Glenna Stearman Park, My Brief Career in Fashion Design

Glenna Stearman Park, 1960

In late spring of junior year, Susie Smith and I decided that the East High Pep Club needed a new look.  I showed her a drawing I had made  of my idea, which she liked immediately.  At that time Susie was a model for Innes Department Store, where she was acquainted with the buyer as well as the Bobbie Brooks sales representative.  Innes and Bobbie Brooks all liked the new short skirt look and decided to make it for us, since we had a very large pep club.  Long white socks were part of the outfit with the sweater and skirt—which I adapted from Scottish kilts.   (Left, Susie Smith)

We were the first high school to show off our legs with a sassy attitude. The school administration took an interest: fashion intersected with politics, or maybe prudery. Actually, not much leg showed.  Between the white knee socks and the hem of the skirt having to touch the top of the knee, only knee caps were exposed.  What else was not to be exposed was whatever was under the skirt.  The test for that was walking up the cavernous staircases at East and having someone at the bottom looking up to see what was visible beneath those cerulean blue pleats.  Zero tolerance!  By any measurement, the uniform skirts were an enthusiastic departure from the mid-calf length of the skirts girls usually wore.  My design anticipated the mini-skirts we flaunted a few years later.

In high school I planned to become a fashion designer.  My mother had been a children’s dress designer and knew how to make patterns and sew.  I designed all my prom dresses and a formal gown in college.  Mom then made  the dresses with tissue paper, tape and pins, which served for fitting the dresses and also providing patterns.  I learned about the whole dress-making process and especially about fabrics.  For Junior-Senior Prom 1958, my first gown design, I selected a beautiful white brocade with silver threads. It was flashy but scratchy. I never used it again.

In 1959, Mom and I went into full production, using deep blue satin and velvet for my dress.  After making the pattern, which included a sculptural neckline and long sleeves, we went to the sewing machine with the most difficult fabric ever!  It slipped all over the place and took a long time to sew.  My younger sister, Guyna was acting out how much work this dress was. The corsage provided by my date was uniquely placed.

 

 

 

 

 

The dress below was for the Senior Prom 1960.  I left Johnny Stevens in the photo because it was a good picture of us.  Dress-making involved the usual pattern process, but added 150 flowers embroidered with blue glass beads that my grandmother hand-beaded and stitched to the finished dress.  Then she sprinkled more around the skirt with its flounces. The dress became a big family project. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I was in college at WSU, we continued the collaboration for a spring formal gown to wear to the Gamma Phi Pink and White Ball. This dress, pictured below, was taffeta with silk organza, which works for a sculptural design and was the easiest to produce.  Once again Mom did the heavy lifting.  

Then I transferred to the Philadelphia College of Art where I intended to study fashion design.  During that year, however, I fell in love with sculpture and painting, which changed my direction forever. 

 

That is when my fashion streak took a nose dive into blue jeans and tee shirts.  On two occasions, I dressed up to go out but was distracted by a painting I was still working on. I took a moment to study that painting and absent-mindedly sat right down in my oil pallet, ruining my clothes.  I did the same thing again on another occasion.  I was not terribly upset, but realized I was done with fancy clothes.

Editor’s Note: Glenna’s early fashion design success, the Pep Club uniforms, transformed the campus on game days. Many hundreds of girls wore their blue uniforms everywhere on campus and made a massive impact in the stands at football and basketball games. Right, Pearline Blackmon and Marilyn Tompkins. Below, the Pep Club Cabinet that voted yes for the new uniforms and spread the word. 

 

Pep Club Cabinet: Back row – Anita San Romani ’62, Barbie Thompson ’62,  Joyce Stephens, Janice Collins, Nancy Dickerson ’61, Glenna Stearman; Front row – Brenda Benjamin, Kay Coulter (president), Kay Ellen Consolver,  Becky Williamson, and Lynn Slease ’61.

Visit the Gallery and scroll down to see photos of Pep Club and the Senior Prom.