When Erika Alvarez was told by her father that she’d have to “make her own way” if she wanted to pursue a career in fashion – she moved to London alone without much in the way of savings to do just that.

Erika was living a financially stable life in Mexico working for a telecommunication company, but had always had a passion for the fashion industry that she never felt she could follow.

“I was following the steps that had been laid out for me by society. I was repeating the same 8 hours every day. The weekend would come and I just wanted to party a lot. It was a really empty life”.

After 5 years of working in monotony, Erika fell into a depression – but her therapist gave her advice that she says she is “thankful for every day”.

“My therapist told me ‘you know what it’s like to work for money, and you feel empty. Now work for passion”.

Despite feeling reinvigorated in her desire to pursue a career in fashion, Erika’s father was not on board, and refused to support her decision.

“In Mexico, it’s not really seen as something that can give you a stable income. My father told me ‘if that’s the career you want, you need to do it by yourself'”.

Erika spent the next few weeks applying for courses in Australia, New York, and London – saying that she didn’t care where she ended up, she just “wanted to escape”.

To her delight, Erika ended up being accepted into the British School of Fashion in London, and within 3 weeks she’d left her job and started a new life in the English capital.

“I’d never even been to London before, I had no idea it was so expensive. I was struggling a lot for money and living in a 6-person house share but I was really, really happy”.

Erika now runs her own fashion brand KOUA-MEXICO, and has also just launched KOUA-STUDIO – providing hand-made textiles to fashion and interior designers, created from organic and recycled materials in an effort to slow down the fast fashion industry.