Lydia Mercedes Silvestry: The Inventor of the InfiniteĀ® Dress

Lydia was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Since her teens, Lydia's fate with beauty, fashion and the limelight began to unfold when she attended a beauty pageant as a spectator and, unexpectedly, was crowned Puerto Rico’s Beauty Queen! Fashion became her passion and she was quite creative since early on. 

Lydia started her working career as a woman’s fashion editor at “El Nuevo Dia” newspaper. She was presented “The Medal of Communication” by the Governor of Puerto Rico, for outstanding performance in the journalistic field - the highest award achievable. Lydia then went on to become managing director of Temas Magazine, a New York based Latin American publication.

In 1971, Lydia moved to London, UK, where she studied fashion at the London School of Fashion. At that time, Lydia was traveling extensively as a journalist.

Quite often, she needed to dress professionally for interviews and then rush off to cover a gala event. To solve that problem, she designed a dress for herself that would allow her to create different styles for different occasions.

After several people saw and asked to buy her extraordinary dress, Lydia created her own fashion company to launch what she named the INFINITE DRESS. This unique dress is designed to be worn in at least a 100 different ways.

Lydia Silvestry launched The Infinite Dress at a press gathering in London, on May 5th, 1976. Lydia opened offices in New York, Paris and London.

Soon after the launch, Vogue-England published the largest exposure ever given to a single garment, with Jerry Hall, the world’s top model at that time, wearing the Infinite Dress.

Vogue headlined the dress as the “Chameleon” because of its incredible versatility of use. Needless to say, the “Infinite” became the favorite of the British jet set, and it was featured in the most elegant stores and boutiques. In 1980, the French press recognized Lydia for her ingenious designs at the “Gala de la Press” event in Paris.  

Shortly thereafter, Lydia Silvestry began appearing on television, radio and print media interviews around the world promoting her Infinite Dress. Lydia's television debut was on “The Today Show” (NBC) where she demonstrated 25 changes of the “INFINITE DRESS” on live television in only 3 minutes. She was interviewed by Jane Pauley.

Some other television shows, Networks and Channels Lydia Silvestry appeared in are as follows: NBC; Nationwide News, England, UK; BBC - Pebble Mill Show TV; London TV; City Live, Canada TV; Univision Network, Telemundo Network (Pedro Sevcec, De Mañanita, Cada Dia); America TEVE, A las Siete con Fernando, Quiéreme Descalzi, Caribe Vision, Shop Latino TV, Plum TV, Puerto Rico's channels 2, 4 and 6, as well as TV stations in Dallas, Texas, New York and Miami, Florida.  

Some of the numerous magazines that have featured Lydia and the Infinite Dress are Vogue, Cosmopolitan (Latin America), Vanidades (USA and Latin America), Revista Imagen, Now, The American (England, UK), Mira Magazine (USA), Vero Life Magazine (Vero Beach, Florida), Para Ti Magazine (Argentina), and You magazine (showing the dress at a Buckingham Palace party!). The Palm Beach Post, Miami Shore News, The Sun (England, UK), Irish News (Ireland, UK), Hometown News (Vero Beach, Florida), Primera Hora (Puerto Rico), El Nuevo Dia (Puerto Rico), and The Straight Time (Singapore) are newspapers which have run feature articles on the dress.

Lydia Silvestry and the Infinite Dress also appeared at the “Latin Model Pageant” in 1994. All 72 model contestants wore, during the opening ceremony, the Infinite Dress, but each of them displayed a different style.

Lydia’s Infinite Dress has been sold in some of the world’s best retail stores, including: Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue (on Fifth Avenue, NY), Bergdorf Goodman, Bonwit Teller, Sakowitz, Burdines (USA), Lucien Phillips in London, Antoinette Specialist Center in Singapore, Uomo Erre in Worth Avenue, Palm Beach, Lazarus, Nordstrom's and Velasco in Puerto Rico, as well as several places in Paris, Japan, Australia, and South Africa.

Presently, Lydia is engaged in her passion for writing and journalism. In 2007 she finished her best-selling book, Lydia Silvestry’s Beauty Secrets. The book may be purchased through www.LydiaSilvestry.com. The book, which was inspired by her friends’ requests for her secrets on beauty, is an account of all her results based on years of research and experience.

Among Lydia's loves are her three grandchildren. Lydia also enjoys Pilates, preparing gourmet vegetarian recipes, and art.

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