By Anita Zuñiga
When it comes to designer fashion in Chile, our country has quickly become a gateway for export talent focused on the creation of innovative garments, in a land where the clothing trade has recently increased, with an average purchase of between 13 and 50 garments per year, according to ICEX .
Making a living from fashion design is no easy task, let alone achieving visibility or coverage in international publishing houses. One of the key drivers in this field is leveraging the online channel as a key ally for fashion companies that have established themselves as operators in international markets.
In a professional career whose essential goal is to forge a path and grow in a market that demands constant originality, designer fashion is the fusion of clothing that lasts, that promotes sustainability, combined with slow fashion, which legitimizes that to lead the future of fashion, we must lay the foundations in concepts such as ethics and the recovery and innovation of artisanal trades.
Chilean Fashion Design: Who Are Some of the 2022 Export Talents?
- Octavio Pizarro
A Chilean who has lived in Paris for over twenty years, the designer serves as an ambassador for Latin culture in the French capital, presenting his collections twice a year with the support of the French Couture Federation. A mastermind of avant-garde fashion with a touch of Gallic tradition, Pizarro has showcased his talent in exclusive venues such as the Palais Royal in Paris and has created pieces such as rustic scarves that have reached former First Lady Michelle Obama, a gift from the then-First Lady of Chile, Cecilia Morel. He has also ventured into fashion for personalities such as Chilean Christiane Endler, who wore an outfit of his own, specially made for the 2022 Ballon d'Or awards ceremony.
- María Pía Cornejo
This haute couture designer, whose offices/studio are located in the city of Talca, Chile, studied fashion in Italy at the Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan and then in Argentina. She achieved her greatest impact in 2016 when she was published in Vogue Latin America, and soon after, in Vogue UK. In recent years, she has been invited to various international runways, including the Global Fashion Collective, Style Hunter Milano showroom, New York Fashion Week, a fashion runway at the Refinery Hotel in the Garment District of Manhattan, and Vancouver Fashion Week, always with the aim of positioning her signature design brands in foreign retail. María Pía Cornejo has specialized in creating clothing lines linked to her signature style, in geometric designs, 3D figures, with minimalist and sophisticated elements. Her new capsule artistic collection, 'World of Children' (Spring-Summer 2023), hopes to take her to the world's runways, after three years without participating in in-person events.
- Gabriel Vielma
At 19, he moved to Spain to study and graduated as an industrial designer, but dissatisfied with this profession, he decided to study Basic Design and Technical Drawing. His thesis was to design a leather jacket, which was later part of his fourth fashion collection called Heavy Metal Luxe, inspired by the Guns N' Roses song Welcome to the Jungle. Vielma later studied at the prestigious Central Saint Martins College of Arts & Design fashion school (where stars like McQueen and Galliano were born) and gave up his professional practice in Vivienne Westwood's workshops because he "wasn't willing to waste time serving coffee." Vielma works architectural silhouettes in materials such as silk, organza, and sheer.
- Guido Vera
Designer of timeless and minimalist fashion garments based on the precept of simple bets for complex minds. A Chilean couturier who participated in Caravana Americana in 2020, which showcases the best of Latin American design in Mexico, he is inspired by the landscapes of Patagonia. His approach is simple and minimalist, resulting in unique pieces made with organic/vegan and high-tech fabrics that promote the positive impact of the human footprint. His fashion is based on the concept of dressing new-age nomads; he understands nomads as a group of people who do not establish a permanent residence and are in constant flux; only in this way can one leave their comfort zone. In 2022, Chilean designer Guido Vera made his way to Europe, with ProChile, in a new edition of the Tranoï fair, which took place from September 29 to October 2, 2022.
Other leading figures who have strengthened their international careers in 2022 are:
- Wendy Pozo
Chilean designer specializing in genderless or non-binary clothing. An expert in smaller-scale costume design, she specializes in menswear tailoring, more urban collections, and classic-cut dresses. She has dressed local jet-set figures, such as Pedro Pascal in a recent advertisement for a well-known Chilean wine brand, Chilean gymnast Tomás González for the red carpet of the 2019 Viña del Mar International Women's Championship, and recently the new First Lady, Irina Karamanos. She has recently expanded her horizons abroad, selling pieces destined for Hong Kong, for example.
- Lupe Gajardo
She has ventured into fashion films and was the first Chilean designer to appear in a New York Fashion Week (NYFW) show in 2015. Lupe Gajardo's designs, whose love of haute couture she inherited from her maternal grandmother, Inés Galaz Jiménez, emphasize the femininity of women, highlighting their silhouettes and employing luxurious textures and bright colors, or "artisanal luxury," as the artist calls it. Her challenges in her career of more than 10 years are to position herself in capital cities such as Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, a desire whose godmother, the Chinese gallery owner Pearl Lamb, a regular visitor to her collections, has inspired her to seek investors who hope to establish her in the Asian luxury market by 2025.
- Juan Cabezas
He makes a living from his art, molding hats in all materials, including straw creations that he makes to order, and also teaches workshops on hatmaking. This creator is originally from Maipú and studied architecture, although over time he began working on fashion projects for magazines and advertisements. Self-taught and disruptive since kindergarten, when instead of painting a gray cat, he dyed the feline purple for a school project. One characteristic that currently inspires Juan is following role models like Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, and the king of hats, Philip Treacy.
Professionals linked to the fashion industry indicate that these designers are opening the way for new generations of fashion internationally, as well as for those of us who consume it, thanks to their label: "Talentos de Exportación" (Export Talents), a group of professionals who, through their perseverance, have managed to create a space for the Chilean textile industry, encouraging conscious consumption.