I was 55 years old, and although it seemed like the end, I had the strength to reinvent myself. God was leading me to something new.
For 27 years, I dedicated my life to fashion design and industry.
Together with my mom, whom everyone knows as "Tata," we built a clothing factory whose designs were sold in stores like Oui Boutique, Velasco, González Padín, JC Penney, Sears, of course, local boutiques, and later, Macy's.
Over the years, the industry changed. Large chains began importing products at prices we couldn't compete with. Slowly, we lost our main accounts, and it was time to close the factory that had cost us so much effort to build. Twelve people lost their jobs, and we were left with debts and a recently acquired building. The alternative seemed to be to sell everything and pay off debts. I was taught at home to work and find solutions, so we decided to reinvent ourselves, as I had seen my dad do so many times.
I wanted to work. I looked around and saw something I still had: sewing machines and fabric. It occurred to me to make small fabric bags for gifts and fill them with cookies. I had a mixer at home, so I started trying recipes and modifying them until I achieved a unique product.
That's how Cookie Couture was born.
We didn't have a kitchen in the building, nor equipment, but when God gives you a new path, he provides what we need. Our church lent us the kitchen of their educational center for a year, and a friend gradually sold us the equipment we needed to start. With permits in hand, we began operations in October 2008.
Our first client was La Hacienda Meat Center. We started delivering a few cakes each week. Little by little, we expanded the menu, new clients arrived, and we grew. Along the way, we continued to develop products that distinguished us.
In 2018, my daughter Amarilis, the week she got divorced, also found herself unemployed. After more than a decade in a multinational food industry company, managing the development of new products, her position was eliminated. In a few days, her world completely changed; she had to start everything from scratch.
It was time for a radical change; it was her moment to reinvent herself.
Like me, in my time, she decided to look at what she had around her, what her priorities would be now, and how she wanted to rebuild her life. She decided to join the Cookie Couture team as Sales Manager to grow our store and explore other markets.
This brought changes: expanding our services not only to wholesale but also expanding the store's menu, entering the corporate gift area, working on social media and the new online store.
She is the one who has taken charge of transforming the Cookie Couture space into a place where you come to recharge, to spend a moment that fills you with something special, and where you find the perfect gift you were looking for, the dessert for your dinner, and the afternoon craving. A place that many say "feels special, like magic."
Like every Puerto Rican company, we have faced great challenges, including Hurricane Maria, the Pandemic, inconsistent electricity services, among many others. However, we keep moving forward, adapting and growing. To that, we can only respond that it's not magic... here you feel the Grace that God has had with us.
Today, 18 years later, what began with a mixer, a borrowed kitchen, and a promise from God is now a business that continues to evolve every day. Where every client becomes part of our family, testifying that God always takes care of us, that FAITH is not a dream, nor a wish we ask for; it is an action; it is living believing not only in God but believing Him.
Our story is not just that of a woman who lost her job or one who starts a business from scratch on the Island of Enchantment...
It is the story of several women who, when everything seemed lost, when it would have been easier to give up, understood that sometimes, what seems like an end is just the beginning.
God makes every broken vessel new, and what remains in its place is even more beautiful and precious. Whoever seeks Him and is willing to walk, even when you don't see the whole path, will find the purpose God has for their life.
Madeleine
Thank you for letting us be part of your lives