14-year-old aspiring designer helps bring Brooklyn carnival costumes to life
What started as a hobby has turned into a dream for 14-year-old Khristian Wolfe.
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With Labor Day around the corner, preparations for Brooklyn’s West Indian American Day Parade are in full swing.
At Sesame Flyers International, volunteers are busy gluing feathers, sewing beads and assembling hundreds of costumes that will soon fill Eastern Parkway.
Among them is 14-year-old Khristian Wolfe, who has become a fixture at the organization’s “mas camp.”
“I got interested my first year playing mas, and ever since I’ve been coming back to the mas camp,” Wolfe said. “Eventually I ended up in the basement during production.”
What started as a hobby has turned into a dream. Wolfe hopes to one day become a designer.
“He came into the basement last year and he never left,” said head designer Tracy Clarke, who designs and oversees the elaborate costume production.
“Carnival is more than just bikinis, beads and feathers,” Wolfe said. “It’s like a more deeper cultural meaning, but it’s also about just feeling free and being yourself when it comes to wearing a costume.”
The West Indian American Day Parade is set to take over Eastern Parkway on Labor Day, celebrating Caribbean culture with music, food and colorful costumes.
