FROM THE DESK OF ALESSANDRA PEREZ-RUBIO

"Every goal we reach has once been part of a dream we thought would never come true." - Sandra Cooze

I spent the last week and a half visiting my parents in California.  When I arrived, sitting on my nightstand was a large 3 volume stack of my baby books, a carefully curated and highly detailed accounting of my life, by my mom, until I was 18 years old.  I hadn’t looked through it in years so of course I started perusing the pages, and happily came across some of my very first fashion sketches. I was baffled to see some of the similarities to dresses I drew on scratch paper when was 10 or 11, to the dresses I’ve designed at Mestiza more than two decades later. It dawned on me that I am quite literally doing what I have always dreamed of doing since I was a little girl. My mom even jotted a note in the corner of one of the drawings that I was going to be a fashion designer when I grew up. How wild is that?!

A gown sketch from a young Alessandra that reminds us of the best selling  Georgiana Gown she has designed for Mestiza.

A few months ago, I wrote about feeling like a little bit of an imposter in this industry, that I surely knew nothing about designing dresses and that this was all some sort of fluke. And I think, from time to time, I will still feel that way. But, until I saw those dress doodles in my baby book, I had completely forgotten that I have loved designing dresses for my the entirety of my life. The only difference now is that people actually wear them! I was reminded that fashion has been running through my veins since I was a kid, and knowing that gives me a little more conviction and confidence that this is not just my job, but my dream realized.

Another grouping of sketches from Alessandra in 2004. Doesn't the middle piece remind you of the Torero Gown?