For one night a year, the CHS cafeteria transforms into a high-fashion runway. Last night students put away their books, strut their stuff on the catwalk and turned Mr. Stengele’s math classroom into a hair and makeup studio, all for the fourth annual Fashion show.

Preparations for the event began almost immediately when school ended on Friday afternoon. The decorations committee leader, Junior Audrey Mannion of Brielle, broke up the responsibilities by grade. The freshmen began making tissue-paper flowers. The sophomores hung up signs for each store in the front hallway and put together the decorations for locker pods, and juniors began filling balloons with helium and glitter. By 6:30 the halls of CHS were prepared to host high fashions.

This year, seniors Julia Pardee of Freehold and Allie Kuo of Tinton Falls lead the event together. CHS Alumni Sallie Haas founded the event her sophomore year and now attends the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.

The show featured clothing from local stores, which students picked out themselves at fittings in the weeks before the show. Students wore styles from all over Monmouth County, from The Bee in Sea Girt to Dresses & More in Old Bridge.

In lieu of a host, the stores were announced by videos with footage from the fittings and information about each store. This was the first year that the show utilized videos as opposed to a person or people speaking to the audience live. Junior Veronica Yaron of Little Silver said she enjoyed that aspect of the show.

“I know how much effort was put into making them. . . Plus if you really dig the clothes from that store you want to know what the actual place looks like,” Yaron said.

The fashion show began at 6:30 PM with opening remarks from Kuo and Pardee. At intermission, concessions were sold to members of the audience. All of the food had been donated from local businesses, like the Monmouth County staple Broad Street Dough Co.

Prom tuxedos and dresses closed the show. Models walked in pairs wearing coordinating outfits, each creating unique runway poses or routines. Pairs strutted, spun and dipped on the runway in their formalwear.

Next year, the event will be led by junior Emma Wilenta of Wall and sophomore Grace Treshock of Monmouth Beach. The two assisted Pardee and Kuo to plan this year’s event, learning the ropes and shadowing them to learn what goes into planning such a big event.