Jenny Altagracia Polanco de Léon (January 18, 1958 – March 24, 2020) was a Dominican

fashion designer Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...

. Polanco, whose professional career spanned more than 37 years, was known for ready-to-wear

women's clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...

jewelry Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry (U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a western ...

, woven

handbags A handbag, commonly known as a purse or pocketbook in North American English, is a handled medium-to-large bag used to carry personal items. Purse, handbag or pouch The term "purse" originally referred to a small bag for holding coins. In many ...

, and other accessories that incorporated Dominican and Caribbean cultural elements into her collections. Her work was showcased throughout the Caribbean, the United States and Europe, including the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

, and

Miami Fashion Week Miami Fashion Week (MIAFW) is an annual fashion week held in Miami, Florida, United States. Miami Fashion Week, not to be confused with the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Miami or Miami Swim Week, takes place every year the first week of June. Miami ...

Biography

Polanco was born in

Santo Domingo , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 (Distrito Nacional) , websi ...

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

, on January 18, 1958. As a child, she began making clothing and costumes for her

Barbie doll Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by American toy company Mattel, Inc. and launched on March 9, 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration. ...

s. Polanco would later design clothing for herself during college. In 1978, she won Miss Dominican Republic and went on to represent her country as

Miss World 1978 Miss World 1978, the 28th edition of the Miss World pageant, was held on 16 November 1978 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, UK. The winner was Silvana Suárez from Argentina. She was crowned by Miss World 1977, Mary Stävin of Sweden. First ...

. She earned her degree in

interior design Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordina ...

from

Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña The Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña (also called UNPHU) is a Private university, private, coeducational, university in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. History

The University was established as a private, non profit institutio ...

in Santo Domingo. Polanco then attended

Parsons School of Design Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...

in New York City, where she studied patternmaking,

draping Drapery is a general word referring to cloths or textiles (Old French , from Late Latin ). It may refer to cloth used for decorative purposes – such as around windows – or to the trade of retailing cloth, originally mostly for clothin ...

, and

tailoring A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century. History Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...

methods, all of which would be incorporated into her professional collections. Additionally, Polanco was also active in the

creative arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...

, including

choreography Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design ...

and

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

, though fashion remained the major focus of her work. Polanco's professional career in fashion and the creative arts spanned more than 37 years. She described her own style as "a fluid dialogue between classic avant-garde style and the Caribbean." She often incorporated design elements common in the Dominican Republic and surrounding region into her work, including detailing made from coral,

horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

nacre Nacre ( , ), also known as mother of pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer; it is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent. Nacre is f ...

, and larimar, a blue pectolite found only in the Dominican Republic. Polanco was also known for utilizing signature colors, especially

amber Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In Ma ...

and

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

, into her fashions. She used Caribbean amber, found in her country, to craft buttons and jewelry. Her most recent 2020 spring collection featured both

pastel A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those use ...

and bright colors, as well as

floral design Floral design or flower arrangement is the art of using plant materials and flowers to create an eye-catching and balanced composition or display. Evidence of refined floristry is found as far back as the culture of ancient Egypt. Professionally ...

s. Polanco owned several

boutique A boutique () is a small shop that deals in fashionable clothing or accessories. The word is French for "shop", which derives ultimately from the Ancient Greek ἀποθήκη (''apothēkē'') "storehouse". The term ''boutique'' and also ''d ...

s in the Dominican Republic. She also aided the arts and emerging designers in her country by opening an

arts and crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

store called Project. On March 4, 2020, Polanco returned to the Dominican Republic following a trip to

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. She developed

coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the com ...

symptoms five days after returning from Spain and was soon quarantined after testing positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Polanco was admitted to a Santo Domingo hospital on March 18, 2020, after experiencing breathing difficulties. Polanco died from complications of

at the hospital in Santo Domingo on March 24, 2020, at the age of 62. Polanco was the first public figure to die from the pandemic in the Dominican Republic, as well as the country's sixth COVID-19 victim at the time. Her death was announced by the Dominican Minister of Public Health, Rafael Sánchez Cárdenas.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Polanco, Jenny 1958 births 2020 deaths Dominican Republic fashion designers Miss World 1978 delegates Dominican Republic women fashion designers Jewellery designers Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña alumni Parsons School of Design alumni People from Santo Domingo Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in the Dominican Republic