Sutra to host fashion show

Dave Brooks

Minerva Gonzalez Sanchez finds art in other people, a communal search

comprising her otherwise individualized fashion label NuNu Galleries.

With a self-imposed mandate, Sanchez hand-sews and hand-paints

each piece, and she regards her clothes with the sanctity of fine

art.

The result: No two are ever the same.

“People ask me if they can have five pairs of jeans or three of

this or that, and I tell them no,” she said. “Did people tell Picasso

how to make his paintings?”

The emerging fashion designer will showcase her work at a 10:30

p.m. fashion show tonight at Sutra Lounge in Costa Mesa. Tickets are

$20 for adults.

The show is presented in part by Huntington Beach jewelry boutique

L’ZEV, whose owner, Jeanna Cason, will model in the show.

The event is a first of its kind for Sanchez, a cancer survivor

who attributes her survival to her faith in life and God. In 1991, at

the age of 21, Sanchez was diagnosed with lymphoma, nearly taking her

life. Just four years later, she was diagnosed with acute lymphatic

leukemia and given a 2% chance of survival.

On the brink of death, she agreed to participate in experimental

procedure with 10 other people. In just three weeks, everyone in her

group had succumbed to cancer, but she survived and eventually

recovered with the help of a stem cell transplant.

Her art, she says, is inspired by her birth as the 13th child of

an impoverished family in Tijuana. She travels back to her home

country with her family to practice art.

“All my work is inspiration-based,” she said of her clothing line,

which began as gifts for friends and family.

Sanchez is slowly developing a base to showcase and sell her work,

and she provides all her customers with a painting of themselves in

the clothes.

“I’m inspired by how they look,” she said. “We are all one of a

kind.”