Ms. Polanco worked for more than four decades in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Paris and New York, and was well regarded by colleagues and fashion critics. On her website, she described her approach as “a fluid dialogue between classic avant-garde style and the Caribbean,” fusing “sophisticated lines, drapes and exquisite cuts with handcrafted details of the Dominican vernacular: buttons in amber, details in horn, larimar, nacre, coral, among other autochthonous elements.”

She graduated from the Pedro Henriquez Ureña National University in Santo Domingo with a degree in interior design and studied pattern making, tailoring techniques and artistic draping at the Parsons School of Design in New York.

As posted in the New York Times