The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Guilford 9-year-old to walk Milan Fashion Week runway
Katerina Cejas, 9, went from walking the sidewalks of Guilford to walking fashion week catwalks in New York and Paris — and now, Milan.
The Melissa Jones Elementary School student is in Italy for Milan fashion week, which runs Feb. 21- 27. Cejas will be walking for Texas designer Mila Hoffman and Utah designer Archie Brown Designs.
“I started modeling last year because my mom randomly told me I was going to model for a jeweler online,” she said.
Katerina walked for Mila Hoffman in Paris Fashion
Week last year and has walked twice in New York Fashion Week.
“Her first runway show was in Miami for Miami Fashion (Swim) Week with designer Mila Hoffman,” her mother Isis Cejas said. “We have created a bond with Mila, and Katerina even closed out the show with the designer.”
Katerina has always loved fashion and is inspired by Kendall Jenner. She said she sketches her own dresses but has not made them come to life yet.
“Katerina has always been photogenic and I think what has helped her in this journey is the fact that she is in competitive dance, doing solos,” Isis said. “Being on stage alone, having confidence and being in front of an audience is not easy but she makes it look easy.”
She dances for Dance Unlimited in Branford and Hamden, and as soon as she comes back from Milan, she has a dancing competition for which she will be preparing during fashion week.
In early March she said she’ll be heading to Miami for a weekend to do a photoshoot at the Versace mansion and during her April break, to Tennessee for a photoshoot with a Connecticut-based brand called Kat Couture.