Pinellas art teacher uses fashion design to help inspire students

LARGO, Fla. – A Pinellas County art teacher is hoping his side hustle inspires his students.

Jesse Kiebzak designs one-of-a-kind pieces, including jackets, shirts and sneakers. His customers range from Simone Biles to Machine Gun Kelly. He has also designed pieces for NFL and NBA players and their families.

“It kind of starts with doing one piece and you do one piece and you create it for somebody, and you might not know how it’s going to turn out with, you know, getting a photo back or getting, you know, them to even wear it,” he said. “But if you create something from the heart created with passion, purpose, they’re going to love it.”

Kiebzak said he uses elements and techniques in his fashion that he teaches his students at Mildred Helms Elementary School. 

“I like to incorporate what I teach the kids into my work, and then I incorporate what I do with my work and the kids as well,” he said. “When the kids really learn and understand everything that I do, it makes them buy in a little bit more. They’re super impressed, and they really, really love to see what I do on the side and are like, ‘wow, art, you can really make money from it. You can really have a career from it.’”

Kiebzak said he also hopes incorporating his brand into the classroom encourages his students to explore their own creativity.

“Art is essential. Art opens doors that you might not have access to what’s inside those doors if it wasn’t for art,” Kiebzak said. “I never dreamed of throwing out the first pitch or designing a shirt for the Tampa Bay Rays to be given out to 12,000 people, or creating art for Simone Biles or some of my friends and stuff like this. So, it’s just an honor to see my fashion on those people.”

Kiebzak’s designs are known for their abstract and distressed style.

“It’s wearable walking art. So, I like to look at, you know, a lot of people have art hang in their houses. Well, my type of art you can wear around the county. You can wear it to games,” he said.

It’s safe to say the lesson plan is working.

“I want to become an artist soon because I obviously love art so much,” Sylvain Louise Julie, a third grade student, said.

“Art can be used in many ways outside of school,” Eve McKenzie, a third grade student, said.

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