corset adorned with multiple layers of wallpaper shaped like flower petals to resemble ruffles. Adding a dramatic headpiece worthy of Royal Ascot, their concept evokes both romantic and creative flair in shades of purple and taupe.
Crusciel says she will not be grading students on their designs, but if she could they’d all get A’s, not only for the extraordinary ingenuity but for their commitment and effort. “I wanted to give them a fun extracurricular project … something to build their skills and put into their portfolios one day. Some of them were also working on other projects for school productions, so it was awesome to see their work ethic, their passion for fashion, and their ability to dive into more than one project in their free time.”
The student designers, she points out, worked for weeks on their designs after school and on weekends. “When I was a student, I remember how rewarding it felt to finish something I worked hard on. It’s always amazing to see it come full circle. That’s the rewarding part about being a teacher and being in this field—finding these passions that you share with the students and just pulling for each other.”
Gilded Seasons: A Victorian Garden Party came to life during a photo shoot at Waldo’s Secret Garden in Vero Beach, where the young designers showcased their wallpaper couture using fellow IRCHS students as models.
Featured image: Lexie Crusciel, a second-year fashion instructor at Indian River Charter High School, is flanked by dress models Jacqueline Anding, Soreya Dramain, Isabella Huddleston, and Brianna Manu in the bamboo garden at Waldo’s Secret Garden.
Story Credits:
Wallpaper for designs provided by Oodles of Wallpaper
Flowers provided by Pura Vida Flower Farm
Location photography at Waldo’s Secret Garden
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