Heather Richards 307-266-0592,
A tinfoil fringe rippled around the edges of Brett Thomas' vest as he walked a path of red construction paper taped to the gym floor at Midwest School on Thursday. The bass of a song hit the wooden seats, but the whistling and cheering of 50 or so children drowned out the words.
They came together for Project Runway, a children's fashion show based on the cable TV show of the same name, in which aspiring designers create clothes in a short amount of time. But the high school students added their own creative twist to the idea.
The children used recycled materials to make their clothes: garbage bags, colorful pieces of newspaper, wires and aluminum foil. They are discarded materials, combined, dyed and sewn to impress under the bright yellow lights of the basketball gym.
The Midwest is about as far away as humanly possible from the glamor of the New York fashion world. Built to house the workers and families of the Salt Creek Oil Field, the town of 418 sits on rolling prairie 40 miles north of Casper, now blanketed in snow.
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“I'm nervous,” Thomas, a junior at the school, whispered in the hallway before making his entrance. “Nervous, but excited.”
Thomas' tinfoil ensemble, painted red and wrapped around bent wires at stark, unnatural edges, was inspired by a movie, “The Hunger Games.” In particular, the outfit was intended to resemble the outfits worn by the characters Katniss and Peeta when they are first introduced to the crowd and set on fire.
Yesenia Arreola, a senior planning to join the National Guard, stood next to Thomas taking deep breaths.
Arreola's waist was ringed with brightly colored leaflets from a fair held in the Midwest months ago, each carefully folded like a delicate Japanese fan. The cards were pinned to a recycled black skirt.
“I think it's a good project,” Arreola said.
The children have been working hard for the last few weeks to make the fashion show a success. And although they were nervous before parading their work in front of the whole school, they were also proud, said Barbara Ray, the school's art teacher and creator of the fashion show.
Arreola had hesitated at the thought of styling her outfit. Designing was one thing, daring the red carpet was another. But in the end Ray convinced her.
“I woke up at 6 in the morning to curl,” she said. “I was like, 'I have to look good'.”
The stands were filled with children and families. Little boys in boots and cowboy hats called the models.
Linda Stewart stood against the wall clasping her hands together as she watched her daughter Julianna spin and pose for a camera at the end of the red carpet.
“That was a perfect pose,” he exclaimed. “She is so beautiful, so wonderful,” said the proud mother quietly, almost to herself.
Not all the kids went in elaborate dresses made of junk or beautiful hair bows made of wire and feathers.
Garrett Richards, a senior, built an impressive robot from the remains of the supply chamber: gold painted cardboard parts, insulating tubes for the joints, a dark chamber timer attached to the square chest, and a heavy metal gutted and filled with a Laser Light battery operated mounted on the head.
After the show, Richards' friend had to help him out of the suit.
“It's a disaster that looks terrible,” Richards said. “I wish it wasn't 1,000 points. Foresight is 20-20.”
Dustin Bogart, a toddler who said he was the eighth cousin of famous actor Humphrey Bogart, hesitated.
“You don't mean after the fact?”
“Whatever,” Richards shrugged.
Rei, wearing fluffy angel wings, surveyed the gym he was proudly emptying.
They did a great job from start to finish, he said.
Children, half in costume, half out, scattered in every direction as the bell rang through the halls. They grabbed book bags and headed to basketball practice or to catch the bus home, tearing up the carefully laid red carpet in their haste.
Follow education reporter Heather Richards on Twitter @hroxaner.
