Nuestra Gente Photography

        My name is Roselyn Grullon, I am a 22 year old student majoring in Fashion Design and minoring in Hispanic Studies at the New School; I am also the co-founder of the brand Bronx Native. I am a first generation Dominican from the Longwood section in the South Bronx. Growing up and living in the Bronx has influenced my life in a lot of ways; firstly it has made the person I am today. I use what I see in the Bronx and what I know about it for the work I do for school, personal projects, and future projects. When I tell anyone I’m from the Bronx there’s this automatic negative vibe that I see and feel from others and this unwanted pity from them because they see the Bronx like its this war-ridden little village or something and so I feel like people see it as a obstacle for me in my profession and work. So this actually inspires me more and gives me more drive to put the Bronx out there and do, wear, and say all that I can to rep the Bronx and showcase it in a better light.

              I spend a lot if time in Manhattan because of school and so I’m around a lot of people who don’t know anything about the Bronx and if they do it’s always negative and so I am constantly always trying to represent the Bronx. Trying to rep the Bronx in a positive light to others as well as Bronx natives was the central idea behind Bronx Native; I wanted to create clothing that means something and that would create a sense of pride and positivity about being from the Bronx. This idea of showcasing your roots and culture is also very important and focal for my fashion pieces and I know I will continuing doing all my pieces based on this idea. Clothing for me isn’t just rags you put on your body, or the typical shallow fashion that’s seen in the industry; I believe fashion is powerful, like any other art field, and it can say a lot about a person: your ideals, what you believe in etc. I also believe it can create a movement just like Bronx Native; this is why I chose to study fashion and create clothes. This is a big part of my aspirations in life but I also would just love to create pieces, projects, ideas, etc. on issues that I feel passionate about in all fields of art; as a young Dominican-American woman living in the Bronx I see a lot of problems within our communities, overlooked issues, and long-lived problems that our people have been facing for years. My biggest struggle right now is balancing Bronx Native, school, and overall my personal life and work; I wanna do a lot and I have a lot of ideas but I don’t always have the time, means, and especially not the money. I try to relate everything together and do work that I can use for school and Bronx Native and most importantly I try to stay chill, relaxed and happy about what I do no matter how stressful it can be because I know in the long run its gonna be worth it. In the next 5 years I see Bronx Native with its own space to produce, sell, and create content about the Bronx and I also see the concept of creating and selling content repping your culture and overlooked areas spread out to other areas such as Harlem, Long Island, Washington Heights, etc. We will be releasing our summer collection on June 17, look out for it!