Who wants to go to fashion camp?

Tweens and teens who participate in Fashion Camp NYC don’t roast marshmallows around a campfire. Instead, they learn how to put together blog posts, absorb presentations from designers and industry insiders, and conceptualise their own fashion brands. It’s all part of each camper’s bid to be the next big fashion star. You know, in about six years, when they all finish uni.

‘I used to go to summer camp, but it was just ...’ Madison Snyder, 16, shrugged to the New York Times. ‘We’re all into fashion and know we want to do something about it later in life, so we found out about this and took an opportunity just to learn.’

Our favourite part of the week-long camp isn’t the mental image of campers noshing on cupcakes while they flip through magazine issues to find inspiration for fictional brands. It’s when they venture out to stores like Saks and Barneys for ‘market visits’.

‘Indeed,’ says the NYT, when one group ‘visited Hermès on Fifth Avenue on a Thursday to find real-life examples of trends, the scene more closely resembled spies doing reconnaissance than camp friends on a shopping spree.’

Sound terrifying. Anyone for dodgeball and popsicles?