When Roxana Robles was a little girl growing up in Monterrey, Mexico, she didn’t play with dolls like her friends did. Instead, she made clothes for them. By the time she was 6, she was making shorts and dresses and skirts for herself. She even made her own quinceañera dress.

Robles was following in the footsteps of her mother, who ran a sewing school with more than 200 students.

“I’ve wanted to be a fashion designer since I was little,” said Robles, who owns Couture Tailoring by Roxana Robles in Waco. Her clients include Chip and Joanna Gaines, and she’s done tailoring work on suits worn by Baylor football greats Corey Coleman and Robert Griffin III. It’s hard for football players to buy off-the-rack suits, she said, “because they have big legs, small waists and big shoulders.”

And she’s designed the beautiful green and gold outfits worn by the members of Mariachi Osos Dorados, Baylor’s mariachi ensemble.

Lately, however, she’s been busy designing and constructing outfits for this year’s Día de los Muertos — Day of the Dead — event in Waco. She’s making one for each of her three children; one each for herself and Fiona Bond, chief executive officer of Creative Waco; and one for each of her dogs, “two little and one big,” she said.

In her studio on Austin Avenue, Robles recently had on display the three costumes she had made for her children. They’re all based on the theme of alebrijes, a mixture of imagination and spirit animals, she explained. One of her creations mixes leopard print with feathers and wings. Another features a Mayan skirt adorned with colorful stones. The outfit for her son features dragon scales, leather and feathers, “like the Black Panther,” Robles said. A third showcases fish in the ocean.

When Robles begins work on the Día de los Muertos outfits, she often finds herself working from morning until … morning. Last year, when she created 14 costumes, all based on the theme of Monarch butterflies, Robles was often in her sewing room from 9 a.m. until 4 a.m. the next day.

“When I work on pieces like this, I just can’t stop. It’s like I need to connect this and now this,” she said.

Her studio and sewing room share space in a building with other offices, so on the days that she would work overnight, she would catch a few hours’ sleep before others began arriving to start their work day.

“When they arrive, I wake up and then go home. Take a shower and come back to work,” she said. “I don’t sleep at home for like five nights.”

This year’s Día de los Muertos event is from 4-10 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 1, at Indian Spring Park. It begins with a parade through downtown Waco, and activities include a vendors’ market, live music and community altars decorated with art, photos and flowers in memory of loved ones.

More information on the event can be found at creativewaco.org/dia-de-los-muertos.

Dream Couture

In addition to running her own fashion design business, Roxana Robles is the founder of Dream Couture, a nonprofit she started when her daughter Michelle, then a student at University High School, told her mom about girls who weren’t going to attend prom because they didn’t have a dress.

Robles put out a call on Facebook looking for donations of used prom dresses and had plenty of responses. With the help of friends who own salons, restaurants and photography studios, 17 girls went to prom that first year. The second year saw an increase to 34, and 55 girls attended last year.

“We’re getting bigger and bigger and I love that,” Robles said. “I know that God sent me these girls.”

Donate gently used dresses at 2114 Austin Avenue, Mon.-Fri. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monetary donations can be made at dreamcouture.org.