Houston fashion designer Luisa Nadarajah finds ways to use discarded materials in her collection
Fashion designer Luisa Nadarajah works on a design on model Angela Nichols, in her home studio.It was early 2015, and Luisa Nadarajah, then a first-year fashion student at Houston Community College, knew she didn’t yet have the technical skills to win the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s Fashion Fusion design competition. So she ventured where few fashion designers would have gone: a junk yard.
Nadarajah’s designs won the audience’s choice award at the competition and were displayed at the MFAH. The early success gave her the confidence to pursue an unconventional approach to fashion, one that puts recycled goods at the center of the design process. All of Nadarajah’s items are made to order, in accordance with her eponymous company’s zero-waste policy. At her Houston home studio, Nadarajah oversees a tight-knit team that includes fashion designer Cyndi Obasi and fashion assistant Giuliana Castillo. Together, the trio brings each sketch to life.
It’s a lesson Nadarajah learned growing up in the volcano-flanked city of Arequipa in southern Peru, where she would visit her mother’s clothing factory. Her mother was known around the city for producing expertly tailored pants that fit “the squareness of the Peruvian butt,” Nadarajah says, laughing. Later, when the family moved to Buenos Aires, she absorbed business acumen from her father, who operated a leather goods store.
“When you speak to Luisa, she has a positive energy, an aura,” says Ravi Brahmbhatt, director of HCC’s entrepreunership program. “She has a sparkle in her eye that says, ‘I want to use my skill set to do good in the world’ that is very energizing about her.”
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