A year after placing fourth in ‘Making the Cut’, Jeanette Limas is designing her wins in Philadelphia

When local favorite Jeanette Limas was a contestant last year on the reality television show Making the Cut, a reporter asked what she would do with the $1 million dollar grand prize if she won. “My dream has always been to build a global brand, and winning Making The Cut would allow me to do just that,” the Dominican-born Philadelphia resident said.

And then she lost, done in by the concept store challenge.

Placing fourth overall behind season winner Yannik Zamboni of Switzerland, she left with an empty wallet.

But during her time on the show, audiences followed her highs and lows, her tears and smiles as she fought against nine challengers for the chance to take her design business to the next level. The show created drama with pressure-filled challenges and impossibly tight deadlines.

» READ MORE: Philly designer Jeanette Limas is ‘Making the Cut’ but will she win it all?

“Everything you saw on the show really happened,” Limas said, including her narrow escape from being cut in the second episode when her activewear collection underwhelmed the judges.

“Under pressure you question yourself. Am I talented enough? Am I good enough? Can I get the piece done?” And, being more at ease speaking Spanish, she worried her English would falter at critical moments.

But she also credits the pressure for helping her become more creative. She won two design challenges and each winning look was available for purchase on Amazon’s Making the Cut store.

“I would have been happy [to win] but I am not disappointed. It wasn’t supposed to happen,” said Limas, as she sat in the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator studio at Macy’s in the historic Wanamaker building on a recent morning.

Limas is now part of the latest cohort of designers-in-residence with the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator at Macy’s Center City, which helps designers learn to build and sustain their businesses. “It’s about the business part [of fashion]. We meet with lawyers, PR people, designers who talk about how they made their store.”

Limas still wants to be a global brand and said her new goal is to be in a store in every state in the nation. She is already in four stores, including Lobo Mau’s flagship store in Queen Village.

“When you are in love with something, you make it happen.”

Elissa Bloom, executive director of the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator at Macy’s Center City, said the organization has helped reverse the brain drain that saw college graduates leaving Philadelphia for New York. Helped by the city’s affordable rents, Philadelphia’s fashion industry is bustling.

“The Philadelphia Fashion Incubator has nurtured over 65 fashion entrepreneurs in building sustainable and successful businesses in the Philadelphia region,” Bloom said.

People still stop Limas today, recognizing her especially for the tears she shed as the pressure mounted. To Limas’ delight, the new fame has also resulted in her number of social media followers soaring. It also prompted her to expand upon the sizing of her clothes to 3X to cater to a larger array of body types. She’s still getting thousands of direct messages from across the country, and her website once crashed as fans tried to purchase her designs.

“That is something great Making the Cut did,” Limas said.

Limas said it still feels surreal given her humble beginnings in the Dominican Republic, where her family believed in being impeccably turned-out. Their small budget required her to be creative, like turning her mother’s curtains into dresses.

Limas focused early on becoming a designer and attended the School for the Arts, Altos de Chavón. She won the Young Designer of the Year Award upon graduating and showcased her first collection at the Dominican Republic Fashion Week. She received a scholarship to study at Parsons School of Design and relocated to New York City to pursue higher education. She has worked for the design team of Urban Zen by Donna Karan and Jolibe Atelier and has presented multiple collections at New York Fashion Week.

Limas describes her aesthetic as a marriage of the feminine elegance of Christian Dior with the bad-boy looks of Alexander McQueen.

“When you are buying Jeanette Limas, you are buying joy and, on top of that, sexy too,” Limas said. “You want a little shoulder, a little cleavage.”

She is particularly well known for creating elegantly draped dresses. In a world gone pajamas cozy since COVID hit, she insisted, “It is fun to put on a dress.”

Since the show ended, Limas has moved into a new home with a garden in the Philadelphia suburbs, and the flowers have inspired her next collection. She points to the pink dress she has on with a top that is a profusion of fabric flowers. “I want the feeling that I am blooming.”

Limas believes that fashion is a statement about who you are, and said designing for her clients starts with getting to know their strengths and insecurities.

One customer has sent her a message saying, “Oh My Gosh, this dress makes me look like the woman I want to become.” Limas said that is one of the points of tailor-made outfits — a boost in the confidence to the wearer.

“When you are in love with something, you make it happen,” Limas said.