She Has Always Known Exactly What She Wants

Some designers spend years finding their aesthetic.

Esme found hers at age five.

She walked into Columbus Fashion Academy in kindergarten with a clear vision: clean lines, bold confidence, and a mini skirt. Every single season since, that aesthetic has held. Not because anyone told her to stick with it. Because it's hers. Because she knows who she is, and she has always known.

She just turned eight years old. On the first day of class this session.

The Material

This spring, Esme is working with two donated pieces and a very specific idea of what they were about to become.

The first: a silver metallic puffer vest, shearling-lined, quilted and substantial — the kind of piece that commands a room just sitting on a table. The second: a white sweater, soft and furry, full of possibility.

Most people would look at a puffer vest and see outerwear. Esme looked at it and saw a mini skirt.

That is the difference between consuming fashion and making it.

Her design priorities were precise and non-negotiable: comfort, the satisfying puff of the quilted fabric, and modernist clean lines. No excess. Just intention — the same intention she has brought to every look she has ever designed, from leather to silk to metallic, season after season since she was five years old.

The Transformation

From the puffer vest: a mini skirt. Structured, silver, quilted — carrying all the visual weight of the original material but reimagined entirely in silhouette. Exactly what Esme wanted. Exactly what she sketched and said she wanted from the beginning.

From the sweater: a top. And then — because Esme doesn't stop at one idea — shoe cover-ups and a cuff, each cut and shaped from what remained. Nothing wasted. Everything considered.

This is the Columbus Fashion Academy methodology and circular fashion model living in the hands of an 8-year-old: a donated garment enters the studio, a designer's eye sees something the original maker never imagined, and something entirely new — entirely personal — walks out the other side.

The shearling lining that made the vest warm becomes a texture detail. The silver quilting that was meant for a winter jacket becomes the statement fabric of a spring runway look. The sweater that someone donated thinking it had finished its useful life becomes three separate pieces of a coordinated collection.

The Designer

What makes Esme remarkable is not just the look — it's the consistency and confidence that produced it.

Three years of runway shows. Three years of designing her own looks. Three years of walking onto a stage and owning it completely — not performing confidence, but simply having it, the way children do when they have been trusted to make real decisions about real things from a very young age.

Research in child development consistently shows that creative agency — the experience of making genuine choices about genuine work — is one of the most powerful builders of intrinsic confidence and self-identity in children.¹ When a child is not handed a kit to follow but instead handed real materials and asked: what do you want to make? — something fundamental shifts in how they see themselves.

Esme has been building that identity since kindergarten. You can see it in how she holds her materials up to show you. You can see it in how she explains what she wants. You can see it, most of all, in how she walks a runway — like someone who has always known that the stage was made for her.

The Walk

On May 17 at the Canzani Center at CCAD, Esme will walk the runway in a silver metallic mini skirt, a sweater-turned-top, and the particular kind of confidence that only comes from three years of doing the real thing.

She will be eight years old. She will have been designing her own runway looks for almost half her life.

The Spring Fashion Show is a private celebration for the families of Columbus Fashion Academy's fashion artists — but the work these students are making deserves to be seen and celebrated by the whole community.

If you want to support the students walking that runway — consider donating vintage clothes and accessories, sponsoring a workshop, or shopping one of our handcrafted textile flowers soon available online as part of our fundraiser efforts.

Every piece in every look was donated, upcycled, or rescued. Every student designed their own. That's not a tagline — that's just what we do.

About the Author

Priscila Teixeira is an award-winning community leader, sustainable fashion educator, literary artist, and public speaker, dedicated to empowering people through creativity and fostering meaningful change. She is the Founder and CEO of Columbus Fashion Academy, a local social enterprise transforming lives through sustainable fashion, and the Founder and Executive Director of The Fashion Community, a nonprofit human services agency committed to caring for all people through innovative programs and initiatives that cultivate creativity. With a postgraduate degree in Fashion Business and Communications, graduating cum laude, Priscila has earned recognition for her work across Brazil, Cuba, and the United States, spanning roles in major corporations to small businesses. Passionate about human rights, justice, equality, inclusion, fairness, and artistic freedom; she believes adults, parents, educators, and community leaders have a responsibility to guide and support children and youth. She believes our community must lead and inspire by example, showing care for people and the planet. Through her work, Priscila blends artistry and advocacy to inspire others and create a more sustainable and equitable world.

References

1. Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Random House.