Westlake Recreation Center, 28955 Hilliard Boulevard, will be home to the Future Fashion Stars summer camp from June 19-23.
Future Fashion Stars was created by Ohio native Krista Allison, who has worked in the fashion industry for over 25 years with leading brands like Ralph Lauren in New York City and Los Angeles.
“I knew from when I was 6 years old, that I wanted to be in fashion,” she said. “I would make clothes for my Barbies and put on fashion shows.”
Allison said during her time working in the fashion industry, she noticed that a lot of professionals having similar stories.
“A lot of people I met knew they wanted to work in the industry since they were little,” she said. “I thought it would be great to have something where you didn’t have to be 18 years old and paying for a degree to start to learn these concepts.”
Allison started her first camp in Hudson in 2023.
She now runs 20 camps in Ohio, 11 in New York and plans to expand to California.
“I created a curriculum that’s activity-based, but takes kids through the creative process,” Allison said.
Activities include creating a fashion vision board, drawing fashion figures and designing garments on mannequins.
At the end of the week, campers will participate in a lookbook photo shoot and strut their garments in a fashion show.
Campers will hone their skills in creativity, socialization, problem solving and, most importantly, sustainability, Allison said.
“The fashion industry is the second most polluting industry in the world,” she said. “We want to teach the kids about improving our footprint, not buying new things, but reinventing and donating old clothes.”
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Allison sources fabric for the camps through secondhand stores and donations from parents and families.
Volunteers include current and recent graduate fashion students and university professors who aren’t working during the summer, she said.
“Everyone’s super passionate about fashion, and we love sharing it with the kids,” Allison said. “It could just be a nice hobby for them to have, or it could be a career path, which I think is so amazing.”
Allison said it was important for her campers to learn fashion skills outside of school.
She said the fashion skills often align with what they’re learning in the classroom.
“I think it’s a lost art, and from my understanding, home economics is usually offered as an elective,” Allison said. “This is a way of helping kids with their education and enhancing it and enriching it parallel to what they’re learning in school.”
For more information on the Future Fashion Stars camps, visit https://www.futurefashionstars.com/.
To enroll in Westlake’s Future Fashion Stars camp, visit cityofwestlake.com or call 440-808-5700.
