Today we’d like to introduce you to Yesenia Garcia and Jacqueline Menjivar.
Diosa León is a Latinx fashion brand rooted in authentic inclusion & community. We are on a mission to elevate QTBIPoC (queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, people of color) while democratizing the accessibility of sustainable & ethical fashion. Created by two Latinx sisters, Yesenia Garcia, CEO & Co-Founder, and Jacqueline Menjivar, COO & Co-Founder with combined expertise in the field of 15 years.
We created Diosa León as the antidote for those who have felt out of place and secondary to the fashion industry’s beauty standards. While creating this brand the most important thing to us was to give underrepresented customers a platform of complete freedom, self-expression, and empowerment.
While working in the fashion industry, we found a lacking component: authenticity in representation and environmental responsibility. We are daughters of an immigrant from Honduras who worked in an American owned factory where she was treated poorly and paid pennies. We are determined to disrupt the industry that undermined her value by taking ownership of these spaces and treating our people with the dignity and respect they deserve.
We both worked together at a very well known global fast-fashion brand. The work environment was toxic and left us depleted in a space we didn’t feel seen. Yesenia continued to work in the fashion industry as a fashion merchandiser & buyer for over ten years, while Jax left the fashion industry disillusioned and steered her career into the non-profit sector. We came together with our complementary skill sets to create a fashion brand that puts people over profit. We are community builders, we want our customer to come to Diosa León for community & resources, and treat our store as the gift shop on their way out– a souvenir that serves as a reminder that they are part of a community that sees them for their gifts and not a market share to be gained.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Our brand launched December of 2019 with a focus on women’s footwear– As the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we did not know what the future held for our brand, but we turned to our community to figure out what resources where needed. Our community is what anchors us.
Keeping with our mission to do meaningful community outreach work, when it became apparent that the COVID-19 pandemic would disproportionately affect BIPOC communities, we knew we had to do something. We witnessed the confusion and misinformation especially in Latinx, non-English speaking households that we jumped into action by creating a COVID-19 resource page and instructional videos for filing for unemployment.
We joined forces with a fellow Latinx seamstress who was making masks to donate to frontline, essential, & farmworkers. With the closing of non-essential businesses she was preparing to close her business for good, but we put a program in place in which for every mask sold, we would donate a mask to frontline workers. We were featured in various media outlets for our work, including Telemundo, and sales went through the roof. We were not prepared for the demand, but we rose to the challenge. We were able to keep our seamstress in business, donate over 500 face coverings, and raised enough capital to launch our first apparel line, “Community Rich” collection.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Our products have a purpose and keep our focal point on underrepresented communities in need. We are most proud of our community work, that is invaluable to us. To be able to grow alongside our community and offer resources and tools they might not otherwise have access to flourish.
Our brand is anchored in community and inclusion. Our first product was a skin-tone inclusive shoe, as sisters we have two very different skin-tones and know what it is like to shop for a “nude” that is not our skin tone at all.
Our Community Rich apparel is printed in LA and it combines quarantine couch comfort with streetwear athleisure. With every purchase, we donated face coverings to the Navajo Nation which was disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 with a higher infection rate than any other U.S. state and received little to no aid from the government.
We will be launching our wide fit shoes this Fall and are looking forward to adding products to our store that socially conscious and focus on groups of people that are usually an afterthought in fashion retail.
What were you like growing up?
Jax: I was a very bossy and goofy kid. Not much has changed except that now I think of myself as a natural-born leader with a great sense of humor. I am the eldest in a Latinx family lead by a single mother, so I learned how to play a supportive role for our mom from a very early age. I had to grow up fast because I was also our mom’s translator, so not only was I going to my sibling’s parent-teacher conferences but also my own. From that awkward life experience, I learned how to take constructive criticism.
I believe that my upbringing set me up to be the COO of Diosa León, I have a logistical brain and my foresight is definitely one of my superpowers. Growing up, I witnessed my mother bring up her little pueblo in Honduras with her, even if she was thousands of miles away she never forgot her community. She brought electricity and running water to our pueblo, her actions instilled in us a deep sense of social responsibility.
Yesi: I was bullied and teased a lot as a kid for being dark skin and having curly hair in Orange County until we moved to Long Beach school systems. In Long Beach, my appearance was accepted but my English was too “white washed” I never felt like I fit in or belonged anywhere. I was considered a wild child & teen, I always questioned authority and why things had to done the way “it’s always been done” I also always stood up for what was right even if that got me into (good) trouble because I knew what it felt like to be “othered”. I poured over fashion magazines and always admired my mother & sister’s fashion sense and loved the confidence I saw transform in them when they got done up, I loved chasing that feeling but also showing other women how to achieve that level of self-love and confidence within themselves. Clothing for me is what set me apart, it didn’t matter what my skin or hair looked like if I could show my creativity through the way I dressed, I enjoyed beating people to the punch, instead of being put in a box of their creation, I wanted to tell them who I was, through fashion choices of my own creation.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.Diosaleon.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @diosaleon
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DiosaLeonOfficial
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