Already a fashion designer, Marcela Peralta decided to take the next step in her career and learn to sew through our Training Institute. Months later, she’s winning contests and dropping one line after another.

Marcela Peralta remembers watching black and white films with her grandmother as a young girl, commenting on the characters’ ensembles. She doesn’t even remember the plot of most of them. “Me and her, we’d watch them just for the fashion,” she said. “She taught me so much about style.”

Born and raised in Astoria, Queens to immigrant parents, Marcela is a first-generation fashion designer, following in her grandmother’s footsteps. “She’s a designer, she would make all these rock n’ roll leather pants,” Marcela said proudly of her Nicaraguan grandmother. “Being a fashion designer was a dream of mine since I was a little girl.” Now, she’s the founder and owner of the Marcela Collection and recently won a design contest with the Black Design Matters Fellowship Program.

Before fashion, Marcela worked in the medical field, but couldn't accept the rigid structure, “I’m not a 9 to 5 person, I can’t wake up everyday and do the same thing over and over. ” She decided to make a career shift and did PR and marketing in the entertainment industry, which laid the foundation for her fashion career. “Every other person’s brand or project that I’ve worked on blows up. It seems like everything I touched turns to gold but I never get any recognition or compensation,” she reflected.

Marcela’s first project completed during the Training Institute.

When searching for the right dresses and accessories for her best friend’s wedding, she thought about how much easier it would be if she could design everything herself and launched her first line in bridal wear. From there, it quickly expanded. “‘We need stuff for the club girl!’ my friends said, so I started making that as well,” Marcela recalled.

Now, she’s working one three new collections simultaneously. “My passion is glitter, glam girl stuff, but so many guys were asking me to make sweatsuits, and then their girls wanted matching ones! That’s what I’m about to drop right now, the M Collection. And everything is made in America! I manufacture here in NYC’s garment district.” Marcela is also preparing products for Custom Collaborative’s holiday market, but most excitingly, she’s working on samples for the contest she won.

At the end of Custom Collaborative’s Training Institute, a design competition was announced that offered up-front manufacturing to the winner. “It’s a five piece collection, I worked really hard on it and submitted it not thinking I would win at all.” The contest is a collaboration between One432 & Custom Collaborative, called The Black Design Matters Fellowship Program. “They called me on Zoom and I thought they were just going to critique my designs, and then they said I won! They manufacture for me and I get to keep all the profit the line makes.” She praised Custom Collaborative for the opportunity, “the support from these women is incredible. I’d never had that before in the fashion industry - this level of support from other Black and brown women.”

Before the Training Institute, Marcela had been living in Hollywood, California. She came home to New York in February for a surgery and received an email from Custom Collaborative inviting her to an open house. “I was already a designer and I had a brand already, but I didn’t know how to sew. It had been a hindrance to me,” she said. When she was accepted into the program, Marcela decided to stay in New York to complete the Training Institute. Then, COVID hit. “I totally freaked out,” she recalled. “When it hit New York, I was so paranoid. I went to the supermarket and there was nothing. No bread, no meat, nothing… I didn’t know if it was the apocalypse.” Immediately, she started making face masks and produced hundreds at the height of the country's mask shortage.

She went to Florida to stay with her mom for three months before returning to L.A., all the while completing the rigorous Training Institute. “It was so hard to get through. If it weren’t for Ms. T & Ms. Veronica, I would have quit the program. It was a struggle for me to learn to sew remotely, but they did the best they could.” The program was full time, six hours a day and Marcela not only completed it while moving across the country twice, but won the competition at the end. She couldn’t stop praising her entrepreneurship coach, Ms. Veronica. “She’s a beast! She’s the one that literally hand-picked the trends of the 90s… she was the first person to bring Versace to New York!” With such an immense passion for her work and mentors like Ms. V, Marcela is bound for the success she deserves.

“I love them,” she said of Custom Collaborative. “Look at the opportunities they gave me!” Although the program was hard and often frustrating due to online learning, Marcela persisted and continues to work tirelessly towards her goals.

Check out her new streetwear line at themarcelacollection.com, or on Instagram @themarcelacollection

Class of 2020: Marcela

Already a fashion designer, Marcela Peralta decided to take the next step in her career and learn to sew through our Training Institute. Months later, she’s winning contests and dropping one line after another.