With her resilience, charisma and realness, “La Diva de la Banda,” Jenni Rivera is an iconic, relatable and loved queen. However, there is an aspect of hers that is so unique and distinguishable that it has created a lasting stamp on her identity.
Her mermaid cut brightly colored dresses, embroidered with intricate floral designs and fluffy ruffling layers that make it seem like she is floating on clouds, was a design that was custom made for her by designer Adan Terriquez.
One of these dresses will be on display in the lobby of the New Performing Arts building, which is named after her, starting Thursday. Her black dress with vibrant yellow flower embroidery, which was used to promote the banda edition of the album “La Gran Senora” will be brought in for the renaming ceremony of the building and will be on display afterwards for students to come visit it.
Jenni Rivera’s iconic black and yellow gown made by designer Adan Terriquez is displayed in an exhibit at The GRAMMY Museum. This large three-part exhibition was put on right after the death of Rivera and showcased personal items of hers along with her dresses. Courtesy of The GRAMMY Museum/ Becky Sapp.
According to Rivera’s son, Mike Rivera, the dress will remain in the lobby for a time, and Rivera’s family intends to have it there in a more permanent manner, but they are currently still working out some logistics.
Adan first met Rivera on the set of her photoshoot for the album cover of “Reyna de Reynas” in the year 2000, where his brother Jamie worked as a stylist for the production company and introduced them to each other then.
Jenni Rivera, left, and Adan Terriquez, right, are on the set of the photo shoot for the cover of Rivera’s album “Reyna de Reynas,” back in 2000. They met for the first time at this photo shoot, and soon after Adan became her fashion designer. Courtesy of Adan Terriquez.
Even in these early moments, Adan knew he wanted to create a timeless, recognizable style for Rivera.
“When we were talking that day that I met her, about how she wanted a designer. Well, she told me that she wanted a fashionable look. That she wants, ‘oh well I want you to make me dresses that are very modern, I want you to make me very fashionable..,” Adan said.
He continued, “So, I told her ‘no.’ I told her ‘I’m going to make you a style, not fashionable.’ She told me, ‘What is the difference?’ The difference is that fashionable items cycle out and style stays,” Adan said.
To create her style, Adan took inspiration from the fashion of some of her favorite artists like Lucha Villa, Rocio Dural and Lola Beltran, fusing their Mexican and Spanish styles together.
The mermaid silhouette originates from flamenco dresses in Spain, and the detailed flowery embroidery is traditionally found in charro Mexican dresses.
The process to perfect her style was one that took many trials of testing. It started with a simpler design, which was slowly modified each time, to see which version felt more like her and complemented her best.
Jenni Rivera in an early version of her signature mermaid style dress. This version has a more simple design that stays true to the deep neckline and the fit and flare silhouette and doesn’t have ruffles yet. Courtesy of Adan Terriquez.
They always kept the same fitting form of the dress, the mermaid cut with the deep neckline, but experimented with the design of the embroidery and the shape of the tail, said Adan.
Jenni Rivera, right, wears the first dress that her designer Adan Terriquez, left, had made for her, to an award show early in her career. Courtesy of Adan Terriquez.
The quality got better every time, and “each time the dresses were more beautiful,” recalled Adan.
During the peak of Rivera’s career, about the last five years of her career, Adan explained that every week he would turn in one or two new dresses. He had a team of about eight people, who would help him put together the dresses as they worked together to embroider them, apply rhinestones by hand and even paint on some dresses.
They would always be working on a couple of dresses at a time, so that they could have the dresses ready immediately after one another.
The dresses he made towards the end of Rivera’s career were more complicated to make, a testament to his growth as a designer.
“Before, when I was starting, the dresses were less and they were easier to make. As time passed by, they were more and more difficult to make. They had to top the dress I had just made her,” Adan said.
The dress that Adan is most proud of is the black dress with yellow embroidery that will be on display at LBCC. Apart from being used to promote the banda edition of the album “La Gran Senora” it also appeared on Rivera on the inside of the CD in the original version of the album.
Singer Jenni Rivera, left, wears the famous black and yellow dress that her designer Adan Terriquez, right, made for her. This dress became the face of her “La Gran Senora” banda edition album. Courtesy of Adan Terriquez.
This dress is not only Adan’s favorite, but it is also a fan favorite.
“That dress has a story that’s both beautiful and sad,” Adan said.
He was accustomed to Rivera giving away her dresses to fans and friends, and Adan loved this dress so much that he wanted to prevent this dress from ending up in someone else’s hands.
“I would tell her to gift it to me. If you’re going to give it away, give it to me. I could make it again, but it’s not the same as her having used it,” Adan said.
She would gift him other dresses, but it just wasn’t the dress that Adan wanted. One day, he directly asked her again, “Jenni, please gift me that dress.”
“She said ‘no’. And I said ‘why?” She responded, “Because one day that dress is going to be in a place where you feel more proud of seeing it there, then to have it in your closet in your house,” Adan said.
“I didn’t understand what she wanted to tell me,” Adan said.
Fast forward to one or two years right after he had this conversation with her, Rivera died, and the Grammy Museum dedicated an exhibit to honor Rivera, with some of her personal items like her favorite overalls, her bible and her office chair, as well as some of her most iconic dresses.
Most of the dresses displayed were made by Adan, including the yellow and black dress.
Jenni Rivera’s iconic black and yellow gown made by designer Adan Terriquez is displayed in an exhibit at The GRAMMY Museum. Courtesy of The GRAMMY Museum/ Becky Sapp.
“Her dress was placed in the Grammy museum, the one that’s here in Los Angeles. It’s the most important (place) for music in the world and below (the exhibit) said ‘Adan Terriquez’,” said Adan proudly.
In addition to these dresses, Adan and his team created over 400 fashion pieces in total for Rivera.
“The 400 pieces were in between shoes, boots, hats, jackets, vests, pants, shorts,” Adan said.
Adan even designed her signature batwing, butterfly dresses, where one black variation appeared in the “Basta Ya” music video, and she used a blue one to perform in.
A portrait of singer Jenni Rivera in her mother’s home, where she is in a butterfly dress designed by Adan Terriquez. Butterflies were a symbol that Rivera deeply resonated with, as she saw her transformation in life, getting out of toxic relationships and blossoming into her singing, similar to how caterpillars turn into a beautiful butterfly. (Paloma Maciel)
Designer Adan Terriquez’s designs for the black and yellow dress, left, and for Jenni Rivera’s signature butterfly dress. (Paloma Maciel)
Having been a designer for over 30 years and worked with big name artists like Karol G and Ana Barbara, among others, Adan voiced that an artist’s image is very important to the success of an artist and that designers play a crucial role in it.
“When I go to see an artist I like that they are well dressed. If they don’t have pretty clothes, I say, ‘Mmm, I paid so much and they can’t even dress good’,” Adan said.
Nwaka Onwusa, a music historian and curator, who helped put together the Grammy exhibit in 2013, and became a fan of Jenni Rivera after discovering her from the process, pointed out how Rivera’s transformation into her elaborate gowns embodied her story of resilience.
“I think that’s her coming into that era. Of like ‘Oh, La Gran Senora.’ … It’s boldness, it’s her being elegant, its her self-empowerment in the beauty that she is like, you know, I don’t look like what I’ve been through,” Onwusa said.
Onwusa expressed the admiration that she has for Rivera and her perseverance in life.
“I connected to her story and when I was like ‘damn’, she had a baby and she still went to college and she still like, she persevered. That’s something as a woman… that’s encouraging. It’s like that kind of motivation is just, I look to any woman who beats the odds and becomes that successful, like that’s what’s so moving for me,” Onwusa said.
Rivera exuded telenovela glam with her smoky, dramatic eyeshadow and big curls that made her look effortless, adding to her powerful, confident persona.
Like Adan, who created Rivera’s notorious mermaid style dress, his brother Jaime Terriquez was her makeup artist and stylist, also completely transforming Rivera’s appearance.
When Jaime met Rivera, she followed a Chicana style of makeup. Jaime recalls her having thin eyebrows and liking painting her lips with dark colors, which Jaime did not like.
Jaime worked to give her a more glammed-up image and expressed that he steered her away from ever using red lipstick, because that’s one of his makeup don’ts.
Behind Rivera’s extravagant gowns and newly found bold makeup look were two brothers working tirelessly behind the scenes.
Jenni Rivera, middle, poses with her makeup and hair stylist, Jaime Terriquez, right, and her designer, Adan Terriquez, left, the same day she attended the Latin GRAMMYS award show in 2002. That year, she received her first Latin GRAMMY nomination for best banda album for “Se Las Voy a Dar a Otro.” Courtesy of Adan Terriquez.
Jaime recounted a personal anecdote with Rivera, while traveling with her that demonstrated the intensity of her artist life.
“Sometimes we went on the plane because she presented for example, here at the moment and in two, three hours in another state, or other place. And while we arrived from one place to the other, on the same plane, I would do her makeup, her hair, redoing her hairstyle and retouching her makeup. When we arrived, she would directly go to sing where she performed and that’s how we were, always running,” Jaime said.
Adan described Rivera as being caring and said that his favorite memories with her were when she would call him late at night to check up on him.
“(My favorite memories) are the calls that she gave me at 10 in the night, two in the morning to ask me how I was. She asked if I needed anything and if I was ok. … She cared for the people she worked with…It wasn’t just work she also took care of us,” Adan said.
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