Although often overlooked, fashion has a major influence on show business, and junior Libby Spriggs dedicates her time to ensure that all the actors and actresses of CHS look their part.

Spriggs has been finding, altering and creating costumes for the CHS plays and musicals since her freshman year. She also designs for her general enjoyment.

“I got into fashion because I have a love of theater, but I suffer from some amount of stage fright,” Spriggs said. “So in middle school I did tech crew, but the main thing I noticed that I cared about were the costumes the people were wearing. My love of fashion never really had a start—it was always there.”

Theater Director Naomi Ratz works with Spriggs to complete the school plays and musicals.

“She’s very professional,” Ratz said. ”She gets stuff done and has a great work ethic.”

According to Spriggs, to create the looks for a show, she thinks about the time period and the character’s personality. She asks her classmates what costume pieces they have and utilizes local thrift shops to complete looks. She has to alter the pre-existing clothes: rip them, dye them and sew them to make the all the looks seem cohesive.

Spriggs is also the president of the Fashion Club, which puts on a fashion show each year for the Arts Festival hosted by the art department. Her work is among the many that are shown.

“It’s really refreshing to have a student like Libby because she is very dedicated and determined,” Studio Art and Fashion teacher Jacquelyn Washam said. “She steps up and does a wonderful job filling that leadership role.”

In her downtime, Spriggs likes to make collages, tie-dye t-shirts and create flower crowns.

Although she has no one specific role model, Spriggs is inspired by the music she listens to, as well as British and 1960s fashion. She does look up to fashion designer Iris Apfel and Kimora Lee Simmons, who is a model as well as a designer.

According to Spriggs, Simons and Apfel live and breathe fashion and are not afraid to be themselves and express their thoughts in a unique way.

Along with a few other CHS students, Spriggs has an internship at Nordstrom in Montgomery Mall, where she learns the in’s and out’s of the fashion industry, puts on fashion events and even models in them.

“Working next to Libby in fashion class, I never fail to learn something new,” junior Amal Moosa said. “Seeing her create new designs is fascinating because she’s so creative, and I’m always admiring how she inserts her own style into every project we do–-her passion and confidence are contagious.”

Spriggs plans on continuing fashion, however focusing more on the advertisement and marketing side rather than the actual designing.

“Libby is not afraid to be herself, which is the best thing in the fashion world where it’s so easy to get pushed around by strong personalities and trends you may not even like,” Moosa said. “She loves fashion so much that you know whatever she does, it will be because of her love of the subject and not money or outside pressure.”