Lily Rivera Designs Wedding Dresses with a One-of-a-Kind Style
By Meg Hale Brunton
For owner/designer Lily Rivera, the creation of her own line of bridal gowns was the culmination of artistic expression, years of working in different areas of the design industry, and her connection to her grandmother. She has found that it has all added up to building a business that she is truly passionate about.
Rivera was brought up partially in Puerto Rico, and the other part near Boston, Massachusetts. “I used to watch my grandmother sew, and I would watch for scraps to fall on the floor and I would grab them for my Barbie dolls and make dresses,” she recalls. When she became a teenager, Rivera would draw up her own funky ‘80’s-style dresses, then have her grandmother sew them. She recalls carrying around her sketchpad throughout high school, in case a design idea came to her.
Rivera attended Bay State College in Boston, and graduated in 1992 with a degree in fashion design and marketing. Though she felt she had acquired the basics of fashion knowledge, Rivera found it hard to break into the fashion industry with no work experience. She landed two part-time jobs in bridal shops and discovered a new passion. “I became fascinated with bridal. When I went into that world, I just fell in love with it,” she says. “I’ve been doing that ever since.”
Rivera had to put her passion for design on hold to support her first husband as he started his career. Quick to utilize her textile skills, Rivera landed jobs in research and development and product management with the Sara Lee Corporation and Simplicity Creative Group, respectively. His job moved them and their children from town to town, preventing Rivera from accepting the promotions she earned. She also did alterations and custom dresses out of her home. In those varied roles, Rivera honed her skills in everything from sourcing, manufacturing, pricing, and wholesaling- all skills which she now utilizes on a daily basis in her own business. “When I think about my life, all those little bits are coming together now,” she says of what she learned through those jobs.
After her family moved to North Port, Florida, Rivera finally opened her own little shop, Lily’s Alterations. Sadly, when her marriage ended, she had to close down the business and got a job as store manager of David’s Bridal in West Palm Beach. While Rivera reflects on this as a difficult time for her and her family, it led to her meeting her future business partners, who helped her acquire a storefront, and begin doing her own designs. It also led her to her true prince, Edgardo, whom she has been married to for ten years now. Her partners encouraged her to brand her business using her full name, Lily Rivera Bridal.
In February 2020, Rivera was selected out of 5,000 emerging designers worldwide to bring her designs to the runway for New York Fashion Week. “It was amazing! A lot of doors opened from that opportunity,” she says of Fashion Week, although she acknowledges that the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down her professional progress. “I didn’t let that stop me. I kept designing; I kept doing my thing.”
In 2021, Rivera moved Lily Rivera Bridal to a new, larger location in Punta Gorda, where she began building her bridal collection. Rivera designed the shop with the workroom in the front and the showroom in the back, thinking that her customers would enjoy getting to go behind-the-scenes to observe the dressmaking process. “They’re fascinated to see my mess,” she says. “They want to see the fabric and the beads everywhere. It’s made such a difference in the business.” Rivera is also conscious of keeping her dresses affordable, with the majority of their prices between $1,500 to $2,500.
Rivera says she has a soft spot for her brides, and has been incredibly honored by the ones who have traveled to Florida just to meet with her. “I get to know them. It’s different from just a sales transaction,” she says. Rivera loves hearing brides comment on how different her ethereal designs are from the dresses in other bridal shops. Besides designing, her favorite part of dress-making is the beadwork, hand-detailing and embellishments- the little finishing touches that she says really set the dress apart. “I look back to a lot of old Hollywood and a bit into history books. I like to pull little things here and there. And I make it modern, so my things aren’t going to look like a period piece. My things are a mix of whimsical, a little vintage, but also a little hint of sexy.”
This Fall, Rivera is excited to roll out her new line of gowns, which she is keeping small (8-12 designs) in an effort to maintain what she refers to as ‘that slow fashion movement.’ “I’m trying to do something that’s sustainable, that’s meaningful,” she says. She takes pride in the fact that all of her dresses are made entirely in the U.S., and are available in multiple states nationwide. “My ultimate dream is just that. I want to see my dresses in every single shop in the entire country.” Rivera has also partnered with a Dallas tech company to create NFC block chain tags for her dresses, so each one is registered for authenticity to prevent counterfeiting. She can also use the scannable tags to send personalized messages to her brides and tell them all about their dress.
Though she admits to working ‘mad hours,’ Rivera says that she is now in her ‘happy place’ professionally. She loves getting to work with a micro-team of friends and family, including her daughter who does all the gown photography. Rivera attributes much of her success to a piece of advice she was once given about starting a new business. “You have to innovate, find ways to do things differently in the industry,” she recalls being told. “If you want to stand out, you’re gonna have to take some risks.” Rivera has certainly exemplified those qualities in the personalized way she built her business and the unique style she brings to every dress in her line.
Learn more about Lily Rivera Bridal and see her designs at her website: https://lilyrivera.com/
