We spent over one month in Puerto Escondido and really had a crush for this town. One of the most iconic place is "La Punta", where surfers, locals and international tourists meet, watch the sunset and party together.
The weather is hot and humid especially during the rain season. We were looking for well adapted clothes that we could continue to wear during our travel and even when back home in Paris.
La Punta is a small place and everything is pretty much concentrated around the same corner.
The colorful clothes and bright windows of Sand Dollar Label shop attracted us. A good surprise was that everything is handmade in the region and the fabrics indeed felt really nice in the hands.
That's why we decided to meet with Irene, the shop owner, to get to know more about her brand and products. Below you can read more about her story.
"Since I was a little girl, I used to watch my grandmother sewing. She loves doing little things for the family. She taught me how to sew. Then I forgot about it for a long time, I traveled a little bit, ended up being a teacher which I enjoyed very much for a while. Years ago, I began working with embroidery, blousers, and all the mexicans hand embroidery, colorful mexican clothes. I used to work with different people from different areas and communities of Oaxaca (Mexico)
I did that for a couple of years. I always had the desire of making my own creations but I was never confident enough to do it.
I started this project in December 2019, in a little beach club. Later, I had the opportunity to open this shop in march 2020 in La Punta, Puerto Escondido which is where I always wanted the shop to be. This is when I started to expand everything: make clothes, design bags and so on"
"The name is Sand Dollar Label. But before that I had two different names for the brand. But I wasn’t sure about it, it didn’t mean anything to me. Then one day I was looking at different colors samples, and in one of the colours it was written 'Sand Dollar'.
It actually was a “Sandy colour” which I loved. I looked into it and it turns out Sand dollar is a sea animal. When it dries up it loses its shells which is beautiful."
"For me everything I make with the dresses has to do with summer, beach, female and sexy vibes. The image of the sand dollar was perfect for the brand. I like to do clothes that are easy to wear, very feminin, sexy in a very simple way. I love the simplicity of plained colours combined with floral patterns."
"I'm used to work with a few local dressmaker. They do the patterns and I focus on finding and buying the textures, the fabrics. I put together all the ideas, what I’m going to use, with what and so on... And I pass the idea onto them and they make it possible.
Sometimes things have to be changed because it is not the way I wanted. You have this idea in your head but things are not so simple. But after a while we got used to working with each other and things got simpler."
"Finding fabrics, getting inspired with whichever fabrics you are going to use. There are so many fabrics and none of them look the same!
I love buying the fabrics and just getting lost in them.
After I chose the fabrics I have to decide what I’m going to do: is it just working on a dress for which I already have a pattern? Or am I going to make some changes now? Is it a new garnment?
Then I bring that to the ladies that are going to do the work for me and after a few days it is done and it ends up in the shop."
"I’m trying to live day by day and focus on what I do. I’m trying to concentrate, keep getting new ideas, to bring to people clothes that are very attractive, easy, feminin. This is where my focus really is. Hopefully I’ll get better and my imagination and creativity will expand!
It’s not in my plans to open a new shop but I would like to be able to bring my clothes to other shops around Mexico."
"I’d like to have an online website eventually. Right now people can buy my products on Instagram. I used to sell my products through a kind of platform but i don’t give it much time at the moment. And of course in my shop in Puerto Escondido!"
