Local young fashion lovers are getting a personal style upgrade—and they just might kick off a career in the process. Chelsea Lee Provenzano, founder of Designer’s Accomplice—Collier County’s provider of the uber-popular ‘fashion play’ experiences for kids at Golisano Children's Museum of Naples (CMON)—recently launched FashionX, an after-school, camp-style course teaching teens and tweens the basics of the industry.
Each month features a different aesthetic theme, and students are split into programs tailored for age groups 9 to 11 or 12 to 14. Over the four weeks, kids attend weekly classes, where they try their hand at everything from sewing and accessory design to creating a portfolio and business plan.
Photography by Christina Bankson
Fashion sketches
Naples mom and fashion entrepreneur Chelsea Lee Provenzano launches FashionX—a master class for 9-to-14-year-olds at Venture X.
Chelsea knows social media brings the allure of New York runway shows and outfit-of-the-day inspo directly into kids’ hands. The snapshots leave young’uns with lofty-but-hazy dreams and ideas about what it means to work in fashion. Through the program, the industry-insider presents a comprehensive, hands-on and actionable perspective, leaving kids with a clearer answer to the age-old question: ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ “They’re learning the realities of what they’re interested in rather than fairies and magic dust,” she says.
Chelsea provides all the materials for mini fashionistas to bring their designs to life—think making leather sneakers and kimono-style jackets for the older age group and jewelry and fascinators for the littles. (Watch out Hats in the Garden!)
Photography by Christina Bankson
Fashion students
Students are split into groups for ages 9-11 and 12-14, where they learn everything from sketching and sewing garments to building a portfolio and creating a business plan.
And, they’re not just sketching pretty frocks and sewing on buttons. Students experience a wide range of style-centric careers, including creative visual merchandising (designing and assembling store and window displays), millinery (hat and headwear making) and various forms of jewelry fabrication.
Chelsea makes for a good mentor, having explored nearly every area of the fashion world since she was 12 years old and launched a jewelry-making business with her siblings. With their parents’ support, the kids opened a storefront and hosted jewelry-making classes in their Maryland hometown. After graduating from SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) and working in design and merchandising for brands like Tiffany & Co. and Ralph Lauren, Chelsea moved to Southwest Florida—a frequent vacation destination for her family—with her husband and two kids in 2020.
Seeing Naples’ fervent arts community, Chelsea set out to create educational (and fun) experiences for young people with a passion for fashion. She launched the blockbuster Fashion Night At The Museum for 5- to 10-year-olds in 2022. As popularity for her camps and classes grew, parents approached Chelsea about hosting a similar program for older kids—an age group that often goes overlooked outside of school-centric programming. Faced with working with teens, the young mom knew she could create a robust program that would lay the groundwork for future educational and career plans.
Photography by Christina Bankson
Woman holding fabric and scissors
A former merchandiser for Ralph Lauren and Tiffany & Co., Chelsea provides all the materials for the four-week camps.
Each class builds on the next, with early instruction focused on identifying each child’s style and aims through mood boards, sketching and goal-setting. Later classes put those ideas into practice, as kids learn to use high-quality new and recycled materials (Chelsea wants the next gen to embrace sustainability in the high-waste field) to bring their creativity to life. Then, they learn to stage and photograph their looks, catalog-style.
September’s Bollywood theme has the classes crafting saris and Indian-inspired jewelry. “The mission is to just see more strong-willed, tenacious, fashion-focused teens in the area,” she says.
Every month brings a new theme for the FashionX camp, which is split into two age groups. Here are four you won’t want to miss.
1. October: Spacewalk Students ages 12-14 handcraft out-of-this-world footwear, while younger FashionXers (ages 9-11) sew appliqué pieces onto pre-made kicks.
2. February: Picasso ChicBoth groups create totes inspired by the Cubist legend Picasso, using recycled materials.
3. March: Breakfast at Tiffany’s Littles personalize pint-sized, Hepburn-esque black dresses; older kids sew their LBDs from start to finish.
4. April: Gatsby’s Vibrant Floral Dreams All student channel glitz and glamour with Art Deco, haute handbags and headwear.
Photography by Christina Bankson