A Bright New Star in the World of Fashion Design: Introducing Alea

We know blogland is full of promising fashion designers. And there are plenty of bloggers who specialize in revealing them. We aren't going to be shifting the focus of crafterhours for an extended period of time, but for today, we had to introduce you to a fresh-faced new designer with vision.

She's creative. Thoughtful. Detailed. Deliciously sweet.

She designs with color. Texture. Flair.

She's not ready for large-scale production just yet, but we're first in line to let you know when she is.

Meet Alea.

She'll be 7 in May. Her mom knew that she loves fashion and fashion design, and found this cool notebook  with outlines for filling in with your own designs or copying some of the designs that they've included.

Adrianna and I were visiting one evening and Alea showed us her work, and we were impressed. Not only is her work amazing, the idea of the notebook is a great platform for other designers getting started who want to zoom through lots and lots of design brainstorming. We loved it so much we ran back the next day for a shoot.

Some of the pages have pre-printed full color fashions, so that the young designer can try their hand at copying designs.

Other pages are printed with only the plain outlines of figures with basic faces, so there's free reign for creative exploration.

Alea even makes sure we know the names of all of her models. Because designers can't do their best work without models that show it off well. You have to give them credit where credit is due, right?

Here's a work in progress.

And one that's sketched and ready for color. Check out the layering! And the collar! And the bags!

And then there's color in-process. We didn't want you to miss any steps along the way. We tell the whole story.  (The lacing! The gloves!)

Thanks, Alea, for debuting your work on crafterhours. We'd love to talk to you about some exclusive pattern and production work.

And when your first line is ready for the runway, we'd like front-row seats, please. And first pick of the swag, of course.

The notebook that Alea is using is one that's printed in the EU and was bought at a bookstore there. We've looked online, but haven't seen anything similar that's available in the states. Anyone know of something like it? Or maybe we have a DIY idea...