Meet Tate, AKD Junior Designer, Age 14, Colorado

Blog #6: Following Tate, Age 14, Colorado: It's time to meet our May feature AKD Junior Desiger Tate! Tate is a high school freshman in Denver. She is a talented tennis player who also enjoys singing and song-writing. Her favorite colors are pink, turquoise and royal blue. 

"I love designing clothes, so I have always wanted to do something like this!" said Tate, who recently prepared her AKD Junior Designer sketches for us.

Based on her sports background, we gathered that Tate would design something a little more sporty. That is one of our favorite parts of the Junior Designer program - each novice designer gets to incorporate her own style and passion to her design, from dance practicewear to costuming to sportswear. Here are two of Tate's designs, which (no surprise!) feature her favorite colors. 

Next up, Tate will select her fabric choices from a variety of shades of blue including tricot/lycra, metallic, sequins and more. She'll also review lettering options including rhinestone, block, script, tackle twill and even custom lettering. 

The AKD production department will refer to these drawings, create patterning, and adjust the design as necessary for functionality and fabric needs. We'll take all of Tate's wishes into consideration in bringing her creation to life. Then in a few weeks, she'll get the delivery of her actual costumes in hand - in her size! 

Stay tuned as we bring you closer to the process in the coming weeks. 

Follow the AKD Junior Designers

Apply to Become the Next Junior Designer

About the AKD Junior Designer Program: Our intentions in creating the AKD Role Models "Junior Designer" program are to promote design and creativity in our society's youth. We want to reach out to young designers and help them to realize their goals of becoming future fashion leaders. We hope that these Junior Designers will influence more children and teens to become young leaders and encourage them to follow their designing dreams.