The nine-year-old clothing designer going viral on TikTok

With thousands of followers and a nod from Vera Wang, Kaia Aragon seems set for success

Kaia Aragon, 9, isn't like most other children her age. While her classmates are playing dress-up with dolls, Kaia makes and wears her own clothes. The youngster, who is from Colorado in the US, creates one new outfit per day, an output even the most dedicated of fashion students would be hard-pressed to emulate.

Kaia's journey into design began in 2020 when her mother, Tonya, bought her a sewing machine. While her first attempts were predictably low key — a fabric wallet and a bed for her kitten — Kaia soon switched her interest to making clothes.

Taking inspiration from everything from Disney’s Encanto to figure skating, she has created more than 30 looks, including a one-armed sparkly dress. She has even repurposed a knitted jumper into a new outfit.

Now, her work has gone viral on TikTok — under the heading “Kaia Rae Design” — posted via her mother's account (@middle.mom), to a following of more than 600,000 people. In case she needed further validation, Kaia's work has even been noticed by American fashion designer Vera Wang, who commented “Love <3”. She gave Kaia a notebook and backpack with a handwritten note reading: “So excited to see you are already pursuing your dream of becoming a fashion designer."

In an interview with American channel KRDO-TV, Kaia said, "I wanted to be a fashion designer since I was like, 4, and I've been sewing off and on since I was like, 5 years old."

Kaia has become so popular that she and her mother, Tonya, have even appeared on the American daytime television show Today, to which Kaia wore a her own design that sported the New York City skyline.

Understandably proud, after buying Kaia a sewing machine, Tonya bought her daughter a dress maker’s mannequin, or form, to help with draping. Speaking to The New York Post Tonya explained that Kaia has always been "meticulous" about her clothes.

"She would always go over the top with accessories and she would mix and match things that didn’t make sense to me but would make sense after she put it on."