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FLINT, MI – After the COVID-19 pandemic, most high schoolers would have elected to leave their virtual classrooms in hopes of returning to their regularly scheduled in-person classes.
Na’Ziya Lewis, 17, of Flint along with support from her mother, elected to stay online.
It’s a decision that didn’t come lightly having to miss out on the communal offerings of rallies and the competitive spirit of sports.
Following conversations with her mom Roshawnda Collins, the pair realized it’d help Lewis pursue her entrepreneurial interests.
Lewis’s interests include but are not limited to rapping, dancing, modeling, and fashion designing.
Online classes allowed Lewis the opportunity to pursue those passions with greater time and commitment.
While at home either in her bedroom or living room, Lewis finds herself sitting with earbuds in listening to a class while simultaneously composing a song or designing an outfit.
She has gaps in her daily schedule to walk into the living room, move the coffee table out of the center replacing it with a mannequin that she meticulously threads a needle through fabric like a surgeon through skin.
Lewis takes pieces of what appears to be a large human-sized puzzle and slowly, over time, assembles it by hand with the assistance of her great-grandmother’s sewing machine, who once made African clothing, to make the concept become a reality.
It is when the typical work day ends and class is finalized that Lewis could find herself finishing more orders for her fashion brand, participating in and exhibiting her work in a fashion show, mentoring younger peers, dancing or recording music in a studio.
It’s through what most people would see her work as controlled chaos that Lewis finds happiness.
“Honestly, when I was younger, I decided that if I wanted to go into any field of work, then I wanted to do something that I would enjoy because I feel like a lot of people work around the clock,” Lewis said. “They go to work, come home, go to sleep, repeat and then it’s not really a life to enjoy.
“I wanted it to be something that would be meaningful to me, and then something that I could use to make a change in other people’s lives as well.”
Lewis’s fashion design is where change in her own life as well as others has seen a big jump.
She started her own company, Nailuxe, in March 2024, and has already garnered national attention, being featured in 17 different magazines, including Kids Fashion Magazine and Vogue.
Lewis has also traveled across Michigan and the United States to over 20 fashion shows and counting each exhibiting new work including the Detroit Choice Awards and New York Fashion Week.
Throughout this period Lewis has also received help from manager and Flint local Adriana Lanice, CEO of 810 Fashions.
Lanice chose to work with Lewis free of charge because she remembers being in a similar spot herself at the age of 15.
She likens the relationship more to being a big sister who helps provide advice, organize travel and hotels and line up fashion shows and design spaces.
Because of Lanice’s experience, she knows the advantage that can be provided to Lewis by starting at a young age and knows combining that with Lewis’s work filled with heart, drive and determination will take her far.
“I think with the business that she’s running and everything else that she’s doing, I feel like she’s living the life of a 25-year-old,” Lanice said.
The experience Lewis has gained through networking has allowed her to help and uplift local talent as well throughout the process.
Through mentoring Lewis also found a way to uplift those the same age or younger at Mott College with opportunities she didn’t have earlier in her career.
“Growing up that’s something that I kind of wish I had more of and I feel like that’s something that a lot of kids could use,” Lewis said.
It’s through humble beginnings that brought Lewis to where she is today.
As early as the age of six Lewis remembers dressing herself and would go out of her way to hide outfits that weren’t to her liking in the back of her closet.
Her mother remembers Lewis stealing and cutting up family members’ socks, not for menacing intentions, but rather to design custom outfits for her Barbie dolls.
Collins added the caveat Lewis rarely, if ever, would cut up her socks.
Things started to become more serious as Lewis got older and like most teenagers, prom was something she anticipated as high school slowly approached, but for different reasons.
“When I was younger, prom was one of the main things that I would look forward to in school and I always said that I wanted to design my own dress, so being able to design my own dress is a dream come true honestly,” Lewis said.
Before she was old enough to go to prom, Lewis made her first prom dress at 15.
Through social media and as she was just starting her career on the runway, Lewis received her first order from a mom in Tennessee who wanted Lewis to design an outfit for her daughter’s birthday.
More orders came in and Nailuxe became an official fashion business where Lewis would take orders for handmade dresses and handbags while customizing accessories and shoes.
As orders grew, so did Lewis’s knowledge.
Going from notes to sketches to notes and eventually the sewing machine, Lewis learned how to develop her craft.
Sometimes that means learning as she goes and teaching herself through failures which helps her down the road when something new arises.
That includes when customers ask for something that isn’t typically in her wheelhouse of what Nailuxe is known for: streetwear, urban wear, formal wear and casual.
For Lewis, these challenges are accepted with open arms as an opportunity to learn something new.
“Typically it’s always a yes because honestly, I don’t think there’s anything that I wouldn’t be able to do,” she said.
Her mom is familiar with her confidence and resilience, describing it as the “I’m it” mentality.
“She will never tell you ‘no.’ Even if she did not know how to do it, she would try to do it,” Collins said.
To this day that mentality remains true, as Lewis designs her third prom dress as a graduating senior and further establishes her brand.
A handmade brand that stands for goals of inclusivity, confidence and creativity found readily available in the name Nailuxe, which combines part of her middle name “Nai” with “luxe” as she believes everyone should treat themselves as a luxury.
Soon she will be featuring her work alongside some of the most luxurious brands in the world.
Nailuxe will debut internationally in October at Paris Fashion Week.
Lewis, Collins, and Lanice see this as just the start of a bright future for the teen.
Lewis hopes to continue to grow her band, with a goal of owning her own store one day while continuing to mentor and be a role model for others.
For now, she’ll join 810 Fashions as their 2025 senior intern.
“It just shows that anything is possible. It’s only been a year and I feel like I’ve done so much and been able to accomplish so much,” Lewis said.
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