Camp Fashion Design Draws Budding Designers To New York

The conference room on the third floor of the New York Helmsley hotel is rather dourly decorated in a palette of brown and beige. The scaffolding outside the windows further blocks what little sunlight manages to squeeze down into the canyons between midtown’s high-rises. And periodically, unseen construction workers drill into the walls with a vigor that creates a dull ache that extends from the ears to the molars.

Jay Davies / The Daily Beast

None of this seems to have daunted or distracted the 17 young women assembled for the first session of Camp Fashion Design to be held in the seat of the American garment industry. The campers range in age from 12 to 18 and for them, the idea of someday creating their own line of clothes or accessories is so utterly tantalizing that they have committed themselves to four days of sketching, draping, sewing and competing in their own junior version of “Project Runway.”

There is no Michael Kors or Nina Garcia to trigger teary-eyed meltdowns or neck-swiveling antagonisms. Instead, camp counselors serve as kind-hearted judges for all the design challenges. The role of model-task master is played by camp director Lisa Nargi, who teamed with Christian Siriano to win the 2008 season of “Project Runway.” And if there is a kindly Tim Gunn-figure, a fine candidate would be Hasaan Rozzelle, a sketching instructor who is all broad shoulders and biceps. He has worked for companies such as Phillips-Van Heusen and specializes in menswear. He spent several hours teaching the girls how to transfer the fanciful ideas floating through their imagination onto paper and eventually into actual garments.

If the enthusiastic instructor in the tiny brown fedora had a single message during his first sketching session, it was to loosen up. “Hold out your hands in front of you,” he told them. “Shake them. Relax. Relax. Relax. Tranquilo!”

“Just draw a line,” he encouraged them. “It doesn’t have to be perfect. Just draw a line.”

A room full of girls sat hunched over blank paper gripping pencils so tightly, their knuckles were practically turning white. Day one was all nerves, intensity and fear of the unknown. The girls were distractingly subdued, without any of the high-pitched squeals or giggly silliness that one might expect to hear when churning hormones meet long-held fantasies.

The girls have come from all over the country for this day camp and they’ve been divided into six teams, which they have named. Among them: Divas of Design, the Catwalk Creations, Urban Design and, the particularly charming – if grammatically suspect -- “Flowy and Fierce.”

A room full of girls sat hunched over blank paper gripping pencils so tightly, their knuckles were practically turning white.

Helming team Flowy are Karlee Henry, a tow-headed blonde from Saratoga Springs, New York and Jade Cuevas, a sweet-faced brunette from Somerset, Texas, a small town not far from San Antonio with a population of about 1,600. Both Karlee and Jade are 17.

This is Jade’s first trip to New York. “My parents are out sight-seeing while I’m in here,” she says. And already, she is enamored. “I love it! It’s so busy and I love that. Texas isn’t sleepy, but there’s so much more to do here.”

Both girls have been schooled on fashion through popular culture--red carpet images, fashion magazines and, of course, “Project Runway.” They aren’t so sure what their passion means in terms of college or a career and so they have come here, at the behest of their parents, who found the camp online, to help sort things out. “I think it would be cool to own my own store, to have my own business and sell my own clothes,” Karlee says.

What sort of design does she like? All roads lead back to reality TV. “I like Anya [Ayoung-Chee],” Karlee says of the season 8 “Project Runway” winner. “Her clothes were, like, flowy dresses with an edge.”

Says Jade: “For some reason, I like Vince Camuto,” which is a contemporary collection of feminine dresses and youthful tailoring.

She, too, wouldn’t mind owning her own shop and perhaps selling evening dresses. “I love gowns and red carpet events,” Jade says. “I’m more interested in the clothes than the stars.”

Sketches by one of the camp's students. (Jay Davies / The Daily Beast)

For all of their affection for  “Project Runway,” which is famous for trotting out high-end designers as guest judges, the campers seem less enthralled by the bold face glamour of being a star designer and more focused on simply making and selling clothes.