This 9-year-old fashion designer's stylish looks caught the eye of Vera Wang

Give her a piece of fabric and some thread, and Kaia Aragon will turn it into the outfit of her dreams.
The Colorado resident was 5 years old when her mother, Tonya Aragon, taught her how to sew. When she turned 7, Tonya bought Kaia a sewing machine, and now at 9 she has hundreds of thousands of TikTok followers who can't get enough of her one-of-a-kind fashion creations.
Tonya told Today she is "blown away" by her daughter's creativity. Her first sewing project was a bed for her kitten, then a wallet, and since then Kaia has made dozens of skirts, dresses, and tops. She designs and sews them all on her own — her line is called "Kaia Rae Design" — and finds inspiration everywhere; a recent ensemble was influenced by the house in Encanto.
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Kaia's current project is transforming a wedding dress from 1983 into a skirt, and one fan who can't wait to see how it turns out is iconic fashion designer Vera Wang. She recently commented on a TikTok video featuring one of Kaia's original designs, and sent her a new sewing machine and note letting her know she's "so excited to see you are already pursuing your dream of becoming a fashion designer."
Kaia told Today she was "so excited" by the praise, and when she realized just how big of a deal Wang is in the fashion world, "I was freaking out."
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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