About Ladeña
I was born and raised in the Philippines.
I grew up making gifts for my friends and family every Christmas since I was a kid.
I grew up not having much and it helped me to be creative and make gifts with love. I never made hand-sewn gifts but I remember making clothes for my Barbies and I was always interested in fabric, styles, and fashion.
Starting my own business had always been in the back of my mind, I remember reading a lot of stories of successful business owners and I was always inspired by their perseverance to overcome the hardships that they went through.
I didn't know when I could possibly have my own business. I lived my life each day and experienced joy and hardship along the way. I moved to Hawaii in 2015 to marry my long distant best friend Shaun.
Along the process of adjusting to a new culture and life, I looked for new things for me to learn and I would never have thought that I will get into sewing.
I started the business officially in 2018 and I am happy to finally do it full time in 2023. It allows me to spend more meaningful and quality time with my daughter and husband.
I spent hours of learning how to sew on my own, I learned mostly from my mistakes and from persevering every step of the way. There would be days that I will wake up with new ideas on how I can improve my sewing. I spent the first year learning how to sew clothes and I eventually learned how to make pouches, bags, masks, planters and more. I became more interested in making different products and coming up with unique styles that will compliment the beauty of Hawaii.
I have been so excited as I build this business, I wake up each day with new ideas and it's amazing how my visions and styles that I used to think of when I was a kid are coming to pass. I have some friends that help me with cutting fabrics and all of the products are personally sewn by me.
I don't know where I would be right now without people that have invested in my life along the way and I wanted to give back by giving a portion of my profit to some campus missionaries in the Philippines and Real Life Foundation in the Philippines that helped my parents to send me to college.
My products are available at our pop-up events and online in partnership with Hana Makana. For our upcoming events, follow us on Instagram @ladenahawaii. We share our updates there on our bio and posts.
We love interacting with our customers in person, we can't wait to see you soon!