Meet Brigitte Lu | Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brigitte Lu and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brigitte, how does your business help the community?
“Our mission to empower women begins with our contribution to improving their economic situation, offering them stable income and a safe work environment.”

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I feel very proud to spreading my Latin American roots, thus also giving a commemoration to my grandmother who was an independent seamstress and remembered for the support of communities. Through my childhood, I witnessed and assisted her in sewing beautiful garments, sometimes all night long. Her hard work and dedication inspired me throughout my life and career.
I became passionate about creating a positive impact through the voice of my brand, keeping ethical and sustainable practices at the forefront of my mission.
Blu Crochet was born with the basic idea of ​​creating a brand hand in hand with the work of women in resilience; creating our first collection in the prison of the city of Huánuco – Peru with the organization “Cárceles Productivas”, 4 years ago. We provide them with training to improve their tissue and by belonging to this organization we provide them with positive support for their sentences, as well as a job as micro-entrepreneurs for their future reintegration into society.
Unfortunately, due to the impact of COVID-19, we had to stop working with our women’s group in prison. Today, several of them continue to make their own crochet products as micro-entrepreneurs.
A year ago I decided to travel to the beautiful country of Mexico; I rented a car and drove through many artisan communities, looking for women who would trust me and trust my project. At that time I only found a young girl (Alejandra) who trusted me and fell in love with the designs, so we toured other communities together, thus finding 5 families. Today we have a workshop with 53 families in that state, Alejandra as head of the workshop.
We are improving our sales month by month with the sole motivation of continuing to offer work to our entire team and that the BLu crochet brand reaches the hands of another woman with the awareness that each piece is unique and has a story.

Our goal is to reach as many vulnerable communities as possible, not only to offer them independent work but also to provide them with training so that they can have their own businesses, always with the purpose of keeping the ancient textile traditions alive. Bearing in mind that each swimsuit takes between one to two days to make.

A year ago, we were showcasing our Lu’um (earth in Maya Language) collection for the first time at Miami Swim Week, gaining significant exposure around the very competitive, in the industry, city of Miami. This year we will be showing our new Shaya (Empowered Woman in Quechua Language) collection 2022.

I’m Brigitte Lu, founder of Blu Crochet Swimwear.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Miami is one of the most complete state in USA (you can find everything), you can easy get fun everywhere and make friend easily. but of course I have my favorites spots!

I love the north Miami beaches for get some tan and saintly water and later to Key Biscayne Beach for the best sunset (sunset lover here!)
my favorite thing to do is eat! and Ceviche is my number 1 (I’m Peruvian) – La locura Marina in North Miami Beach or Ceviche 105.
For general latin American food CHICAS (beautiful place) also for happy hour – Joia (ocean view), Meditarranean food – Mandolin, Dinner – Palapa (very tribal) drinks and party everywhere!!! Sugar – Marion & Latino – La Victoria to dance.
I love to cook and I really enjoy to make dinner for friends as well.
Other entreatments; Kayaking- boat and also there are many festival, market place, live music around Miami all the weekends!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I was raised by my grandmother who worked from home as an independent seamstress, she always was, is and will be my example in almost everything. Also, I am very proud of myself… my life was not as easy as many of us, of course! what was different was that my rough situations pushed me to value everything much more, understand myself, accept myself and forgive myself. From there comes my desire to help women, as well as listening to stories of overcoming cases of violence in all its genre. I am inspired and motivated to know that emotional and economic independence can lead us to a happier life.
At this moment I could say that I am very inspired by artisanal fashion combined with the work of each of the women in my team.

Website: https://www.blucrochet.com/

Instagram: @blu_crochet

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blucrochetswimwear

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCidRMWpt6nvDhj8fd3aenGg

Other: https://www.pinterest.com/blucrochet/_created/

Image Credits
Part of my team Geovanny Vasquez by @iguana.visuals for profesional photo