Teen Designers Create Fashion Inspired by Oakland Food

Two o’clock in the afternoon is a cursed hour at most high schools in America — a time when tired teenagers mentally check out, eager to be anywhere but a classroom. But on a recent Thursday afternoon, Stephanie Verrières’ fashion design class at the Oakland School for the Arts (OSA) is a vision of happy, controlled chaos.

Inside a crowded art studio, clusters of teens drape dresses onto mannequins and hand-sew intricate beadwork onto bodices. Student designers talk shop over the rat-a-tat of multiple sewing machines. Sprawled on the sidewalk just outside the school, girls dye swatches of fabric by dunking them into a bucket of red wine.

Meanwhile, the chef at one of Oakland’s trendiest restaurants has dropped in for a visit. He checks in with a student, musing how they might run plant