Dona Mercy Jácquez died. It has started at a time when the fashion world has not yet recovered from the death of designer Jenny Polanco. Today her colleagues, many of whom trained with her, mourn her death.
With a frank smile, constant jokes and impeccable bearing, the so-called ‘Mother of National Fashion’ took over a special place in a world of cuts, colors and designs that will forever remember her.
She was the pioneer of Dominican fashion in its highest dimension: teaching. Through the first Higher Technical Institute of Art and Fashion, Mercy Jácquez, founded by her, she graduated a quarry of designers who today lives on her apprenticeship and which she has raised on behalf of the Dominican Republic within and outside the country.
Isabel Reynoso, president of the Fashion Institute of the Dominican Republic (InmodaRD), as well as the designers Marisol Henríquez, Giannina Azar and Leonel Lirio do not leave the astonishment and sadness for the death of who left a legacy of teaching and learning in national and international fashion.
Dozens of sewing machines will miss his caresses, because he always said it: “Among them I walk firmly and I feel in my world, because the thread, the fabrics, the seams … keep me alive. See how people trust this institute, they seek to learn and they know it. ” This is one of her recurring quotes.
Sadness
“It is sad news. We have no words to express what it feels like to leave. Many of the Dominican fashion professionals owe what they know to her. She trained a large part of us and it is her advice and techniques that have helped many designers achieve success here and abroad. Today from Inmoda we regret her departure, but we are pleased to know that she left her stamp without an expiration date. Rest in peace, Mercy, ”is how Isabel Reynoso dismisses her.
For Marisol Henríquez “this has been a deadly thrust”. He does not stop crying because it was from the hand of ‘Mother of Fashion’ who managed to make a name in design. “I arrived very young when Mercy and she welcomed me, taught me not only sewing, but how to handle myself in life, because she said that everything counts to achieve success. The truth was that she was a mother to me and to many who shine today thanks to her teachings ”.
“It is a great void that Mercy leaves. She was not a conventional designer. It was a lot, it was everything. She constantly learned and taught herself. It really leaves a clean legacy, as clean as its seams. ” With those heartfelt words, Giannina Azar says goodbye.
Leonel Lirio did not want to be left without remembering how much Mercy Jácquez contributed to Dominican fashion. “She pioneered many initiatives in the world of Dominican fashion. She believed in talent, that success is in teaching and learning, and she did not mind the passing of the years to remain involved in the world of fashion. Its a big lost”. She says it sadly.
His story
Just last year, in November 2019, Mercy Jácquez showed that her 40 years in haute couture had not taken away her inspiration and the desire to create new things.
In an interview with Listín Diario, the last one she gave to the media, the first woman to promote Dominican fashion explained that her decision to go to New York in 1968 was made “because she wanted to be someone.”
And he talked about how three days after arriving in the Big Apple, he got a job in a bag factory.
“I have never worked with industrial machines, I have never made portfolios in my life and I only had a very basic command of English,” Laura Ortiz told journalist.
Within two months, however, he had already set up his own studio.
During the decade that he remained in the United States, Jácquez studied design at Columbia University and worked in the Fashion District of New York.
Upon returning to Santo Domingo he set up his workshop. “But over time, young people began to arrive with the desire to learn about design and I could not refuse.”
Thus was born one of the passions that he most enjoyed: sharing his knowledge with young people. And so the first technical education center in the country in the area of art and fashion design was born: the Mercy Jácquez Higher Technical Institute.
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