When was the first time you remember finding something that you truly loved and enjoyed doing? Sofie Cerankosky was just four years old when she realized that she loved designing and making things.

Today, Sofie is your typical 13 year old.  She is a freshman at Brighton High School - and just so happens to be the first place winner of the "From the Ground Up Fashion Show" which took place on September 12th at the High Falls Parking Garage in downtown Rochester. Rochester Brainery was lucky to be a sponsor of the "Creative Design Competition", which represented the “future” portion of the show (the theme was past, present and future!).

Sofie competed in the "future" portion, which consisted of fifteen designers, whom all had to create a design completely made from reused material. The results were nothing less than extraordinary and unique. Sofie’s first experience with the From the Ground Fashion Show kicked off four years ago, when she went to support her mother who was involved.  Afterward, she felt so inspired, she went home and started sketching!  The following year when she was ten, she entered a few of her pieces and even had people sponsor her!

Her knowledge comes from all over. Sofie said she learned to make the outfits by sketching and researching designers and her grandma taught her how to sew (she was actually sewing during our interview).

“I just started sketching…I actually made a few different outfits before I picked the two I used.” Her inspiration was Alexander McQueen, a British designer.  Overall, Sofie said she spent only a month putting together her designs - wouldn’t it be nice to be that talented!

Her designs were made from paper mâché, newspaper, can tabs, tin foil, magazine, wooden skewers, and a few other basic but helpful materials such as cardboard and printer paper. The tricky part was trying to make the outfits the right size for the models who would be wearing them, because Sofie had no idea who would be modeling for her.  She decided to simply look up typical model measurements and thankfully, that worked out perfect for her.

When asked what the hardest part about getting prepared for the show was, Sofie said, “The stress of really wanting everything to look how it looks in my head…it got very stressful because I was entering my freshman year. My first day of school I was staying up until 4 a.m. just to make sure these pieces were perfect. I had all of my friends over doing little tasks for me to make it easier.”

Well all of the stress and hard work paid off! Sofie won first place and she was able to experience her favorite part of the experience - walking out to hear the huge audience applauding for her. “It’s my favorite feeling in the entire world,” Sofie said.

Although, she is only a freshman, Sofie has high hopes and dreams. Since she was a young girl she has dreamed of attending the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.  Over the summer, she had the amazing opportunity to take some classes there. After she graduates high school that is where she plans to attend college. In the future, she plans to open her own business and become a designer. With all of the talent and ambition Sofie has she is bound to succeed in whatever she puts her mind to! Best wishes, Sofie!