Meet Johana Hernández.
Hernández is a fashion designer from Downey, CA who is using her sense of fashion to pay it forward. She went from making gowns to making face masks to help her community stay safe during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Hernández created GLAUDI in 2011, and according to The Downey Patriot, is the first designer of Salvadoran descent to go to Paris Fashion Week and has designed for dresses for young Latinx celebrities!
Like many businesses, Hernández had to close her Downey and Beverly Hills GLAUDI stores because of the pandemic, and had to transition to making and selling her masks for online sale. She told ABC7 that she never thought she'd be designing face masks. "And what's beautiful about it is that I started with helping my community. Even though these are tough times at least we could enjoy expressing ourselves through our mask."
Hernández decided to pay it forwards. ABC7 adds that the money she made from selling her GLAUDI glam masks was used to purchase and donate medical-grade masks to frontline workers at different hospitals. Those medical-grade masks...thousands of masks...have been donated to PIH Health Hospital in Downey.
According to The Downy Patriot, Hernández's connection to the Downey hospital is very personal, as the medical staff there saved her father's life from a heart attack. She went on to tell ABC7 "You helped my father now I'm helping you. And it's something they did many years ago, but it's still in my heart."
ABC7 adds that Hernández said she's also donated some of her GLAUDI masks to first responders. Hernández is also teaching people how to make safety masks from home through online videos on the Glaudi YouTube channel (see below):
See more from Johana Hernández's below:
PHOTOS: Via Instagram - @glaudibyjohanahernandez