Source: NCSU COLLEGE OF AG & LIFE SCIENCES, 7/15/20


NC State alumna Lisbeth Carolina Arias designs custom clothing with handwoven fabric from Latin America.

Her company, Descalza, connects her with an international community of people who have shaped her life: friends and mentors from 4-H in North Carolina; a co-op in El Salvador, where she was born; weavers in Guatemala she met during an NC State internship; and customers in New York, where she moved for a year to gain design experience.

As the pandemic began this spring, Arias made alterations to her company, which sells online and through pop-up stores in North Carolina and New York.

“Since Descalza makes statement pieces, these pieces are usually worn whenever you know the spotlight’s going to be on you, so most of these events are very special events, from weddings to galas to prom to formals,” Arias says. “When COVID-19 happened, basically these events stopped happening.”

Plans for a pop-up store in California were canceled. Home with a newborn, Arias and her mother, a skilled seamstress, saw other clothing companies making masks. So did her social media followers.

“I said, 'If customers are sending me messages on Instagram asking for these, then there’s a demand for it,’” Arias says. “But I didn’t want to just make these masks. Descalza’s very centered around community. I wanted to find a way where we could work together with someone else.”

She talked with longtime friend Roberto Rosales, an educator with North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Farmworker Health and Safety Education Program. Rosales works with farmers and farm labor contractors to provide workers with instruction on safety practices and protective equipment, including masks.

“I thought of just reaching out to him and asking if there was a need for them. Maybe they have it all set and they have an abundant amount of masks, which is great, or maybe not.”

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