Eryn Machnica, 18, learned how to thread her first sewing machine during a fashion class at Schaumburg High School last year.
Now she has discovered that her project that semester–a Joan of Arc costume for an 18-inch-tall collectible doll–will be sold throughout the nation after a private company recently decided to produce her award-winning design.
Machnica, who graduated in May and intends to pursue a career in fashion, was told last week that she also will receive royalties for her design from Ashton-Drake Galleries of Niles, which sells the Gene doll. The doll is based on the fictitious story of an aspiring actress in the 1940s and ’50s.
The costume, to be sold separately from the doll for about $40, will be ready by next September to be introduced for the doll’s Year 2000 line, an Ashton-Drake official said.
“I had no idea,” said Machnica, a Schaumburg resident. “This was my first year in fashion. It’s amazing that something so small–just a doll–and designing a little costume can turn into something so huge.”
The costume, a suit of armor including a breastplate and boots made with stiff silver vinyl and mesh fabric, depicts Gene as she prepares for a summer theater production.
“I decided to do it because the Gene dolls (and clothes) are mostly real feminine. They’re always real pretty and lacy,” Machnica said. “I wanted to project the image of being strong.”
Fran LeBeau, a life and family studies teacher at Schaumburg High, entered her 30 students into the Ashton-Drake competition after hearing about it from a student. After reviewing applications and student essays, the company selected only two other high schools in the country to participate. Several students from those schools, in Atlanta and El Paso, also will see their designs sold through the Gene doll collection.
“It was the most wonderful project I’ve ever been involved in,” LeBeau said. “It was such a real-life situation, where the kids had concrete goals and expectations. It was the first time I had kids say, `Is this good enough?’ I’d say, `Would you pay $100 for it?’ They would go back and fix it.”
Last spring, the company awarded the top three designers at Schaumburg High School, including Machnica, $250 apiece. The other winning students were Ginny Garramone and Jessica Dreyer, both juniors this year.
Joan Greene, director of the Gene doll program, said she started the program in 1995 to help students gain the confidence and financial help to pursue art, fashion or another creative outlet.
She asked that Machnica’s compensation from royalties remain confidential, but said the teen will earn the equivalent of regular designers.
“This isn’t throwing a little scholarship out there,” Greene said. “This is a lot of effort to have a student feel success.”
