Meet Kheris Rogers, New York Fashion Week’s hottest new designer. She’s taking the fashion world by storm — and all before graduating middle school.
The 11-year-old designer, who boasts more than 55,000 Instagram followers, showed her line Flexin’ in my Complexion and walked in two of this year’s Harlem Fashion Week shows, held at the Museum of the City of New York.
Her line (available here) spans a small but eye-catching range of kid and tween clothes, and has celebrity fans in singer Alicia Keyes and actress Lupita Nyong’o.
According to the Huffington Post, Kheris came up with the idea for her unique clothing brand after being bullied in the first grade. She tells Mic that she was targeted at school because she was one of just four other black kids in her classroom — and it didn’t stop with the students.
“There was an incident with a teacher . . . We had to draw ourselves, and she gave us a black crayon instead of a brown crayon. I was really upset,” she says.
To help her feel empowered, Rogers’ older sister, Taylor Pollard, posted a beautiful picture of Rogers on Twitter, hashtagged #FlexinInHerComplexion. The post soon went viral, with more than 30,000 retweets, and led to design opportunities.
From there came T-shirts embalzoned with proud messages, which later led to LA-based Kheris branching out into other types of clothing. (And she still clearly respects the power of a good hashtag: These days, her Instagram posts are always accompanied by uplifting ones, like #blackgirlsrock, #blackgirlmagic and #myblackisbeautiful.)
Sixth-grader Kheris was in classes when The Post contacted her, but her mentor Pollard, 23, says her sister was thrilled to take part in New York Fashion Week as the youngest-ever person to have a runway show.
“It was an incredible experience for all of us,” says Pollard, who came to the shows with the girls’ mom, Erika. “It was great to see so many of Kheris’ supporters there to cheer her on.”
As Kheris puts it to the website Bossip, “Being an entrepreneur at just 11 years old is exciting . . . I am just glad that I am able to inspire others.”
“You are never too young to chase your dreams,” she adds. “Always stand up for what you believe, no matter what age you are.”
[“Source-nypost”]