Nina Nieves - Family Owned Luxury Capes

Nina Nieves was inspired by the matriarchs of our Puerto Rican family and their timeless style. Our introductory piece is a luxury cape made with 100% Merino wool (the original sustainable fabric) and our first production run was proudly made in the U.S. Throughout our two year journey to get the first cape sample produced we worked with a variety of companies to have them bring our vision to life and were disappointed in the product each time. We tried companies in Miami, Puerto Rico and New York. The problem was we did not have the ability to go right to the source - the seamstress creating the garment. In fact, hiring a seamstress seemed impossible as many do not freelance for lack of a steady income stream in an already low paying industry - the average salary is $26K. The more we researched the more disappointing it was to see how this prestigious craft was sadly dwindling in the US. The average age of a seamstress is 50 years old with 74% being female. It is no wonder that it’s a niche industry now since approximately more than 98% of the clothing used by Americans is supplied by overseas producers, according to census data. 

And so the Nina Nieves mission became twofold - to empower women with a quality crafted cape and statement piece and to empower the women producing them by creating more jobs in the apparel industry, one at a time if that’s what it takes. For our Fall/Winter collection we have secured funding for another small production run with an apparel company based outside of NYC. The owner recently asked how consistent our production runs will be because if we are able to secure production runs he would be able to plan ahead and bring back more seamstresses that they had to furlough due to COVID. The more our family discussed production and that conversation, the more passionate we became and remembered our grandmother sharing with us how she was a young mom with her five girls. She created sewing kits to sell to be able to contribute to their household income. Her contribution with those sewing kits afforded my grandparents the opportunity to buy their first home. It all just came full circle and became so much bigger than us. We have long term goals to continue with this company since they have been so wonderful and supportive in helping us create handmade pieces at very low minimums. Hearing the owner say it would be a possibility to bring more seamstresses on, specifically for Nina Nieves, just made us more determined to secure funds for the next run. If we can empower both sides, the consumer and the creator, now that’s magic! 

Our goal is to secure funds for additional production runs and potentially onboard another seamstress for Nina Nieves. We are planning on launching a new summer cape with a lighter fabric to have a cape for each season, therefore not making our collection a seasonal product and being able to generate revenue year-round. This will secure the summer collection run and we can get started on Fall/Winter 2022. Existing revenue would be put back into marketing. We would be able to increase our minimums for production, produce more capes and be able to discuss long term growth and permanent seamstresses for our collections. Creating more jobs and ensuring we can stay in business producing the US is our main priority.