For this episode of the Creative Tea Podcast, co-hosts Ella (Matra) Napata and Steffi Reyes-Thomas welcomed Nadia Urbina-DeLaO, designer, self-taught tailor, and Founder of Saint Grain. Originally from Iowa and now based in San Diego, Nadia’s path to fashion wound through five years as an avionics tech in the Marine Corps, a degree in sustainability, and a master’s in business from USD. In this conversation, she unpacks what “community” really means, why she’s on a mission to save a shrinking trade, and how clothing became deeply personal to her own sense of identity.
Hot Tea Takes:
- Redefining Community: Nadia’s hot take zeroes in on how “community” has become a gatekept, exclusive, self-serving term in fashion and beauty, when true community, in her view, should never require an invitation, a payment, or a pedestal to access.
- Saint Grain’s Mission: Her brand, Saint Grain, was born from the realization that fashion has split into two extremes, fast fashion and inaccessible couture, with almost nothing preserving the accessible, in-between tradition of sewing and mending.
- Saving a Shrinking Trade: Nadia points to a striking statistic: only around 17,000 tailors remain in the U.S., and sees renewed interest in sewing, partly sparked by conversations around AI, as a chance to keep the craft from disappearing.
Watch the Full Creative Tea Podcast Episode
From Aviation to Sustainability to Startups
Nadia spent five years as an avionics technician in the Marine Corps before transitioning to civilian life and earning her undergraduate degree in sustainability at a time when few people understood what the term even meant. She later completed a master’s in business at the University of San Diego, working through several startups along the way.
The Hot Take: Community Shouldn’t Require an Invitation
Asked for her hot take, Nadia didn’t hesitate: the word “community” has become overused and, in her view, hollowed out, especially in fashion and beauty. She contrasts today’s exclusive, influencer-driven “communities” with the community she grew up with, which she describes as personal and unconditional rather than something you have to earn access to. Her core critique is that many brand-built communities have become self-serving rather than people-centered, and she urges anyone building one to check their intentions.
Saint Grain: Reviving Sewing as a Living Tradition
The conversation turned to Nadia’s newly launched brand, Saint Grain, which she built around a simple but urgent observation: the fashion industry has collapsed into two extremes, disposable fast fashion and inaccessible couture, with little room left for the everyday tradition of sewing, mending, and repurposing clothing. Citing a statistic that the world holds enough existing clothing to last multiple generations, Nadia sees Saint Grain as a way to preserve sewing as an accessible skill and a piece of cultural heritage, rather than a lost art. She’s self-taught, and shared that clothing has always been deeply personal to her, a form of self-expression she leans on daily.
She also noted, with some irony, that growing interest in AI has inadvertently sparked more public conversation around traditional skills like sewing, even as the number of working tailors in the U.S. continues to shrink.
Styled, Not Made: Nadia’s Fit of the Day
Closing out the episode, Nadia walked through her outfit: pants she hemmed the day before, a repurposed scarf she styled into a tie using a small ring, and a well-loved bangle, noting the distinction between making a garment and styling one. It was a fitting, hands-on demonstration of the mending and reuse philosophy behind Saint Grain.
Connect with Nadia
Find Nadia on Instagram at @nadia.ud for her personal page and @saintgrain.co for her business, or follow along on TikTok for her creative styling work.
Want to Be Part of the Creative Tea Podcast?
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