Creativity is inborn, and anyone who wants to explore their creative side must be willing to take daring risks. Eda Lourdes Aguilar did exactly that by channeling her love for dancing, modeling, and theatre into a passion that spurred her to follow her dreams in fashion.
With a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in business administration from the University of Puerto Rico and Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, Eda Lourdes dropped a 15-year career in finance and investments to go after something she wanted. She started a new life, acquired new knowledge, and established Edalou Paris, a thriving fashion line.
Moving from New York to Paris will always remain the fulcrum in the wheel that set her journey into motion. She set out to find love but instead found much more, established a business, created brands, and has become a sought out designer in the fashion industry. From a young age, as early as three years old, Eda started dancing, and she looked up to numerous mentors in the fine arts like Ita Medina, Petra Bravo, and a host of others.
She participated in over a thousand talent competitions between her years in high school and college. Those were times of great happiness! I miss the stage and the adrenaline of dancing or performing in front of an audience,” she said. She had a brief stint in filmmaking when she moved to New York as an extra on shows like The Following. All of that contributed to her desire to be in the creative industry, where she’s building a reputable name today.
Eda attended Parsons the New School for Art & Design while garnering experience by working for fashion houses like KENZO, IRO, APPARIS, Miriam Budet, Koshka Paris, and Lemloren. The experience she gained from working with these brands gave her all the insider knowledge and insights that spurred her to launch EDALOU PARIS.
“My goal is to create multifunctional designs that suit visionary women who are professional, discerning, active, and stylish. Women have largely influenced my journey from my mother to my aunts and girlfriends, so I want women to connect with my brand and draw strength from what it represents,” Eda said. “Women that like my products want to transform themselves into the best version of themselves,” she added.
After five years of working for some of the top fashion houses in Paris, in 2019, the mother of two picked up her fashion designing career again by sending in a third application to the New York City Design Competition: Independent Handbag Designer Awards. She was chosen as a finalist out of the 2,000 designers that applied. The competition birthed her handbag brand, “La Coucou,” a handbag for women.
“It’s like someone saying hello and “here I am to enjoy the world and all that it offers,” Eda described. La Coucou received an award in April 2021 from the World’s largest and most diffused international design contest: A Design Award & Competition.
Creating an inspiring business personality, a brand sweeping through the fashion industry, and raising two boys are all the things that have made Eda Lourdes into the awe-inspiring woman she is. Her goal is to keep working on EDALOU Paris and getting its collections into stores that share the brand’s values.
She also intends to give back to women looking to transform themselves by creating mentoring, educational, and support programs.
Learn more about EDALOU PARIS on the brand’s official website. Also, follow Eda Lourdes herself on her official Instagram page.
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