10/25/2017

Fashion Design for Tweens and Pre-Teens

Do you know a little fashionista who’s destined to be the next Coco Chanel or Betsey Johnson? Learning the fashion tricks of the trade at an early age will give her a leading edge and may prepare her for a fun career in the future!

Girls who are already showing an interest in fashion can learn so many things right now, such as sewing, sketching, fabrics, building and merchandising a collection, choosing color palettes and even textile design. The fashion industry is HUGE with so many different areas of expertise. In fact, Design is just one small portion of the fashion industry. Many women who have design degrees or careers as Fashion Designers have gone on to be bloggers, stylists or fashion moguls with their very own brands. There are a lot of behind the scenes jobs, also, such as Technical Designers, Fabric Specialists, Sourcing Agents who pick fabrics and trims, Buyers who select the pieces that go into the stores every season and PR and marketing professionals who make everyone aware of the brand.

Now, more than ever before, we are seeing so many girls starting early with careers in fashion. Just look at these budding stars, some one of the youngest kid fashion designers in the industry!

Bella Weems, from Chandler, AZ was only 14 when she thought up the idea for Origami Owl – a direct sales jewelry company.

Melissa Jade Aiello, Age 12 – Melissa Jade Aiello (or ‘Missy’) was born in Nottingham, England in 2001. It all started at seven for Melissa Jade: not content with shading in the lines of her coloring book, she started to copy the illustrations instead, producing piles of drawings over the course of a weekend at her grandparents. Soon the coloring books were put aside and her family became the subjects her many drawings.
Moziah Bridges, Age 11
Bella Weems, Age 17
Cecilia Cassini, Age 14
Isabella Rose Taylor, Age 12 –Isabella Taylor is one of those creative Gen Zs who began painting at age 3 and designing at age 8. At the ripe age of 9, she staked her claim that “if art had legs, it would be fashion.” She is a member of Mensa and a Davidson Youth Scholar for the Profoundly gifted. She has won many national and international awards for poetry and art, been featured in numerous magazines including Forbes, Entrepreneur, WWD, Elle, Teen Vogue and Seventeen. Also, Isabella has enjoyed appearing on national TV shows such as Katie Couric, Steve Harvey and news shows on FOX, MSNBC, and CBS. She’s even dished out her inspirational message encouraging other youth at TEDxHollywood and TEDxJanPath in New Delhi.

Courtney Allegra, Age 16

With the internet, ecommerce and social media at our fingertips, there has never been a better time than NOW to dream big and make that dream come true! Whether it’s a jewelry line or a few cool t-shirt designs, or even a full scale collection, you can give her the tools to learn how to build a fashion collection. Here’s a few great ways to get her started!