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In 2017, while living in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, in a tiny, incredibly expensive apartment that required me to work six days a week at two different jobs just to afford it, I had the "brilliant" idea of starting a project called Retazo. The vision was to create a circular fashion platform in Puerto Rico, planting the seeds for a complete sustainable fashion ecosystem on the island, which would include education, design, entrepreneurship, manufacturing, export, and sales. I was fortunate enough that Frances Solá Santiago, a Puerto Rican journalist and advocate for sustainability, and fashion, wrote a wonderful profile about Retazo and me for Glamour magazine. You can read it here. At that time, Retazo didn’t even have a physical space, but we had just won Pre-18, and that seed capital helped us get started. The project was extremely ambitious, and leading it required 100% of my time. RE-TAZO was a scrap of fabric, but also a big CHALLENGE. We were creating something that, while very necessary, did not exist in a country that hadn’t emerged from an economic recession since long before Maria. Retazo was the main reason I returned to the island and accepted a job at a factory in Corozal that mostly produced military uniforms, like all the clothing factories in Puerto Rico (the reason for this is a topic for another newsletter). I met the owner and proposed the idea that Retazo, then just a sketch, would come to life within his factory, Bluewater Defense. Although he didn’t allow the project to be incubated there, he did offer me a job. Since my goal was to set up a fashion factory in Puerto Rico, I accepted and left NYC to work in Corozal, where I would learn everything about textile manufacturing on the island. The plan was simple: stay at the factory for three years, learn to run it from top to bottom, and in the meantime, along with the team of co-founders, grow Retazo organically. However, I didn’t anticipate the challenge of starting two new jobs at once: Bluewater and Retazo. Coming back home after so many years away required time, and I was trying to handle it all at once. It worked for a while but at a high cost: burnout, sleepless nights, and little self-care. In the media, everything looked perfect, but the reality was different. The pandemic only made evident what I already sensed at the beginning of 2020: without dedicating myself to Retazo full-time, it wouldn’t work as a for-profit company. The focus of Retazo should always have been on education. The math didn’t add up, and it never would, although, during the pandemic, we sewed thousands of masks at our headquarters within the Sor Isolina Ferré Center so that our seamstresses wouldn’t be left without income. When I closed Retazo, I decided to take things slow. I focused on learning everything I could at Bluewater, and that’s what I did. For seven years, I led almost every department in the company, except for the cutting department (because that’s a whole different world in sewing factories; those who know, know). I learned about engineering, generated millions of dollars for the company, managed large and small programs, and led robotic sewing projects alongside important multinational corporations. On July 19, 2024, Bluewater Defense suddenly closed its doors. Overnight, more than 300 of us were left adrift (also a topic for another newsletter). Telemundo tells the story too, so here’s the video. Alongside my work at Bluewater, I’ve always continued teaching at various universities and offering consulting services. I’ve created online courses and in-person training where I teach everything I learned at Retazo, Bluewater, and in my life as a fashion designer. La pandemia solo hizo evidente lo que ya intuía a principios del 2020: sin dedicarme a Retazo a tiempo completo, no era posible que funcionara como una empresa con fines de lucro. El enfoque de Retazo siempre debió ser la educación. La matemática no cuadraba, y nunca lo haría, a pesar de que, durante la pandemia, dentro del Centro Sor Isolina Ferré para que nuestras costureras no se quedaran sin ingresos. Today, as I reflect on these years, I realize that every step, every mistake, and every success has been part of a continuous learning process. I’ve learned that patience and time are just as important as vision and passion. And although life has taken me down unexpected paths, I remain committed to my principles of sustainability and equity. Because, in the end, it’s all part of a big patchwork of experiences that shape us and guide us toward what truly matters. And with that, this story comes to an end.
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