She developed her aesthetic and sold her one-of-a-kind clothing in real time at various boutiques in the NYC area including a brick and mortar that she co-ran with fellow artists and designers called “Sohung Designs & Collective”, first in the LES of Manhattan and later in Chelsea. iliana has been active in several sustainable design initiatives over the years serving as Sustainability Director for the BK Style Foundation for Fashion Week Brooklyn (FWBK) and has participated in many other shows in the NYC area including: NAFI/youth link benefit gala at the Roosevelt Hotel, Eco Fashion in the Park at Highbridge Park (2011 & 2015-sponsored by Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez of Washington Heights), Art for Progress’ “Clash of the Artists” , Sohung Designs & Collective show, "The Drop” art show in Chelsea with Yoko Ono (2010), Fountain Art Fair (2012) and she was one of several sustainable designers featured in the independent film “SustainUp” by Dr. Iris Mohr of St. John’s University.
From 2015-2018, iliana taught a sustainably-focused fashion camp for children called “Brooklyn Fashionistas” at Spoke the Hub Dancing in Brooklyn and helped forge a partnership with FWBK for the Spoke kids to show on the FWBK runway. She has been affiliated with the Art for Progress organization creating public art projects and teaching in afterschool arts programs and taught a semester of “Clothing Reconstruction” at F.I.T.’s (Fashion Institute of Technology) Center for Continuing and Professional Studies. iliana is an industry tailor and has freelanced on-site (backstage) for the fashion and entertainment industry serving both high end and commercial markets with clients such as: Vogue, Diesel Black Gold, Harpers’ Bazaar, Rebecca Minkoff, Skaist Taylor (parent label Juicy Couture), Maiyet,, 3.1 phillip lim, Chloe, Artisan Deluxe, Sean John, Umizoomi, Duro Olowu (JCPenny), Kate Spade, “Orange Is The New Black” (tv show), Roger Waters (US+Them tour), Target, Kohl’s, The Gap, Kmart, The Limited, Express and a host of other stylists and celebrities. In 2019, she was invited as one of 6 designers to participate in the Baltimore Natural Dye Initiative at MICA and in 2023 and 2024, she was selected to participate in Project Artscape sponsored by Baltimore Office of Art and Promotion.
iliana takes great pride in her Caribbean heritage and her biggest achievement yet has been being the mom of the “best daughter ever” who was born at home (on purpose) and is now a young adult studying theater in NYC. iliana is currently very happy to call Baltimore home.