I was born in San Juan, the daughter of a Puerto Rican mother and a Cuban father and affectionately remember being a little girl on the “island of enchantment” at a time when our economy was growing, birthdays were disco parties on one’s house garage and the beach was our park for the weekends. I studied at the University of Puerto Rico, earning a B.A. in Business Administration and later received my MBA from Duke in 2007.

I worked for 15 years in banking in the area of Investments and Treasury but I never stopped practicing my passions—mostly dancing and design. At that time, designing a presentation for an investor was an opportunity to use a little creativity. I also danced at the Music Conservatory of Puerto Rico as a way of expressing myself artistically.

When I moved to New York my artistic vein continued to grow until it came out of my body in such a way that I couldn’t contain myself any longer. I started to ask myself if being on Wall Street for the rest of my life was what I wanted to do? That’s when my transformation began.

I chose to get into fashion accessory design because ever since I was little, I loved to create and wear chokers, headbands, gloves, and hats. And in 2014 my fashion company, Eda Lourdes, was born. With the help of my mom and my aunts, the first collection was made between New York and Puerto Rico and included hats, capes, gloves, necklaces and bracelets. But my dream was to design handbags.

After four years in New York, I fell in love and moved to Paris—the capital of fashion where there are lots of exhibitions of local and international designers. I worked for six years with the fashion houses of KENZO, IRO, Miriam Budet, Lemloren, APPARIS and Koshka Paris and many other digital marketing clients. In 2019 I decided to continue the journey that I had started in 2014. I submitted my third application to the NYC design competition: Independent Handbag Designer Awards. I was chosen as a finalist out of 2,000 designers that applied. That’s where my handbag design, La Coucou, began. In 2021 I launched EDALOU PARIS and La Coucou won an award at major design competition based in Italy under the mantra:

ROCK, DANCE & LOVE I wish to inspire & empower women to transform their lives and reach their fullest potential.

ROCK AT EVERYTHING YOU DO!

DANCE IT OFF & LET GO!

LOVE PASSIONATELY & EFFORTLESSLY!