| Teen fashionistas try industry for size
While many US students enrolled in sports or music camps this summer, a rising number of girls invested their time instead in a new type of program centered on catwalks and haute couture - fashion camp. Enrollment in fashion-related majors at schools like New York's Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons The New School of Design has risen in recent years, partly due to the popularity of reality television series based on fashion such as "Project Runway" and the hit movie "The Devil Wears Prada". So fashion camps held in New York, Ohio, California, Alabama and Canada were seen as giving teenage girls with a passion for fashion the chance to see whether they wanted to seriously pursue a job in the highly competitive industry. In New York, where about 169,000 people work in the fashion business, a group of 35 girls aged between 13 and 16 paid $1,095 each to join the first season of Fashion Camp NYC, comprised of five days of lectures, seminars and store visits.
Teen fashionistas try industry for size at summer camp
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - While many U.S. students enrolled in sports or music camps this summer, a rising number of girls invested their time instead in a new type of program centered on catwalks and haute couture -- fashion camp. Enrollment in fashion-related majors at schools like New York's Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons The New School of Design has risen in recent years, partly due to the popularity of reality television series based on fashion such as "Project Runway" and the hit movie "The Devil Wears Prada". So fashion camps held in New York, Ohio, California, Alabama and Canada were seen as giving teenage girls with a passion for fashion the chance to see whether they wanted to seriously pursue a job in the highly competitive industry. In New York, where about 169,000 people work in the fashion business, a group of 35 girls aged between 13 and 16 paid $1,095 each to join the first season of Fashion Camp NYC, comprised of five days of lectures, seminars and store visits.
The inventor next door | Home-grown entrepreneurs give their products a shot
Inspiration hit Sari Crevin of Bellevue when she bent over, once too often, to pick up and clean the plastic cup her 1-year-old had knocked to the floor. It came to Oakley Carlson of Ballard when he needed an easy way to carry everything he takes on a walk with his dog. And to Susan Solan of Aberdeen when her baby daughter chipped a tooth on the bathtub faucet. Mention the word "inventor" and many people envision a white-smocked scientist toiling in a sophisticated laboratory. But Crevin is a professional recruiter, Carlson is a construction worker and Solan is a pro-tem municipal court judge. They're examples of the inventors next door, people willing to risk time, money and a great deal of effort as they try to turn today's bright idea into tomorrow's gotta-have product.
Search for next hot fashion model
Don't be alarmed if you see a man bolt from a streetcar and chase a teenage girl down the street. Could be that he's a model scout. The runways and magazines are more than hungry for the fresh faces that scouts unearth. In fact, the fashion industry's appetite for bone-rack bodies with wide-set eyes, clear skin and perfect teeth is positively insatiable. "You're always looking because clients always want to know who you have that's new," comments top Canadian agent Elmer Olsen. "It's an industry that thrives on newness." Factor in the popularity of television shows such as Canada's Next Top Model, and the role of the model scout is suddenly a hot new career. "You have no idea the number of people who say they're model scouts," Olsen says.
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