Taquiela Wright spends her weekdays solving problems as a renewable energy engineer.
In September, she will trade blueprints for tulle when she debuts her most personal fashion collection yet at New York Fashion Week, a project born from a glaucoma diagnosis that threatened the vision she has built her second career on.
Wright, founder and CEO of Delisa Rose Luxury Lingerie, will present “The Garden of Delisa” on Sept. 13 in partnership with Flying Solo at The Rooftop at the Vanderbilt Building in New York City. The eight-look collection features sculptural bodysuits and corsets built from satin, embroidered lace, and hand-sculpted organza petals, designed to trace a journey from darkness into bloom.
“Last year rocked me to a place where there was uncertainty,” Wright said. “I have it. I’m not going to let this stop me. I’m going to keep going.”
Wright moved to Houston in 2021 to continue a career spanning about 24 years and four industries, starting at Caterpillar Construction before moving into aerospace, oil and gas, and now renewable energy. She still works full-time as an engineer, a fact she said continues to surprise people who only know her from the runway.
“I don’t allow the other hand to know what the other hand is doing,” Wright said. “I love being an engineer. … Fashion speaks to me on a passion level. So why can’t you do both?”
For the love of lingerie
Taquiela Wright will premiere “The Garden of Delisa,” her highly anticipated Spring/Summer collection, debuting on September 13 during New York Fashion Week. Credit: Flying Solo 
Taquiela Wright will premiere “The Garden of Delisa,” her highly anticipated Spring/Summer collection, debuting on September 13 during New York Fashion Week. Credit: Flying Solo 
Taquiela Wright will premiere “The Garden of Delisa,” her highly anticipated Spring/Summer collection, debuting on September 13 during New York Fashion Week. Credit: Flying Solo 
Taquiela Wright will premiere “The Garden of Delisa,” her highly anticipated Spring/Summer collection, debuting on September 13 during New York Fashion Week. Credit: Flying Solo 
Taquiela Wright will premiere “The Garden of Delisa,” her highly anticipated Spring/Summer collection, debuting on September 13 during New York Fashion Week. Credit: Flying Solo
Her love of lingerie dates to high school, but Delisa Rose did not start as a luxury brand. Wright first sketched loungewear and robes in 2019 to make her mother, who was seriously ill, more comfortable. Her mother died in 2020. Wright kept designing, and after talking with women about what they wanted from intimate wear, she shifted toward upscale lingerie. A 2022 showcase at Houston’s Queer Couture fashion show, staged before Delisa Rose officially launched, became the brand’s unofficial starting point.
Wright said her engineering training now shapes nearly every part of her design process, from calculating fabric yields to constructing the technical fit of a bra. She produces sizes from extra small through 2X and takes custom orders above that to keep material costs under control.
“There is a lot of technicality that goes into constructing the bra because of the different types of bust sizes women have,” she said. “You have to have precision. You have to do a lot of drawing, hand drawing, going back and forth.”
That precision was tested last year when Wright was diagnosed with advanced-stage glaucoma, an eye disease that disproportionately affects Black Americans, who face higher rates of severe diagnosis and vision loss than white patients, according to national research. Wright has said the diagnosis coincided with a separate health scare, a stretch she described as one of the darkest periods of her life.
“It put a damper on what my future will look like in terms of not just my vision, but metaphorically speaking, my vision of what my purpose is going to continue to be like in this world,” Wright said.
Power of sisterhood
Cori Glasgow, owner of Kure Salon Suites and a celebrity makeup artist, has done Wright’s makeup for roughly three and a half years, ever since the two struck up a conversation while getting garments made by the same seamstress. Their bond deepened, Glasgow said, through a shared faith and the pressures of running their own businesses.
“When she started going through her struggles, it really touched me,” Glasgow said. “ I love that we’re able to get on the phone and connect and get into prayer.”
Glasgow said she watched Wright’s usual energy fade during her health scare, prompting her to drive Wright to medical appointments and host her overnight, since Wright lives about an hour away.
“I don’t allow the other hand to know what the other hand is doing. I love being an engineer. … Fashion speaks to me on a passion level. So why can’t you do both?”
CEO of Delisa Rose Luxury Lingerie
“Not only did that affect her, but it affected me,” Glasgow said. “I had to really put on my big girl panties, per se, and help her out and be a good friend.”
Glasgow said Wright has since returned to her old self while preparing for the Fashion Week debut, an outcome she called “a joy to see.”
Wright, who is self-funded and has done design work with Nike and Adidas, said she hopes to eventually open her own store and place Delisa Rose in retailers such as Saks and Neiman Marcus. For now, her focus is on the message behind “The Garden of Delisa.”
“I want women to feel empowered, that they don’t have to stay in their struggle,” Wright said. “She can be in her own garden and water her own garden and grow from it.”
