Since I was a little girl I always dreamed of becoming a fashion designer. Born and raised in the Dominican Republic, at a very early age I developed an interest for clothing and drawing. I will persuade my mother to dress me up like the dolls I will play with, as you can see from the picture, my mother tried to match the outfit completely including the red lipstick for my 2 year old birthday party. My favorite pastime growing up were of course drawing and painting I started my school years a year early because my older sister insisted for me to accompany her at school. My grandmother was a seamstress and my mother recalls seeing me as a child spending a lot of time looking at abuela sewing. I was always complimented for my art drawings, my art was always selected for art shows which made me feel very good. Taking art courses at Museo de Casas Reales in Santo Domingo was a great opportunity for me, even though I was very young, I enjoyed taking the classes and was always impressed with our professor, painter Elsa Nuñez. During my grade school years my mom had noticed my interested in fashion design and decided to volunteer some of my afternoons helping out a small manufacturing company less than a block away from my house in the historic Zonia Colonial de Santo Domingo. At that small company I used to help out painting with a brush all of the flower ornaments that will decorate the baby clothes that they were preparing. As usual, being the timid person that I am , I didn't had much to say to all of the people working there, but I remember being complemented a lot on the little that I did. I remembered having a conversation with the owner of the company where she had asked me what I wanted to do in the future and I had told her about my desired to become a great fashion designer, she told me that her daughter was in college studying fashion design and that she had to make a dress out of newspaper for a school project, I thought that was interesting, but at the same time I thought why would anyone will want to do such thing, and looking back now at all of the stuff that is being used to create good fashion art in schools and TV competition shows such as Project Runway is actually quite interesting. I was probably not even 8 years old when I decided what to call my company, Julissa designs. I will be drawing every time I had the chance to even during school times getting the attention of my schoolmates that were seating nearby. "Oh Julissa that's so cute, let me see it", can I keep it? I am going to take it to my a seamstress and have it made". I felt so honored...and I will write at the bottom on that page Julissa Designs. I never knew is she really had the dress made, but just seeing her desire to do so and her enthusiasm made my day. Growing up as a Christian in a Christian home I at a very early I had the idea of sending a tract with every dress that I will sell, I figured that way I can spread the gospel to everyone who purchased an item from my store I thought of this when I was so young, that I even wondered in my head how can I ship dresses with a tract , then I figured I will just attached it to the hanger, not even thinking, it will be shipped in a box. The cool thing about this anecdote is that now God has allowed me to send my tracts with every item I sell So if you receive a tract in the box alongside your item, don't worry it was thought about it long before. Attending High School was very exciting for me. I felt like I was just taking steps towards achieving my dream. From my first Sewing class with Mrs. Allen to my wonderful Art classes with Mr.Obre. I found it enjoyable to go to class everyday and do what I loved to do. Junior year came along I looked into colleges, I was very determined, just taking steps towards my dream. I learned about the Fashion Institute of Technology and Parson School of Design, my school advisor knew those were the right schools for me. Senior year came along and I sent out my college applications, FIT decided to give me a chance to go to the institute and take a drawing test to be analyzed by the professors in ordered to be accepted into the school. So I did and I passed the test, it was a very happy day. God has other plans for me, maybe I am meant to start my own clothing line, whatever the reason is I've learned to worry for nothing, I have changed a lot after my college graduation, I remembered that I am living in God's time and that whatever the outcome is, I know it will be the perfect scenario because I am a child of the King. I had built this website during the last days of Summer in 2004 because I wanted a place to showcase all of my work. I am a Fashion Designer with a very active Fashion Design mind, I design collections for every season. I come to my site and it is like my own little design house that I treasure a lot. I thank you for taking the time to read about my story.