KINGSTON — In stride with the weather brightening up for spring, so is this year’s fashion.

From vintage skirts to nautical anchor motifs, runway models sported this year’s ensembles, inspired by the 1940s and 50s, in Saturday’s Retro-Hollywood Fashion Show at Kingston High School.

“These are outfits people don’t think about putting together but they look really good on,” said Ellen Robinson, who had two grandchildren walking the runway. “There is a lot of really cute stuff.”

This year’s got-to-have accessory is “hats for men,” said Stacy Patrick, owner of Kingston’s Crossing’s Lucky Star Consignment store, which outfitted the models. “It gives them attitude.”

The show was put on in partnership by Patrick — who showed how military-influenced blue and white stripes brings outfits from strict to sassy, interior designer Susan Rodgers, owner of Cleo’s Landing in downtown Kingston, and for the first time, Kingston High’s Key Club.

The team brought in the largest crowd the fashion show, which is in its third year, has seen yet, Rodgers said.

Each year all proceeds are donated to Kitsap Foster Care Association’s DREAM project — where Dreams become Reality for Every child Allowing great Memories — so children can buy things like music lessons, school yearbooks or a birthday party at a local pool.

More than $2,500 was raised in fashion show ticket sales and auction items to help fund the dreams of foster children in Kitsap County.

Each year, children receive up to $75 for something special. “They are the things that these kids wouldn’t get otherwise,” said Debra Converse, president of the association.

In 2007, there were 400 children, ranging from birth to 21 years old, in foster care in Kitsap County, she said. “That’s pretty routine.”

The timing for the fashion show couldn’t be better as May is national foster parent appreciation month, Converse said.

“We are always needing foster families,” she said.

The formation of the runway project three years ago was simply serendipitous, said Rodgers.

“We were in Lucky Star shopping and I told Stacy that we needed something to look forward to, like a fashion show, but we needed to find a project or a cause to raise the money for,” she said. “My friend who I was shopping with had just gone through training to be a foster parent.”

From there plans for the fashion show started accumulating. The event grows each year.

However, for the show to go on, the team said it is looking for more organizers and a support crew.

“We are tired,” Rodgers said. “We need help and we need new blood to get those creative juices flowing to go on again.”

And the show must go on.

Patrick said the style for next year is already looming on the horizon.

She expects bold, psychedelic prints and drop-waists influenced by the 1920s and 1960s.

“I see a little of it now but it might take a year before we start to see it in Kitsap County.”

To help with the next year’s fashion show organization efforts, call Patrick at (360) 297-6721.

For more information about the Kitsap Foster Care Association DREAM project or about becoming a foster family, visit www.kitsapfostercare.org.