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At age 10, I think I was weighing the career choices of ballerina, veterinarian, or stunt horsewoman. Not so 10-year-old Cecilia Cassini - whose story was recently featured in a "Today Show" segment. At a her young age, Cecilia is already receiving a lot of interest for her precocious and adorable designs for young girls.

Cecilia, whose father is French, has been on visits to Paris many times since she was a baby. Her parents say she became fascinated with fashion design and designers - particularily Coco Chanel - at a very early age.

At age 7, she wrote an adorable letter to her idol for a class project (most of the other children wrote to Santa, Cecilia's mother says). You can hear more of the letter's contents in the video. My favorite line in her letter to Chanel was, "I notice you do not have a kids' line."

Cecilia has stepped in to provide fashionable clothes for kids. She sews her own designs on a Singer Confidence machine. Her designs have so much energy. She favors vibrant colors and strong prints. Her dresses have flounced skirts, giant bows, sparkle - all pretty and eyecatching details that appear to appeal to Cecilia herself. She definitely wears her own cute designs, topped off with eyecatching flower headbands and the finishing touch of bright pink nail polish.

On Cecilia Cassini's personal Web site, she posted photos from a recent trunk show at Fred Segal in Los Angeles, including a visit by one of her celebrity supporters, Miley Cyrus.

Cecilia's excitement and enthusiasm are inspiring to any sewer. I just hope so much early attention doesn't dim her ardor for fashion or dilute her personal aesthetic. It's amazing to think she's only 10 years old. It should be so much fun to see what she does in the future.

Did you have an early passion for fashion? Or were sewing and clothing design interests that you discovered later in life?

Sarah McFarland, contributor
Posted on May 6th, 2010 in sewing, design, videos, designers, fashion design, cecilia cassini, young designer, designer cecilia cassini, coco chanel, 10-year-old fashion designer

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Comments (13)

tashalouisemay writes: I am an Australian expat in Jakarta, Indonesia and recently met the most adorable little boy, Rafi, who is a 9 year old deaf boy and an incredible designer! I met him after watching his second ever fashion show which was at Jakarta Fasion Week in November.. You can check his beautiful designs on my blog, www.welovejakarta.com. He is a sick little boy with big dreams and I hope he gets what he dreams for as he is such an inspiration for me.
Posted: 8:09 pm on December 2nd

Glorey writes: am so inspired by this talented girl.Go girl the sky is not the limit.
Posted: 8:47 am on June 17th

alij writes: I LOVE CESALI DESIGNS. I WANT TO BELIKE HER.
Posted: 9:24 am on March 27th

chicagoquilts writes: I don't really believe it. What seven year old cares or knows about Chanel unless mom is a fan. Yes she can learn a simple pattern. But the volume she is doing looks like she had help. I do believe she loves fabric cause anybody that sews loves the vast selection of pattern and colors. But a tube dress at ten is not that hard. They make it seem like she skip kindergarten and started sewing. We all know that sewing does involve a little math. But if you got stretch fabric and a tube top, just one seam, I guess she did it. I am proud of her, but its a little to much hoopla. Yes she is French and he parents love Chanel. Kids love Santa and Barbie, or now a days its an American Girl doll. Had she made some dolls clothes that would have been interesting.
Posted: 4:55 pm on January 18th

pantherfreak writes: Gosh at such a young age imagine her as she gets older!!!!

Posted: 5:23 pm on September 4th

tkell23 writes: hey cecilia your gonna have to compete agaimst me no name cause im just as good as you and the same age but ive been sewing since i was 5 not a threght i dont do thoose cause thats just mean
:P
Posted: 3:43 pm on July 22nd

SANDRAMBROWN writes: Oh, she is too fab! I loved the story and her beautiful work. She has a wonderful career ahead of her. To be so focused and so creative at such a young age must be a gift from God.
Posted: 4:34 am on May 18th

Alsacea writes: This is truly wonderful. I admire very much a young person with a passion like Cecilia. This can be the start of very profitable career, or a straight passion that will follow her all her life. I personally started to sew at age 6. From the start my mother taught me how to use her old Singer machine, although she was trained in "haute couture" and had me do almost everything by hand first. But I really started to design my clothes around age 12 and never stopped after. My mother could never understand my choice of fabric and mixture of shapes until she actually saw the outfit on me! My greatest pleasure was to wear something that noone could buy in a store. But my favorites creations have always been ballroom dresses and of course wedding dresses. They leave so much to the imagination! I find it sad that I did not have any young lady around me (no daugther) to share this passion of mine, which has followed me for the past 40 years and will certainly keep me busy for as long as my eyes will see and my hands can hold a needle!
Posted: 8:54 pm on May 17th

orsinimedici1951 writes: I just love it when young girls find their calling so young! I teach sewing to children as young as 7 years old, and am alway amazed at how quickly they pick it up like little sponges!! My Mom was a master dressmaker, and taught me to sew on a toy sewing machine when I was just 10. I've been sewing professionally now for over 35 years, and my studio has produced 3 Arts Scholarship winners in the past 2 years!! This young lady has a huge career ahead of her! My only advice to her would be, pursue a proper college education. When the time comes, I see a winner on Project Runway if it is still up and running!!
Posted: 7:15 pm on May 17th

Persus writes: I always had dalls, but didn't play with them--I made them clothes from the time I was seven or eight. I'd also take paper dolls and made wardrobes for them, and, when I could, would take the designs I'd drawn and make the doll clothes. I didn't start to sew for myself til I was ten or eleven, though, although I would design both my sister's and my clothes, which my mother would make.
Wehn my children came along, I made their clothes, as well as mine, and then opened a boutique. We sell the clothing, as well as hand-knitted clothing, hats, handbags, etc. I've just always had a love of fashion designing, often in unusual color combinations or fabrics. My things are still all one-of-a-kind. It's definitely a life-long passion.
Posted: 6:30 pm on May 17th

zeshuregi writes: i can,t see this video....!!!!!
some error is here...
Posted: 5:58 am on May 11th

allycatsax writes: I started sewing my own clothes somewhere around twelve, before that I made my own barbie clothes. I had been watching my mother sew apparel all my life and often helped her lay out the patterns. You see I am from a very tall family, my Grandfather being 7' tall, My mother a mere 5'11 and I grew to be 6'1" the problem with being so tall is that nothing fits in stores especially if you are born to a poor rural family. At a young age sewing was a necessity and I did not enjoy the craft and often dreamed of going to the mall to buy my clothes. Now I enjoy designing my own fashions I even sew for my husband who is of normal size and could buy clothes anywhere. THat is another story.
Posted: 2:32 pm on May 10th

LucretiaMoore writes: Very cute! Most of her designs were very good, makes me embarassed that I'm still trying to learn how to sew a straight seam! If I had a daughter I'd let her wear everything but the tube dress especially the black one she wore for the photo shoot, it was too adult looking for a 10 yr old.
Posted: 10:15 pm on May 7th

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