If you are joining the growing number of designers tapping into the childrenswear market, you may be on to something big. From Blue Ivy to Prince George, celebrity kiddos are driving clothing sales in droves. In addition, brands like Stella McCartney and Marc Jacobs have created “mini me” collections which offer kid-sized versions of their most popular adult offerings to support the increased demand for luxury childrenswear options.

Have you been thinking about designing for tiny fashionistas or tapping into a market that loves dressing the smallest style makers? If so, the University of Fashion has just added an entire section dedicated to designing childrenswear. We would like to introduce you to the instructors and the lessons that can support your goals of designing childrenswear.

Barbara Seggio

First up, meet Barbara Seggio. Barbara has over 30 years of experience working in the fashion industry as a designer, technical designer and freelance design consultant. Her specialty is women’s sportswear and childrenwear design.

As an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Barbara teaches all disciplines of fashion design including: draping, patternmaking and sewing. Barbara’s accomplishments at FIT include: development of the childrenswear specialization, chairperson of the Childrenswear Advisory Board, member of the Sewing and Childrenswear Curriculum Committees and instructor in their high school weekend/summer program.

Barbara’s courses at the University of Fashion include Introduction to Childrenswear Global Sizing, Draping a Child’s Bodice Sloper, and Drafting A Child’s Basic Pant among many others.

Felice DaCosta

Next, meet Felice DaCosta. Felice is a fashion industry professional with over 35 years of experience as an art director and freelance illustrator. She is currently an Associate Professor at Parsons School of Design, teaching fashion design and drawing for the last 25 years.

As a founding member of Fashion Art Source, Felice is active in promoting the visibility of fashion illustration. She was also co-owner of THE FASHION ART BANK, a fashion art and licensing company.

Felice is co-author of the textbook entitled, Fashion Flats and Templates, due for release in December 2016.

Her love of teaching extends to the discipline of ESOL, which she has taught for the past 8 years. She has received teaching certificates in art K-12 from Parsons/Bank Street and in TESOL from the New School. Felice holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Parsons School of Design.

Felice teaches Advanced Fashion Illustration Techniques at the U of F.

Mariah Graham

Mariah Graham is a illustrator of international renown with over 35 years experience in the advertising, fashion, editorial and decorative arts industries. She has created digital as well as hand drawn illustration assignments for Saatchi & Saatchi, Grey Advertising, New York Times, Daily News, Ogilvy & Mathers and editorial Illustrations for HBO’s (The Josephine Baker’s Story).

Mariah has created editorials for Vogue magazine and major cosmetic companies such as Revlon, L’Oreal, Estee Lauder and Elizabeth Arden. Her portfolio has been showcased to major creative directors and editors in Beijing, China and Singapore. In Singapore, her work was showcased as ‘Artist of Today.’

She is an Adjunct Professor of art at EF International School, teaching Graphic Design for Fashion and Drawing to undergraduates and Masters program students.

Mariah teaches Ink Drawing Tween Girl Figure and Ink Drawing Tween Boy Figure for the University of Fashion.

Fan Wu

Finally, meet Fan. Fan Wu attended Parsons School of Design in New York City, graduating in 1989, and worked as a freelance illustrator at Ralph Lauren. He later found design posts at Vera Wang, Demetrios and Cashmere New York. In early 2000, Fan founded a fashion-consulting firm that still provides invaluable services to numerous prestigious companies and corporate clients.

Becoming an educator was a happy and unplanned accident for Fan. After agreeing to teach just one sketching class for a friend, he made a career choice to add teaching to his life. In 2004, at the annual CECO corporate award ceremony for Educator of the Year, Fan stated “my decision to become an educator was a surprise to me, though not to my friends and family… teaching has harmonized my life.”

Since 2005, Fan has taught fashion design at Parsons The New School For Design and at the Art Institute of New York City. From 2006 to 2008 Fan was an Adjunct Instructor at Kent State University teaching classes in all areas of fashion design.

Fan now teaches Drawing Children – Infants and Toddlers at the University of Fashion.

Is there a corner of the childrenswear market you would like us to cover? Please do not hesitate to comment below.