From Siberia To Long Island: Fashion Designer Inspires Next Generation Through Summer Camp

GREAT NECK, NY — A fashion designer who grew up in a small town in Siberia has now sewn her way into helping Long Island children turn their creativity into wearable designs through a hands-on summer fashion camp.

Yulia Berman, founder of Long Island Fashion Camp based in Great Neck, said she created the program to show young girls that careers in fashion are achievable.

"They're dreaming about it right now," she said. "I want them to understand it's real — it’s not far away. You just have to get the right skills and make the right moves. I can lead them there."

Berman said the camp is taught by a real fashion designer with years of experience in the fashion world, from design to production and pattern making, to the business, marketing, and live events side of the industry.

"That's what makes it different," she said. "Most kids' fashion programs are craft. This is the real thing."

The second session runs from July 20 to July 24 and is called 'The Glam Gown' with a grand finale runway show on Sunday, July 26.

During a session, campers will look at current trends and inspirations, including red carpets and celebrity events. They will build mood boards and select fabrics. From there, the camper designs a dress and makes it. The final step is that she walks a runway in it at the end of the month.

Campers begin by studying fashion trends and building mood boards before selecting fabrics and creating their own dresses. The session culminates with a runway show where participants model the garments they designed and made themselves.

This summer marks the first official season of the Long Island Fashion Camp, but Berman said she's not new to teaching kids' fashion. She has taught a similar camp for years before starting her professional fashion career.

For Berman, starting this fashion camp helped bring fashion even closer to home. She said when she first moved here, she couldn't find a community of like-minded women and children locally where she felt she belonged.

"I missed inspiring others and being inspired myself. I missed working as a team — supporting each other, building each other's skills up," she said. "And I missed making something real, with my own hands, alongside other people who care about it the same way. So I built it. That's the camp."

On her journey in fashion, Berman reminisced about her hometown and her start.

"I'm from a very small town in the middle of nowhere in Siberia, where winter runs nine months of the year," she said. "Instead of watching TV, I made clothes — and I started early. My first 'collections' were for my dolls. I designed the clothes, made them, and even designed the houses they lived in."

She has been working hands-on with fabrics for as long as she can remember.

"I learned to knit before I learned to sew, and I was sewing my own garments before I started school," Berman said. "That was the beginning of a career that’s now stretched more than 20 years."

Since then, she has designed for international couture houses across ready-to-wear and runway, shown her collections on New York runways and at multiple Miami runway shows, and trained more than 300 students.

She is also the Creative Director of two fashion media channels reaching 20 million viewers a month — interviewing designers, covering runway shows, and sitting with the people who run the industry.

"And it's still very much my present, not my past," Berman said. "Fashion isn't a phase I had. It's the through-line of my entire life."

Sessions are mornings from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., afternoons from 1 to 5 p.m., or a full day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pricing is $675 per week for a half-day and $1,200 per week for a full day. Berman said everything is included, with the fabrics being sourced personally from the Garment District in Manhattan.

More information on how to reserve a spot for the last session can be found online. The camp is located at 34 Middle Neck Rd.