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Project Runway superstar Layana Aguilar was always the fashion-conscious and entrepreneurial-driven type, even as a little child growing up in a farming village in the rural areas of South America. Right from those early days, Layana's flair for creativity and entertainment had been inborn. According to Layana, she discovered her flair for fashion while she was only a child, and she made her mother cry so often because she was always ripping up fabrics and clothes around the house.
Layana Aguilar is a fashion designer, mother, and entrepreneur born and raised in a small town in Brazil. She is the founder and CEO of The Fashion Squad School, an initiative that is impacting the lives of young people across several states and cities in the U.S., inspiring them to reach for their dreams in life. Based in NYC, the Fashion Squad is currently expanding to other places in the United States to reach more people and change more lives.
"Since I was young, I started realizing my love for fashion because I used to cut everything," says Layana. "I would go to my mom's closet and cut her stuff, and my sisters; I made them cry so many times because I cut very special handmade dresses."
That was mainly a stage when young Layana was honing her skills and sharpening her fashion teeth for bigger things to come. There were essentially no mentors or anyone around who could help the young girl fine-tune her budding interest in fashion. After all, there weren't people doing fashion and making it big in her village. "In this small town, you never heard that anyone was successful with (fashion)," she says.
But Layana truly began her journey in the modeling and fashion world when she appeared on Project Runway several years ago. At the time, she was 23 years old, living in New York City, and had already graduated from FIT. She was working for another clothing brand at the time.
From then and until Layana Aguilar started her career in the United States as a full-on fashion entrepreneur, the Brazilian immigrant has continued to be a model of inspiration and achievement for many young men and women looking to make a name for themselves in the industry.
Born and raised in Brazil, before moving to Connecticut as a teen and later to New York City, where she has been ever since, Layana Aguilar says she had a hard time growing up in the exotic South American country. Hers was a fairly large family and certainly a life far from luxury. They were only able to manage the basics things of life, but the kids always had a happy time playing around. "I grew up going to rodeos, and parties; it was fun," she recalls. "I had a beautiful childhood."
Aside from enjoying herself dancing and riding rodeos, the biggest part of Layana's life whilst growing up, besides her large family, was no doubt her love for creativity. She always liked to be different, to stand out through her creative expressions. And as far as she was concerned then, the world was her canvass. She gave herself the liberty to work with her environment.
She says, "I do like to cut clothes and make things different because I want it to be different from everybody else. And I love dressing my friends by telling them, 'Oh, wear this, everybody.' And I remember, all my friends would come to my house and I would dress everybody."
As Layana did the dresses and made sure everyone looked great, her sister covered the makeup end of their start-up fashion outfit then. "My sister likes makeup, so she would do different makeup." But even though Layana was very young at the time she was doing all of this, she knew there was something missing. She realized that there was something bigger out there for her and she longed for it intuitively. "I always felt like I was a little bit of like a fish out of water," she says. "I was very happy. I had a lot of friends, but I always felt like something was missing."
What was missing was self-expression and self-fulfillment.
When she arrived in the U.S. at the age of 17, after the setback, her family suffered in Brazil, Layana's hopes were immediately triggered when she saw Project Runway for the very first time on TV. She knew at that moment that that was what she wanted to do; to model and to work in the modeling and fashion industry.
But she also knew she had to work hard, improve herself, and improve her techniques. So she went and signed up for a year-long program at a local community and then applied to FIT in New York City thereafter. After competing on Project Runway and Project Runway All-Stars, Layana knew that there was a bigger purpose for her work, and with her family's support, she could launch The Fashion Squad School.
This program, which started in Layana's kitchen, teaches kids from age 5 how to explore their creativity and put it to use. It's also great for helping them build their confidence as they grow and learn to accept their uniqueness. Today, The Fashion Squad School has grown into a full-fledged storefront with a full-time staff and over 120 kids enrolled.
Layana Aguilar eventually achieved her life-long dream and became fulfilled after she launched her business initiative, The Fashion Squad. She is also very interested in teaching others about how to get ahead in life and providing helpful tips to parents as well, to help them raise more balanced families. Her life and where she is today, from a village in Brazil to the fashion spotlight and glowing success in the U.S., are true testaments to the power of sticking to the things you're very passionate about and don't give up.