“The last time I was in NYC, my mother had just been deported (during my finals week of my last semester at Columbia). I left everything I planned in NYC to hold it down for my family. I never felt so defeated. I slept on a couch in our studio for months and worked endlessly relying on my faith and strife for a brighter future for strength. Now after almost 2 years, I officially returned to NYC feeling the bliss of dreams coming true. Uni-ke debuted in New York Fashion Week and I made my unexpected debut as a runway model. J Haro, Alexis Perez, and I have surmounted obstacles most people, let alone entrepreneurs, can’t even imagine. Nothing has deterred us, and we have prevailed delightfully. Our fundamental objective with the company is to uplift and distribute opportunities: half of the collection was hand crafted by the amazing women running our micro-factory in Oaxaca, about half of the models were first timers on the runway, and we worked with several brands who experienced their first NYFW at our distributed pop up. Here’s a big cheers to all minority, first-gen, and immigrant entrepreneurs who prevail every day!”
-Christian Cruz Godoy on a recent LinkedIn post addressing the show
Uni-ke presented its first collection as a company on September 11, 2021 through New York Fashion Week presented by The Society.
The looks of the show were created by 3 designers, Alexis Perez, Christian Cruz Godoy, and Zino Haro, with about half of the pieces being sewed by Uni-ke’s micro-factory.
