Sometimes your life changes in a moment you never saw coming.

One day, out of nowhere, I got a call from an agent in New York. He said one of his scouts had discovered my brand — EVETTÉ LEA on Instagram. They’d been watching quietly, and now they wanted to invite me to showcase my collection at NYFW 2025.

I froze.

This was the kind of call designers wait their whole lives for the kind I’d dreamed of silently, every day, while sewing, sketching, and sacrificing in the dark. For a moment, I allowed myself to believe: this is it. This is the break. I felt something shift in my spirit. But then came the reality: the production costs. The travel. The models. The sets etc. I didn’t have it. Not even close. With that dream, just as quickly as it arrived, started to feel like it was slipping through my fingers. I didn’t know what to do. I was excited and heartbroken. Grateful and afraid. So I did what I always do when I feel lost. I called my mother. She was more excited than I was. She screamed, laughed, and then said something that changed everything:

“You have to do it. I don’t care how. Work harder. Take more shifts. Hustle. Sacrifice. Do whatever it takes.”

That night, I made a promise to myself. I was going to New York. No matter what I had to give up. So I worked. And worked. I barely slept. I picked up side jobs. I sold my jewelry. I let go of my personal archive pieces I’d saved and cherished for years. Things I once said I’d never sell. I sacrificed everything just to stand in that room and have my work be seen. There were nights I thought I wouldn’t make it. Nights I broke down. Nights I cried like a child, asking my mother through tears:

“Why does it feel so hard just to make it? Why does it feel like the world wasn’t built for people like me to win?”

And she looked at me and said:

“Son, it’s okay to cry. I know it’s hard. But you have to keep going. I’m with you. And I always will be.”

That moment shattered me and built me. I locked in after that. I stopped thinking about if and focused on how. I didn’t care if I went broke. I didn’t care what it cost. Because that show wasn’t just about fashion, It was about me. It was about proving to myself & to the world that I belonged.

And I did it.

September 10th 2025, I stood in New York City, presenting my first-ever runway show at NYFW. I watched my vision come to life. I saw models walk in pieces I bled for. And I knew that this wasn’t luck — it was alignment. It was sacrifice. It was God. It was my mother’s prayers. It was every sleepless night that finally made sense. That show saved me. It broke me and rebuilt me into someone I barely recognize — someone who doesn’t wait for permission anymore.

I don’t care who doubts me. I don’t care what I have to lose.

EVETTÉ LEA is no longer a dream. It’s a reality.

And this?

This is only the beginning.