All eyes were on Bad Bunny’s pava at the 2025 Met Gala. Whether it was confusion from mainstream eyes or proud yells from Boricua voices, it was definitely the accessory of the night — in our unbiased opinions. While the rest of Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio’s iconic look was done by Prada and the luxury brand’s creative director Janthony Oliveras (the tailored brown suit, bedazzled gloves, and a vintage-style bowling bag), the traditional Puerto Rican jíbaro straw hat wasn’t a Prada creation at all. The pava was designed and hand-made by a local Boricua designer. Meet Neysha de León, the mind (and hands) behind De León Headwear.
De León is a fashion designer, hatmaker, and artist who was born and raised in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico and currently lives in San Juan. She did most of her creative studies at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico before transferring to the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), and graduating with a fashion design degree. De León specializes in hats and headpieces — from pavas to boleros — that are crafted by hand, free of harsh chemicals and synthetic materials. Her pieces stand out from the rest, imbued with her artistic touch and Puerto Rican touch.
During an exclusive interview with Remezcla, De León spoke about how this dream collaboration started. Her hats apparently first touched Bad Bunny’s head in the Vogue Mexico editorial photoshoot earlier this month. A few months ago during the shoot, a friend of hers, María Cristina, was working on the production and heard the staff was looking for a designer to make a pava crown. De León immediately came to mind. And when it came to the 2025 Met Gala, she was approached by Bad Bunny and his team two and a half weeks before the big event.
This interview has been lightly edited & condensed for clarity purposes.
How did De León Headwear start?
It started when I was doing my bachelor in fashion design at FIT in New York around 2010. I took a bunch of super cool classes that I wanted to take, that weren’t in my curriculum. Millinery was one of them, and I fell in love. I loved it so much that I just stayed just working on my hats.
And why hats?
The type of creative I am, I like being hands-on. I prefer doing things with my hands, sit in front of a [sewing] machine, cutting a pattern, sewing it… just literally sitting and working with my hands. The fashion industry is a lot more than just making something. Coming from plastic arts, which is such a creative space, to going to something that’s a lot more… it’s manufacturing, the cost, everything.
You notice how ridiculous everything in the fashion industry is sometimes. It was a lot. But as soon as I took that class on millinery, I was like “this is so it.” It was very personal and niche. And it’s rare to find people that make hats with their hands. Everything is factory-made. But to really make a hat, one by one, it’s such a cool experience.
Could you tell me how you started working with Bad Bunny and his team?
They first contacted me for the Vogue Mexico project. And I see it as something so beautiful, they knew about me because of a designer friend of mine, María Cristina. She works production too, and she was working as a seamstress on that project.
Among the stylists, they were asking for someone to make a “pava-style” crown. She recommended me, and they contacted me. But it’s more just… the support. The power of having friends that believe in you that say, “I’m gonna suggest you because I know that you can do this.”
A lot of people think this world is competitive, do you think it is or is there community?
For the Boricua, there’s always community. That’s something we have embedded in us. We’re all here to help and support each other in becoming bigger, and I hope that it’s always like that. We enjoy each other’s successes. And I’ll always give [the opportunity to work with Bad Bunny] to my friend, because she spoke up and that’s why they chose to reach out to me. It’s literally just that… having someone that thought about you.
For the Met Gala look, what inspired the Pava design?
I met with his publicist directly, she reached out to me. They already had in mind to do a take on the pava design. They wanted something that would give it that puertorriqueño touch. And we spoke a lot about the Met Gala’s theme, and how to incorporate dandyism with our jibarito. So, the approach was to do something that wasn’t a costume. We wanted something that still had that elegance. It was to create a pava, but in a shorter style, nothing too dramatic.
And what was the process of making it like?
I had to be very realistic with the process to be able to say what’s possible and what isn’t for me. For example, they said “let’s not use rabbit or beaver felt.” And that changes the consistency of [the hat] a lot, because I don’t use stiffener because it’s a chemical. So, I was looking for ways to maintain the structure of the hat, keep the stiffness like the traditional jibaro hat that stays up and has flequitos.
I usually start with the crown of the hat and continue to the brim — but for this, I had to work the opposite way. I’ll be very honest, I had to make an executive decision. I was also dealing with a limited amount of materials and items to do the project, and a limited amount of time. Because normally customs take more than a month…
And how much time did you have to work on this piece?
This was two weeks. Maybe two weeks and a half. So, I decided to do the weaving by hand, which is a technique I learned at FIT with the leather techniques. And I felt super comfortable doing it that way, because I’ve worked with it before in various other projects. It was perfect. I made the small tubes of the hat, they have wire piping inside, so they could shape it however they wanted. That’s how it’s structured. [Bad Bunny’s team] had voz y voto of how exactly they wanted everything to look, because we didn’t have fittings or anything.
What did you learn from this that you’ll be taking into future projects?
To follow my gut. I reached a point where I was literally looking at my supplies and I was like, “I need to decide that I’m going to change this.” But I didn’t want to freak them out. I wanted to go through the process and give them a sample so they would okay it. But I also wanted to feel good about it. So, I asked my friends and fellow artists what they thought. There were people that said, “Don’t do it, don’t change it.” And others that said “You are the expert.”
Sometimes you need to remind yourself of that. There’s a reason they called me. They needed someone to make a hat. Benito asked for the designer to be someone local, when he was told it wasn’t going to be Prada. So, I’m really happy he decided that, and for that reason, I was like, “Okay, I have to do this right.”
What’s next for De León?
Continue working to be able to offer more hats, more ideas, and be able to share it with everyone. I work in small batches because of my limited supplies, but I hope that eventually changes with all of this now. So, right now, I’m limited by that, but I hope to slowly add more and more to my collection.
Hopefully to be able to do this for a living, which is what I’ve always wanted to do. I was also invited to this year’s Paseo Pasarela, to show a lingerie collection. I really want to show what else I can do, and of course, it’ll have some hats and headpieces too.
