I was born in the Dominican republic in the southern city of Baraona in the village of Haquimelle I’ve been interested in sewing and designing clothes since I was about five years old. At the age of nine my mother brought me my first sewing machine. I started designing and sewing clothes for my dolls that’s when I knew that this was the line of work that I wanted to do. I migrated to New York City with my six month daughter at the age of nineteen. I started working in the garment district as a seamstress t and two years later I enrolled at F..T. But due to my limited English I had to drop out after one semester. I took some English courses in night school and then enrolled at the Mayor’s School of design where I earned a certificate in fashion design.
I then in enrolled F.I.T. to study pattern making. My interest in fashion design which I had since I was five was now my first priority and working in the fashion capitol of the world have been able study other designers and learn about their creations. I have worked with various designer in the New York City area since 2002 prior to that I worked in Windows on the World restaurant in One World Trade Center. As a seamstress, I was about three blocks away on 9/11 when the first plane hit. This tragedy took a toll on me as I lost practically all my co-workers and three very personal friends. I did not work on any ideas for my line for a year due to my depression. Slowly I started getting back in the business by working with various fashion designer and working on my line GRACIASMEDINA DESIGN in the evening and on weekends, I started attending fashion shows and studying the designs.
I created my designs which are unique and classy with Ideas from designs that I came across but mostly from Ideas that just popped into head, the name GRACIASMEDINA is a combination of the last part of my first name and last name (altaGRACIASMEDINA).
GRACIASMEDINA DESIGN By Altagracia Medina
Altagracia Medina
Ph: 347.499.4035
Email: altamedina5@aol.com
