Sara Walker, 18, of Wyoming County, models a dress designed by classmate R.J. Bailey, a 2015 Westside High School graduate. Hair and make-up are by Westside High graduate Kari Gunnoe.
BECKLEY, W.Va. — Possibilities are often overridden by convention. Revolutions lurk beneath the ordinary.
RJ Bailey, a young Wyoming County artist and 2015 graduate of Westside High School, recently saw the prospects in “every day details,” and turned them into a wearable work of art.
“I love fashion design,” said Bailey, who’s entering Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College in the fall. “I’d wanted to make a dress all through art class, and I talked to Ms. Griffin about it.
“She was like, ‘If you have an idea, let’s get it laid out, and we’ll start on it.’”
Griffin, also an artist and a native southern West Virginian, had once dreamed of being a fashion designer. Although she married early and stayed close to home, her fascination with clothing and style has never waned.
Griffin’s creativity with fabric and design had once found an outlet in a costume business that she and her daughter, Beckley dancer Lisa Griffin, operated in the Beckley area. Nowadays, Griffin’s Westside High classroom boasts sewing machines and “clothing dummies.”
“Any time one of my students comes up to me and says, ‘I want to make or I want to do whatever, I’m all for it…
