Up With Her: Dondolo clothes designer Catalina Gonzalez

DALLAS — A North Texas mom’s mission to give back again has transformed into a thriving business. Catalina Gonzalez has been committed to helping women out of poverty by way of her children’s garments manufacturer.  

Children’s apparel store Dondolo is pastel perfection. Handsewn particulars in each individual layout, owner Catalina Gonzalez suggests her clothes are made for earning reminiscences.  

Two decades back, she moved from Columbia to show up at Southern Methodist College.  

“Every time I went back again for vacations, I just noticed this level of poverty that just shocked me every single time. I bought employed to dwelling listed here and then I went back again there, and I was so stunned by it,” mentioned Gonzalez. 

Right after her initially son was born, Gonzalez blended her enjoy for vogue and her dwelling place to generate a luxurious kid’s apparel line.  

“At that time TOMS was enormous so, I was influenced by that, and I was like if I offer one particular and I give one and then it turned complex mainly because I certainly was selling the moment a month, one point to a man or woman I realized so, I needed to give additional,” claimed Gonzalez.  

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Gonzalez’s items turned into comprehensive-time work for some of individuals exact same gals in Columbia, via an ethical manufacturing chain.

“Anything is manufactured in Columbia,” mentioned Gonzalez.  

To make a more substantial impression, she took an intentional step again to regulate her small business model and evidently define her company’s core values.  

“Who to retain the services of, how to establish a workforce that relates and really follows the values of the model. I have been able due to the fact of them to kind of organize my lifestyle a very little bit better and to trust them,” explained Gonzalez.  

Scaling a organization suggests allowing go of manage and it has permitted Gonzalez to have extra time with her four boys.  

“I’m owning sometimes company conferences in the car with all of them in the back again and they know that I am chaotic but I’m with them,” mentioned Gonzalez.  

Due to the fact she is familiar with they’re seeing and she needs her young ones to see how to balance do the job and existence.  

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“I sort of go with the flow like if it does not happen this way, I’m Alright with this way and God is familiar with. All my staff know that we require to be adaptable simply because we’re doing work with all our matters coming from a further place, most of our materials arrive from a different country in Europe. So, all the pieces, customs, shipping, all those people pieces are outdoors of our hands,” mentioned Gonzales.  

What is in her regulate, empowering her crew and guiding the company’s eyesight.   

“At the conclude of the working day we’re all advertising wonderful children’s and women’s garments to make joyful recollections so, reminding myself of that was everyday living-switching and enterprise switching that our function is enjoy and bringing pleasure and happiness to households and not competing in who sells a lot more,” reported Gonzalez.

Soon after a demo run in a retail location, Gonzalez decided to concentration on e-commerce and open a permanent room at Dondolo’s business office and warehouse in the Layout District. She is also functioning on a new child and home style line. 

As Dondolo Provides grows, she claims she hopes to build a community centre for women of all ages and their people in Cartagena, Columbia. Gonzalez also gives back to feminine-concentrated nonprofits in Dallas.