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Over the course of 10 weekends and 30 sold-out shows, people aren’t just stunting outside San Juan’s El Choli for Bad Bunny’s “No me quiero ir de aquí” residency this summer—they’re helping boost Puerto Rico’s economy, injecting what’s conservatively estimated to be around $200 million into the island. Beyond tickets, airfare, hotels, and other tourism-related spending, concert-goers have put their money behind Puerto Rican designers and fashion brands, to outfit them for La Residencia and beyond.
“Everybody s busy and working on it indirectly,” says Michelle Otero, the co-founder and designer of Ecliptica. “We re just riding the wave, and it s been beautiful.”
Otero has been running the San Juan-based eveningwear and bridal brand—known primarily for its intricate made-to-order Atelier pieces, favored for quinceañeras, high school proms, weddings, and other special occasions one might want to dress up in beads for—alongside her sister Norein since 2000. In the aftermath of Hurricane María, though, it expanded into ready-to-wear through a diffusion line, Ecliptica Isla, dedicated to celebrating Puerto Rican culture through a nostalgic lens. Its most recent collection, titled “Centro,” dropped in March, featuring colorful graphics of chickens, tropical fruit, mundillo lace, dominos, and moka pots. It couldn’t have been more thematically aligned with Bad Bunny’s “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” released in January, which pays homage to the island’s history, uplifts its cultural heritage, and celebrates its resilience.
In the months since the album’s release, fans have felt inspired to revisit iconic pieces of Puerto Rican folklore—like the straw pava hat, the flor de maga, the mundillo lace—and incorporate them into their lives (and concert ‘fits). Otero has seen it firsthand, with demand for Isla skyrocketing, and even surpassing that for Atelier. “It s interesting seeing everybody discovering what we already had as a consequence of the music,” she says. “We ve never seen so many orders since 2018.”
A lot of those orders came in after singer-songwriter RaiNao—who features on the song “Perfumito Nuevo”—appeared on stage at La Residencia wearing the Taino Reversible Skirt. (Her top was custom Atelier.) Ecliptica already had a relationship with the artist, having dressed her to perform alongside Bad Bunny on “Saturday Night Live” in May. RaiNao had actually bought the skirt herself, and reached out afterwards to inquire about having a top made for the concert. “Everything has happened pretty organically,” Otero says.
The brand had a big bump in sales in July, as a result of both RaiNao and Gabriela Berlingeri wearing Isla. (Berlingeri’s been a longtime client and collaborator of Ecliptica’s, which always sees a boost whenever she posts and tags.) Many of these orders have come from people who are new to the brand; some who’ve found themselves in town for the concert have even dropped by Ecliptica’s showroom in Miramar to ask specifically for Isla. (While still made-to-order, Isla is more accessibly-priced than the custom Atelier pieces: A dress from Isla will set you back $180, whereas one from Atelier would start at $680.)
For brands like Ecliptica—which have a slow fashion ethos and operate somewhere with limited manufacturing power—communicating their production timelines with customers who want to support, but also want their pieces ASAP, is a challenge. Yazmín “Yayi” Perez has found herself in that position after Bad Bunny himself wore not one, but two of her guayaberas—traditional shirts made of lightweight materials like linen—on stage at his residency.
A graduate of Polimoda Firenze, Politecnico di Milano, and the Fashion Institute of Technology, Perez founded her namesake label in 2018 with a goal to sustainably produce her ready-to-wear in Puerto Rico. She’s become known for her guayaberas, which Bad Bunny first wore out while doing press earlier this year. (The shirt, embroidered with the silhouette of El Morro and the Viejo San Juan skyline, was a gift from his photographer Eric Rojas, who had bought some shirts for himself at the brand’s store in Miramar.) “I saw it on Instagram and was like, ‘Yes! He liked it!,’” she says.
Not long after that, Bad Bunny’s styling team reached out about an opportunity to work on something for the residency. Perez and her team spent the next few months doing research—not just on the history of Puerto Rico, but also on the evolution of the guayabera. In all, she made eight tops and four bottoms, based on the brand’s best-sellers, made to the artist’s measurements, and featuring elements that speak to the album’s themes and Puerto Rican culture. He wore two on opening night (which just so happened to be the eve of Perez’s wedding): the Cordillera, which boasts an outline of the Cordillera Central, the mountain range that crosses the interior of Puerto Rico; and the Isola, which has triangular pockets and striped pleats down the front, mimicking the flag.
Perez works with seamstresses in her studio to fulfill orders, one of the only designers still making guayaberas in Puerto Rico. (The apparel industry on the island is mainly dedicated to manufacturing uniforms.) The typical production timeline is three weeks, but with the spotlight of the residency and higher demand (Yayi Perez’s e-commerce site saw a 68% increase in sales from June to July), the production timeline has increased to 10.
“We’re trying to use the opportunity to educate the client,” Perez says. It’s not just tourists coming in for the concert and wanting to buy something to wear that weekend—it’s also locals who became aware of the brand as a result of the Bad Bunny publicity. “We got interviewed by the local news, and we’ve had so many visitors at the store like, ‘I saw you on WAPA, and I had no idea you make guayberas in Puerto Rico,’” she says. “You can do as much social media as you want, but if you re on TV, that s a different story.”
Even before the shows started, there was a grassroots movement led by local brands like Muns—and endorsed by Benito himself—to shop Puerto Rican for the residency, which has also helped increase visibility for local talent. Like Bad Bunny and RaiNao, Chuwi has made it a point to incorporate designers from Puerto Rico and its diaspora into the group’s on-stage wardrobes whenever they’ve been invited onstage to perform “Weltita.”
So far, Hermán Nadal has dressed them twice, with more to come. In the ten years he’s been running his namesake brand, he’s considered Puerto Rico his muse, rooting his collections in the landscapes, history, and culture of the island. He’d already worked with Chuwi’s stylist, Kathia Sánchez Ruiz, on dressing percussionist Adrián López, so he pitched himself to create looks for all four members. And he was prepared to meet this moment.
“I knew beforehand how big the residency would be,” Nadal says. Understanding there would be a bigger spotlight on homegrown brands during this time, he planned a commercial capsule inspired by Puerto Rico and by Chuwi’s looks, which dropped a few days after the group first appeared onstage at El Choli in his designs. It led to an influx of orders (he’s working to launch an e-commerce site, so most came through DMs on social media); many came from the diaspora, from people wanting to own a piece of home and to support local talent.
Earlier this spring, Mónica Santos Gil collaborated with Sánchez Ruiz on a photo shoot for her New York-based brand Santos starring Lorén Aldarondo Torres, Chuwi’s lead vocalist. While on set, the stylist whispered about the opportunity to dress the group for the residency.
Though she’d never done menswear, Santos Gil embraced the challenge of outfitting the whole band in domino motifs, adapting a women’s pant design from a past release to go with Lorén’s Lola Circle Cut-Out dress. After her brand had its moment on stage in late July, Santos Gil posted a video showing the behind-the-scenes of the making of the looks, which led to a lot of visibility on social media and over 1,500 new followers across Instagram and TikTok. She’s also had people coming into the Santos store on Manhattan’s Lower East Side—even all the way from Isabela, the municipality Chuwi is from—asking for Lorén’s dress (it’s sold out, but she’s working on a restock), as well as the men’s pants.
“I m actually making them, and I m going to probably launch them some time in September,” she says. Santos Gil was also already planning to build out her domino-inspired offering in the future, and is now even more determined to do so.
Perez is also planning on producing a line inspired by the shirts she created for Bad Bunny. “It goes very hand in hand with what I had already been doing,” she says. “I had already been thinking of that research. We were already working on it before they contacted us.” She has her slate full with orders right now—and Benito has the samples—but once the residency is over, she plans on developing the products.
Bronx-based designer Edwin Reyes had already been thinking of how he could expand on the hand-sewn ruffled Puerto Rican flag skirt he created as a passion project for celebrations surrounding the Puerto Rican Pride Parade in New York in June when Sánchez Ruiz reached out. ”It was going a little viral—my first viral post—and her team saw it,” he says.
A few years ago, Reyes began shifting his design practice, going from more traditional seasonal offerings to what he describes as “vignettes of culture moments,” collections that are rich in storytelling, inspired by his travels and lived experience. “The pillars of my brand are culture, heritage, and sustainability,” he says. “However I can use those pillars or all three together, I will.”
Just a few weeks after Reyes first shared it, Aldarondo Torres was on stage at El Choli wearing the flag skirt. He estimates he’s gotten about a dozen inquiries for the made-to-order piece, which he sells for $400, and is more determined to release more versions of it, featuring the original azul celeste design and the black and-white resistance flag. It’s also allowed him to build the foundation for his ultimate goal: creating community.
Nadal has also been able to do this with his new clients by allowing them to pick up their orders in person at his atelier in Bayamón when they’re in town for the residency. “They’ve been able to get to know the space and meet me,” he says. “I try for everything to be by appointment, to be able to offer a better, more personalized experience, but I have had that situation, where the doorbell rings randomly.”
Between the new clients brought in by the residency, the existing ones that commissioned him to make them custom pieces to attend the concert, and this larger movement to support local talent, Nadal has been able to expand his team, hiring three people to work in his atelier full-time. “If we have more orders, the team can grow,” he says. “It’s what I’ve always wanted.” It’s also allowed him to see even more potential for the brand, to grow “to the point where I could have a creative space where we have cutters, patternmakers, sewers — a team with fair compensation that follows my vision, to create products and an aesthetic that people want to be a part of.”
It’s as much an emotional moment for these creatives as it is a professional milestone. Like Perez, Santos Gil has also seen her customer base in Puerto Rico grow as a result of the residency. “It has built something a little bit deeper than just the music, this connection to our roots and where we re from,” she says. “People are just very excited to support and to even discover emerging brands from Puerto Rico… I m thankful that I live in New York, where I feel at home, but there s nothing like being there. When I saw Chuwi come out with my design, I cried. I ve always wanted to produce my work there. I hope one day I get to create and see people wear it in P.R.” (While she didn’t spot any Santos bag at El Choliseo, she did see some folks carrying her signature accessory out in the wild during her most recent trip.)
“I m so happy that people are seeing how much beauty there is in our culture and our island, even though we re suffering every day, even though it s hard to live here,” Otero says. “All this nostalgia and this awakening that the album has ignited, it s amazing. People long for that. People want that. People look for that. I hope that people don t forget.”