Bring Puerto Rican Designs To Life

The Bring Puerto Rican Designs To Life event, presented by MakersValley on May 4, 2017, at La Social, in Condado was a night to remember!

Local fashion designers, style influencers, the press, entrepreneurs and fashion experts, were part of this magnificent event in which MakersValley presented the opportunity to connect directly with Italian manufacturers to local fashion entrepreneurs to jump start their own brands.

The main objective of the event was to promote fashion entrepreneurship in Puerto Rico, giving local designers the opportunity of turning their designs into tangible products, produced in manufacturing factories in Italy at affordable and fair prices for both parties.

As part of the event, we had a showcase created by local fashion designers:

From left to right: Lorena Arvelo, Beatriz Rodriguez, Reynaldo José

Bea Rodriguez Suarez

She has been working as a designer for over 15 years and has presented 3 collections in "New York Fashion Week" and in Barcelona; she is also a professor of fashion design at the International School of Design at the University of Turabo.

Lorena Arvelo
She studied at CentroModa, Design School of Lisa Thon, specialized in draping in Italy and has participated in Puerto Rico Fashion Week; she is also a professor at the Turabo University.

Reynaldo José

During his 16 years of experience he has participated in many local and international events such as Novel Designer Group and Puerto Rico High Fashion Week; he is currently a professor at EDP University's Digital Fashion Design Program in San Juan.

Maricarmen González

She studied with renowned fashion designers in Puerto Rico, such as Lisa Thon and Carlota Alfaro, and has presented her collections in fashion magazines and newspapers; she is currently studying at The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.

ASZND

Last but not least, we also had a showcase by Gian Serrano and Francisco Serrano, two young entrepreneurs looking to grow up in the local fashion industry with their urban clothing brand called ASZND.

During the event, Alessio Iadicicco, CEO & Co-Founder of MakersValley, gave a presentation explaining the goal of MakersValley how they help designers create their unique collection in order to promote the local economy.

We also had the participation of Sebastián Vidal, Executive Director of Parallel 18, a program funded by the Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust, who talked about entrepreneurship and how Parallel 18 works to promote economic development on the island through the acceleration of high-impact startups; currently MakersValley is part of this program.

MakersValley united the fashion industry community in Puerto Rico at an event where the attendees had the opportunity to network and connect with people in the industry.