The New Miss Texas USA, R'Bonney Gabriel, Is Also A Talented Fashion Designer & Teacher

Here's everything you need to know about the Filipina American winner!

Brittany Cristiano Texas Staff Writer July 11, 2022, 02:46 PM

R'Bonney Gabriel in Oahu, Hawaii. Right: Gabriel posing in a dress she created. @rbonneynola | Instagram

Two Texas women recently made history when they were both crowned the first Asian American women to win their respective Miss Texas pageant titles.

One of them is a Filipina American fashion designer named R'Bonney Gabriel from the Houston, TX area. She won the top title at the Miss Texas USA competition on July 2 and she will compete for Miss USA later this year.

Gabriel, who first won Miss Friendswood USA in her native Bayou City suburb to qualify, does much more than competing for pageant titles.

The 28-year-old has been a fashion designer for 15 years and has long been a supporter of creating "eco-friendly" designs.

The creator runs her own fashion label, R'Bonney Nola, and designs everything from $38 t-shirts, to an $850 gown, all made from recycled material, of course.

She's currently a sewing teacher at fashion house Magpies and Peacocks in Houston educating students on how to sew different types of things using deadstock fabrics and textiles.

Miss Texas USA runs classes that are a part of the non-profit's MAKR Collective program, which helps provide different life tools to trauma victims, like formerly trafficked people, so they can learn a new skill.

The beauty queen actually wears some of her own designs while on stage competing, too, and each look is, nevertheless, made out of recycled fabrics.

For example, she recently shared on Instagram how she made the gown she wore during the Miss Texas pageant's opening number by completely revamping a red old coat she found at the design house.

She has not revealed if any of her upcoming looks for the national pageant will be made by her, but she did recently take followers on a journey with her to pick out a competition gown from a Houston retail shop.

https://www.narcity.com/houston/new-miss-texas-usa-rbonney-gabriel-talented-fashion-designer-teacher