by Rob Mariani Assistant Editor
Tina Melo and Mikayla Iafrate Melo Project Runway
The Melo Project Runway For Youth is the first of its kind.
Rhode Island Creative Magazine’s Founder, Kimberly Sherman Leon visited with Tina Melo and her students at the new facility of the Melo Project Runway for the Youth in Lincoln, Rhode Island.
“Seeing first hand what the children are learning and how involved they are in the process was quite impressive, especially for their age. This is an amazing project to have available here in RI and Iook forward to seeing it grow!” -Kimberly Sherman Leon
Founded by Tina Melo, a former Knitwear Designer, Director/ Merchandiser, Fashion and Life-style Forecaster, Teacher, and Mother.
14 | Rhode Island Creative Magazine
Ms. Melo received her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from The Rhode Island School of Design with high-honors, and is a recent graduate from of the Parent Leadership Training Institute (PLTI) in May 2014. Melo’s unique style of teaching and mentoring has developed after years of having trained many assistant designers and freelancers, including years of caring for a sibling born with disabilities. As a youth volunteer for the Special Olympics, Tina worked as a teacher’s assistant in The Munich International School, a private English-speaking elementary school in Germany. She had left Rhode Island in 1986 and when she returned in 2011, she found that the Educational System in the US had changed drastically in the last 20 years. And not all for the better.
As a concerned parent, Melo saw a tremendous need in many communities to improve future outcomes for children at all levels of learning. “The Melo Project Runway for Youth” grew drastically in less than three years, and in May 2014, a new studio dedicated to teaching fashion design was opened at
85 Industrial Circle, Suite 2213. The project sprang from a demand by parents seeking education on basic life skills and creative outlets for their young children, and eventually, from the middle and high school students as well. The Melo Project began in 2011 by offering hands-on classes to students seeking real world experiences and training in the fashion design industry.
In the current environment, acceptance into fashion design schools like Rhode Island School of Design, Parsons, or the Fashion Institute is highly competitive and tuition is prohibitively expensive. Since the launch of Project Runway in 2006, Rhode Island children and teens have become increasingly interested in becoming future fashion designers. The students that have been taught by Tina Melo have a true passion for fashion, a passion that has grown significantly due to the increasing amount attention paid to fashion trends in general.
The Melo Project Runway for Youth (MPRY) trains and empowers future leaders and entrepreneurs not only for the Fashion and Design industries,
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