Allow us to introduce ourselves: Our names are Lucy McBride
and Lesley Burr. We’re two bloggers with a love for fashion, among other things. Our site, Rusted Revolution, began as a side project – a hobby through which we could channel our observations on fashion, music, travel, food, and the arts, sharing them with whomever cared to look. Since RR’s birth in early September 2010, a growing Internet following has encouraged us to provide our readers with consistent news, trends, and reflections in the vast realm that is pop culture.
While I find it impressive that a six-year-old could use a sewing machine – let alone that the mother of said six-year-old would let her daughter near such dangerous machinery that I still, as a 22-year-old, struggle to use at times – I am baffled by the concept of a “youngest fashion designer ever.”
I guess I’m a skeptic, but I find it really difficult to believe Cecilia Cassini, a ten-year-old girl, is the driving force behind her label. When I was ten, despite the fact that I thought I was creative and a pretty good speller, my parents still did most of my schoolwork when it came to writing a story or making a diorama about Native Americans. Most ten-year-olds don’t even know what a diorama is, so how could one possibly draw designs, cut patterns, fit models, and sew perfect (and wearable) garments on her own?
The biography page on Cecilia’s website says that she’s “had a passion for fashion since she was a baby.” Since she was a baby? She’s still a baby! The bio page also claims she’s the youngest fashion designer in the country, and maybe even the world. Two questions: 1) what constitutes a fashion designer? and 2) which authority gave her this title? Is there a national Child Prodigies of the Fashion World Committee that keeps track of all of them?
While indeed her designs do display impeccable quality and embody THE ideal fantasy dresses that any little girl would love to wear, I wonder how much she has to do with her creative vision, and how much her parents are involved in her business. I will admit that I do think I would have seen her in a more positive light (and been more impressed in general) had I not discovered her website via this YouTube video of an interview with her:
She’s very composed for someone so young, but jeepers does her voice make me cringe. It’s like listening to a pre-pubescent boy/valley girl/nails on a chalkboard. Read: she sounds brattish. She looks cute, I’ll give her that at least. I like the way she plays with color and sequins and taffeta all in one outfit. It’s fun, girly, and age-appropriate.
Everything about her in the interview is annoying.
It’s annoying how she repeats every question in every answer; that she speaks with such supreme authority as if she’s royalty; that she acts like her parents were being such jerks for waiting until her sixth birthday to give her a sewing machine; that she deliberately adds the word “like” to sentences as if it makes her sound cooler and more like a teenager; AND it’s annoying that she draws out syllables à la Rachel Zoe (i.e. AHHH-MAAZEEE-ING).
I also find it inappropriate the way she bashes her sewing teacher on television. It’s awful enough when an adult bashes another adult, but for a child to speak so negatively about someone much older doesn’t seem right. As a kid, I was always taught to treat elders with respect, especially during those times I was on national television (ha, I wish). Maybe Cecilia has a different opinion about design aesthetic, but there’s no need to rub it in the poor teacher’s face that you’re only ten and living the dream that teacher will probably never achieve herself.
Don’t even get me started on her “every girl should have a dress.” Every girl does have a dress. And every girl does need pants, despite what you may think – sometimes it gets cold; sometimes little girls like to play sports; sometimes, pants are fashionable, too. And naming two of the biggest names in fashion does not make you an expert. She sounds so rehearsed, it makes me wonder how much she actually knows about the industry she works in. Would she know Haider Ackermann, Giles, or Temperley? Charles Anastase? Band of Outsiders?
Her clothes are cute but her attitude and manners are appalling. I wouldn’t call her a prodigy but I will accept the notion that she may have some talent. She, at the very least, has the determination and drive of someone well beyond her years. Quite frankly, though, only time will tell if she’s got what it takes – about a good 20 years’ worth of time.
Photo Sources:
http://www.ceciliacassini.com/blog/
http://www.treehugger.com/cecilia-cassini-fashion-photo.jpg
http://breakyourcrayons.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/cecilia-cassini/