Fashion Philanthropists Train A New Generation Of Entrepreneurs

From the age of 15, Naimah Spann and Rondelynn Bell shared a love of fashion. Both were teenage mothers on tight budgets who started designing and creating their own clothes to save money. Soon, though, students and teachers at their high school in Hartford, Conn., began asking for their own signature outfits, and the girls had started a thriving, if informal, business.
After high school, both attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York before returning to Hartford, where admittedly the design scene left something to be desired. They started working for a social services program, teaching fashion design, but found something lacking. “We realized,” says Spann, “that the students were being taught how to make things but not how to sell them.” For Spann and Bell, the ability to market, sell, maintain inventory and understand financials was just as important as designing and creating clothing.

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It became clear that if they were going to create a new generation of fashionentrepreneurs they would need to do the teaching. In 2007 NIRO Design Center opened in downtown Hartford, offering programs in design and merchandising to kids ages 8 to 17. A small showroom in the center allowed young trendsetters to learn about retail, but within a couple years Spann and Bell realized that for a truly hands-on experience, they needed an actual shop.
And so, NIRO Boutique was born. “The store is the classroom,” says Spann. It’s where her students develop not just their fashion chops but core skills such as networking and personal finance, as well as inventory, credit card processing, window dressing and advertising. “Even if they don’t start a fashion line one day,” says Spann, “they’ll have the skills to start any kind of business they want.”
When kids see how they can apply what they’ve learned, their level of motivation and engagement soars. As part of a sales event, for example, students bought jewelry-making supplies to craft accessories, sold the pieces, and then were required to use a portion of their earnings to buy more supplies, to sell more jewelry. Spann says students made a profit and started wondering what they could sell next. Really, they say, these exercises are about building confidence.
The kids aren’t the only ones benefiting from NIRO’s mission. Spann and Bell focus a large share of their inventory on local designers, and bring the designers themselves (some of whom are NIRO alum) to teach in the program and connect with the next generation of talent. They’ve also taken NIRO on the road, teaching a modified version of their program in five school districts in the region, as well as in a correctional facility. In an effort to reach even more burgeoning entrepreneurs, the two are developing a workbook series based on the NIRO program.
“We’re growing,” says Bell, “but faster than we can handle.” Their core staff, four including themselves, struggles to keep up with the growing demand for their services. Their goal is to raise enough capital to hire more staff so they can bring NIRO onto the national stage, whether through their workshops or books. “Our dream,” says Spann, “is to one day be able to say ‘NIRO has created over 5,000 small business owners nationally or internationally.’”
And, of course, to dress us all in the process.
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