“Project Runway” designer Timothy Westbrook decided last year that he wanted to use his fashion skills to benefit child abuse prevention efforts.
As a contestant on Season 12 of the popular and long-running reality TV show, Westbrook figured he could bring his name and talent to a cause that meant a great deal to him personally. The question was where to start.
And the answer, naturally, was Google.
“I typed in ‘child abuse awareness fashion show,’ ” he said, and two results popped up: an agency in Chicago that no longer sponsors a fashion show, and the Yolo County Children’s Alliance, which does.
Last year, in fact, was going to be the alliance’s fifth annual fashion-show fundraiser, and what better way to celebrate that milestone than with a new approach, figured executive director Katie Villegas when she heard about Westbrook’s interest.
For the first four years, the fashion show had featured local elected officials as models. Everyone from school board members to mayors were outfitted by local retailers for the event and the show was a success, year after year.
With Westbrook’s entry last year, the show became Project Prevention, showcasing his designs made entirely of repurposed, recycled materials, worn by a cast of Yolo County teenagers.
The teens were referred by the alliance’s partner agencies throughout the county and last year included everyone from student leaders to foster youths and even a couple of homeless teens. It was a huge hit for everyone involved.
Westbrook arrived in Yolo County with fashions in hand and brought along his stylist partner, Alexis Rose, who is herself a child abuse survivor.
“They were awesome,” Villegas said. “Here are these kids wearing $5,000 dresses … they get their hair and makeup done by a professional stylist and receive training for walking the runway.
“It was really cool to see them shine in the spotlight.”
This year’s event was even better, as not only did Westbrook return, he brought along Season 13 contestant Angela Sum.
The day before the fashion show — held at the West Sacramento City Hall Galleria at the end of April — both designers were on hand to meet their models and fit them in their designs before Westbrook instructed them on their catwalk duties.
“It’s awesome working with these kids,” he said during a break in the rehearsal.
“I try to be really goofy,” he said, and he was, using his wacky sense of humor to put the models at ease.
But he also had high expectations for them.
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“It’s a professional situation and they can be treated with respect and you can have high expectations,” he said. “Expectation of greatness is a compliment. And it’s the way I treat professional models.”
For some of these young people, he noted, “this is New York Fashion Week.”
They had not only a team of stylists taking care of their hair and makeup, they were working with a pair of celebrity designers.
It’s a big deal to them, Westbrook noted.
Even though, he added, “we’re such fake celebrities.”
For this year’s fashion show theme, Westbrook chose Cinderella, because it not only represents the idea of fashioning beautiful gowns out of whatever repurposed material can be found — Westbrook’s specialty — but also because the fairy tale represents an indictment of child abuse — in Cinderella’s case, abuse at the hands of her stepsisters and stepmother.
“Child abuse comes in many different colors,” Westbrook noted, whether it’s verbal or physical, or comes from a parent, a sibling or a friend.
One of his showpieces for the event was a gown fashioned from his great-aunt’s wedding dress and worn by Davis resident Sami Esquivias, 17, a student at Woodland Christian School.
Nobody was ever going to wear the dress again, Westbrook said, “and it was just going to be thrown away.”
“But it had so many memories,” he explained, and he snapped it up when his cousin offered it to him.
He used other recycled materials to modernize the dress — as well as to cover a stain it had — and just like that, Esquivias was the belle of the ball.
Joining her on the catwalk were both novice models and those with more experience under their belts.
Woodland resident Lissett Santillan, 16, served as a model for Westbrook last year and returned this year to wear one of Sum’s designs.
Participating last year, she said, built up her confidence.
“I’m kind of a shy person,” she explained.
Now she wants to do even more modeling.
Carmen Moreno, a student at River City High School in West Sacramento, already had done some modeling herself — she was featured in a recent edition of Quinceañera magazine — but this was her first time in the Children’s Alliance show. She ended up wearing a dramatic black Westbrook gown.
Westbrook and Sum, meanwhile, enjoyed working with their young models.
“They’re really nice girls,” Sum said. “I’m having fun with them.”
It wasn’t just girls, though — Westbrook had two young men among his models, as well as West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon in a return appearance on the catwalk.
Before the show got underway — hours after the models had arrived for hair and makeup and were fitted in their designs — Westbrook rallied them in the upstairs City Council chambers, gathering them all for a last-second huddle.
“We’ve all come together for an awesome cause and it’s really important to this community,” he told them.
“You all look so great,” he added. “Get what you want out of this. This is your show, and you’re all sparkling. Just trust yourself and have a really good time.”
They did. As, apparently, did their audience — all told, the event raised more than $45,000 for the Children’s Alliance, thanks to ticket sales, a silent auction and Westbrook’s offer to sell many of the pieces he was showing that evening and donate a portion of the proceeds back to the fundraiser.
He’s already looking ahead to next year’s event, too. Westbrook said he reached out to a number of other “Project Runway” veterans who expressed interest in participating this year but weren’t able to work out the timing.
One of them, Season 12 runner-up Alexandria von Bromssen, had planned to participate but had to cancel at the last minute. Westbrook expects to have more designers on board for Project Prevention 2016.
And that’s good news for Yolo County’s most vulnerable children. As the primary child abuse prevention agency for the county, the Children’s Alliance has numerous programs aimed at preventing child abuse and neglect, including Step by Step, an intensive home-visitation program aimed at families at high risk, and Baby Steps, a shaken-baby prevention program.
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