Edwin Reyes ~ The Puerto Rican Designer Sewing His Roots

Photo Courtesy: Edwin Reyes

A smile plastered on his face, Edwin Reyes entered our call ready to talk about his work – and we were eager to get started. Between working with Mayor Mamdani, learning from art curator Edra Soto, and honoring Toñita (yes, that one!), Reyes is really only getting started.

We had the pleasure of speaking with Edwin Reyes to learn more about his newest collection, Sankofa, his historical inspirations, and what it means for him to have his roots take center stage. 

Without further ado, Tilde Magazine presents Edwin Reyes.

Tilde Mag: At what point did you decide you wanted to incorporate your roots into your designs? 

ER: I think it kind of grew up as the brand developed. I started the brand when it was named Fine, and then it was transferred to Finest by Edwin Reyes, and then, in recent years, I switched over to my name, ‘Edwin Reyes.’ I really tapped into my heritage and into who the ‘ER woman’ is by incorporating my culture, where I come from in New York, and building a bridge between island culture and New York City's landscape. My three pillars for the brand are sustainability, culture, and heritage. 

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Tilde Mag: We saw your beautiful blue dress that had Puerto Rico stitched into it, and it stopped us in our tracks. What was your thought process? 

ER: Thank you! That particular stitch is called a chain stitch, and it was all hand-sewn. On the island, you see two little dots inside that map, and those two little dots are where my family's towns are. I've been trying to build more of the heritage side of the brand in terms of hand-stitching, sequin work, and screen printing. I wanted to build the bridge between New York and Puerto Rico, bring our cultures together, because those two things are in me. I wanted to make a dress that represents that. I didn't want the chain stitch to pop as much because it kind of represented who the brand is.

Tilde Mag: Do you do a lot of research before you go ahead and pull from your roots? What does that creative process look like?

ER: A lot of research, whether on the internet or from other friends who have bodies of work that I want to know more about. For example, in my latest collection, Sankofa, I reached out to a friend of mine; her name is Edra Soto, and she's a really huge Puerto Rican artist on the island and here in America. She has a huge body of work of the rejas that you see throughout the island. And so, creating that collection, I was like, 'Oh, what were my first memories of going to Puerto Rico?' And it was the ornate gates. So I reached out to her to pick her brain: what should I research? Where should I go? What direction should I go in? Friends, people, historians- that's my research process.

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Gates are on loan by Multimedia Artist Lucia Hierro

Tilde Mag: So you’ve done the research, what’s next?  

ER: I like to just sit down and design the whole collection and draft it up, not until it's done, but until there's a good foundation where I can pick from. I don't really draw with color that much - I'll do a little bit, but I'm more of a basic pencil-and-pen sketch type of person, and then I'll build. So, for example, there's a blue skirt in the Sanfoka collection where there's a beautiful yolk skirt, and it kind of just layers out really nicely, but on the edge there are hearts and some beading that I added. And so I only drew the skirt, and then later I was like, 'Oh, let me add the hearts of the gates on the edge of the skirt.' It's more like a building process. I like having the foundation, and then go from there. 

How long do you think it takes you to build a piece or build a collection from start to finish?

ER: I'm going to say two to three months depending on the size of the collection. I usually like doing a cute seven-piece collection. That's doable.

Tilde: What do you hope people get out of your Sankofa collection?

ER: With Sankofa, I really wanted to bring a more contemporary version of what the gates really mean – because, you know, at the end of the day, colonization happened ... enslaved Africans were brought to the island to do work ... and so, those gates came from that. Those symbols came from their culture. It's a reminder of what they went through. I'm always like, 'Wow, it's crazy that they left these motifs for us to remember them and what they went through to create these gates.’ With the Sankofa collection, people were sending me pictures or DMs … even here in New York, because you see the gates everywhere. It reminded people of the collection, and so that's the connection that I wanted to create.

Tilde: We saw you teamed up with Mayor Mamdani’s team to honor Toñita. What was that like?

ER: So that was amazing! It happened so insanely quickly. They reached out to me. It was so funny because I was just on Instagram and then put my phone down; thirty minutes later, I see Zohran Mandani in my DM’s. I was like, screenshot first, because this is hilarious. They reached out to make a piece for Toñita to honor her for all the great work she's done — she's been there for over 50 years making a safe space for Puerto Ricans to go and have fun — not just Puerto Ricans, but other Latin communities as well.  

They wanted to create a piece for her. I was inspired by the original ruffled skirt that I made last year - I've always wanted to make a vignette of that original skirt where you can hang it somewhere in your house like an actual art piece. And so I was like, 'Oh, how about we do this? … put it in a beautiful frame, put a nice plaque on it, and gift it to her.'

Tilde: What about telling Puerto Rico's story felt like the right move?

ER: I've always celebrated my culture. I did a show dedicated to Hurricane Maria years ago. I had bomba players and women dancing plena, and we had a drummer as well, playing throughout the show. I had the beautiful black-and-white flag as the centerpiece, and the girls would come out dressed up in the pieces. I've always celebrated my culture. I think now it's a bigger thing because, like, you know, Bad Bunny is doing his whole thing, but I've always done it. 

What compliments mean the most to you when you have people watching?

ER: When people send me DMs; when they go to Puerto Rico, and it reminds them of a piece that they saw. Taking pictures of the gates throughout New York.

I love that! So, what's next for you?

ER: I have a few projects in the pipeline. I think, at the moment, I might kind of take a little break this year.  I'm in the semi-planning stages for 2027. I'm starting from now too because, like, certain projects should start in advance.

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To keep up with Edwin, you can follow him on Instagram: @edwinreyes.nyc