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Marisol Deluna
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Marisol Patricia Luna (born June 20, 1967, in San Antonio, Texas), also known as Marisol Deluna, is an American fashion designer who specializes in couture apparel yet is most noted for her custom designed silk scarves and ties that target an unorthodox customer base in the fashion industry: non-profit organizations.
Early years
In the first grade, her own "House of Deluna" specialized in the creation of multi tier ballgowns for a royal smart set of pretty princesses.
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Encyclopedia
Marisol Patricia Luna (born June 20, 1967, in San Antonio, Texas), also known as Marisol Deluna, is an American fashion designer who specializes in couture apparel yet is most noted for her custom designed silk scarves and ties that target an unorthodox customer base in the fashion industry: non-profit organizations.
Early years
In the first grade, her own "House of Deluna" specialized in the creation of multi tier ballgowns for a royal smart set of pretty princesses. While in middle school, she paid a fellow classmate five dollars to sew a skirt of her own design for a homemaking class assignment. This would later be known as her first time to rely on production outsourcing. During her high school years, a special art class was offered just for Marisol to work on school projects. These tasks included drama productions, fundraising and advertising to promote school spirit. She was elected by her peers to the Student Council, helped lead her school's National Art Honor Society, received the "Most Artistic Senior" Academic Award and was voted "Most Iconoclastic" by her classmates upon graduation.
One of five children, she grew up in a house of her father's design in the San Antonio, Texas suburb of Alamo Heights. Her upbringing was typically suburban in all aspects of her early teen years. Babysitting was her main source of employment. She spent her free time shopping at a local mall, playing video games at 7-Eleven, watching MTV with friends and playing tennis. Always admiring her mother's Mikimoto pearls, she lived by the writings of the 1980 Lisa Birnbach's Official Preppy Handbook by dressing the part to prepdom perfection and attending Cotillion. This was until her grandfather gifted her a random pair of military issued combat boots which began a short lived 80's "punk" era that quickly merged into a quirky "hippie" stage that followed her into art school.
Name change
At 18, Marisol legally changed her surname Luna to Deluna. This is her paternal family's original Spanish name before immigrating to the United States from Barcelona, Spain. From Spanish to English, her last name Deluna literally translates to "Of moon" with its origin from Aragon, Spain. Additionally, the common Spanish name Marisol (contraction of María del Sol) means "Mary of the Sun" or "Sea and Sun".
Education
In 1985, Deluna graduated from Alamo Heights High School in San Antonio, Texas. She then earned a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute with honors and studied fashion and textile design at the New York Fashion Institute of Technology. Marisol later attended Parsons School of Design for marketing and business while preparing to start her company. Studying language at the Cervantes Institute in New York, the Ayres de Espanol in Buenos Aires and the Alliance Française in Paris and New York has enabled Marisol to be trilingual.
Company history
Her career began in New York's Garment District of the borough of Manhattan in 1989 the day following her college graduation. She worked with several fashion design houses which specialized in private label garment and fabric manufacturing, otherwise referred to in the fashion industry as "Converters". Her garment and fabric designs were found in department stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus and in the collections of fellow fashion designers Betsey Johnson, Cynthia Rowley, Nicole Miller and Anna Sui. Shortly after working for others, she created her own atelier Deluna By Design, Inc. in late 1997 selling under the brand label- Marisol Deluna New York. She started her company from her Central Park West apartment, selling primarily to friends and family members. After her first and only trade show, this fledgling company quickly outgrew her dining room table. Her ateliers are located worldwide including New York, Buenos Aires and Paris. She was elected as an Executive Member of the Fashion Group International in 1995.
Product line
Offering a signature collection of textiles, handbags, accessories and couture apparel, Marisol is most noted for her custom designed silk scarves and ties that target an unorthodox customer base in the fashion industry: non-profit organizations. Her company is structured with two product divisions. A signature collection and her non-profit endeavors. Both support the other and have done so since the inception of the company. While in her high school student council and later as a member of the New York Junior League, she saw that charitable endeavors require vital financial support and marketing. She merged the idea of fundraising with her design capabilities to address these issues.
Craftsmanship
Her signature look is developed by "old school" methods for a high tier customer base. Computer aids are rarely relied upon in the initial development of her designs as she continues to use paint and ink to create her conceptual drawings. She learned this from her father's lead, Rudolfo Sanchez Luna, a retired technically trained aerial cartographer before computers were commonly used. Skilled craftsmen manually silk screen her designs in mass production while each seamstress continues to sew her piece goods by hand. The ability to tell a meaningful story without depending on "cookie cutter" imagery throughout her collection is what make her designs so clever. This is due in part to Marisol's love of historical studies and various cultures. She researches every suitable subject matter before creating her designs.
Clientele
Marisol believes her clients appreciate fashionable items that have meaning on a personal level yet create betterment for others. Her designs are considered timeless and worn in a variety of styles to suit women of all generations. HM Queen Elizabeth II is a patron of one such organization and was presented a special scarf of Marisol's design.
She additionally has created designs for various municipalities, educational institutions, fraternal and social organizations including the Daughters of the British Empire, Girl Scouts of the USA, American Yacht Club, Associations of Junior Leagues International, Colonial Dames of America, New York City Housing Authority, Alpha Phi Foundation, San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, City of New York, Wellesley College, Cosmopolitan Club (New York) and the Smithsonian to mention a few. Notables owning her designs include US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former First Lady Laura Bush, Texas Governor Rick Perry, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the late former Governor of Texas Ann Richards and late former First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson.
Pop culture
As seen in the popular American daytime soap opera General Hospital, Marisol was written into the script as part of a story line of an episode that aired on January 2, 2008. In the scene, a dialogue between two characters mentions her as a fashion designer of good taste.
Charitable endeavors
Mentorship and philanthropy
Marisol believes that site visits allow teaching art to orphans, introducing inner city students to fashion career options, mentoring at settlement houses, public schools, women's organizations and for those in need of guidance to begin their own companies. The New York Times After School Program, Girl Scouts of the USA, the Junior League, LULAC, Friends of the Orphans and Campus de Excelencia are a few outlets that have allowed her outreach to others.
Her monetary donations to charities go beyond simply writing checks. She supports various causes globally by gifting her time and money to enhance the lives of others. Marisol appreciates seeing change occur first hand. Mentoring has always been vital in her success.
From an early age, Marisol was encouraged to be productive with her creativity.
Social affiliations
At the age of seven, the Girl Scouts of the USA was the first social outlet Marisol held a membership. Currently, she is in good standing with several notable social institutions worldwide including the Junior League, Lansdowne Club in London, University Club of Chicago, Pilgrim Society of the United States and Great Britain, New York Athletic Club, NYAC Yacht Club and United States Tennis Association among others.
Marisol married her longtime friend, attorney Jonathan Washburn Cole on June 12, 1999 at the New York Junior League in Manhattan. While she continues to use her family name professionally, her legal name is Marisol Patricia Deluna-Cole. Marisol and Jonathan have no children and live in multiple cities.
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