Jack Zisfain is putting the finishing touches on one of four fashion lines he’s designing for a runway show this Spring. He’s also designing the set pieces. Two big jobs for the Taft Charter High School senior who also has to juggle taking finals and applying to college.  

“I think the most important thing I’ve learned is to plan,” he says.

Not the first skill you think of when you sign up for a fashion class but this one is designed to be different.

“Although I don’t have a problem with programs where everybody makes an apron, I treat my program differently,” said Zisfain.  

Eileen Capinha-Viadero came to the classroom after working in the fashion industry. The first thing she noticed was that students who are about to enter the real world didn’t know how to act professionally. 

“So I really made it a mission to teach them about how to be on the job,” said Capinha-Viadero.

Whatever that job might be. Students handle every stitch of the annual fashion show including set design, hair design, even publicity.  

“She encourages people to do what they are good at. She doesn’t put people in their own jobs. People choose their jobs based off what they excel in,” says Zisfain.  

The program, which Capinha-Viadero co-founded with another teach, Kathy West, is run like a business. In fact it includes a business, a thrift store called L-atelier, staffed by students and open to the public. Here they learn budgeting, retail skills and perhaps the most vital skill of all . . .  

“How to collaborate so that they could be ready for the real world, and business, not just the fashion world, but any business that they could go on,” said Capinha-Viadero. 

Her class is a Regional Occupational Program and it’s open to students of all abilities. No matter their background or talents, she has the same big designs for them.

“I want them to be able to take care of themselves when they graduate. That’s the most important thing,” says Capinha-Viadero.

“She’s like the fashion mother. She’s constantly making her kids grow and leave the nest and do great things,” says Zisfain.

All while weaving in the skills she taught them along the way.