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BOGOTA,
Colombia — The creations of Colombian fashion
designers Pepa Pombo, Silvia Tcherassi, Esteban Cortazar
and others have lighted up fashion shows around the
world in recent years and raised the country’s profile
in the world of haute couture.
But the
high-fashion clothes of Amelia Toro, a Bogota-based
designer, are perhaps the most uniquely Colombian. She
incorporates handicrafts made by indigenous communities,
including the Wayuu, Kuna and Putumayo tribes, into
dresses and coats that retail for $4,000 or more.
Her style
reflects her pride in Colombia’s heritage, and a
conscious effort to help preserve it. By paying her
indigenous suppliers a good wage for their products, she
hopes to slow the effect of encroaching modernity that
is causing handcrafts dating back centuries to slowly
disappear.
“My
purpose is in mixing these cultures in a sophisticated
and elegant way, so that these crafts continue and
heritage is not lost,” Toro, 50, said during an
interview early this month at her atelier in north
Bogota. The indigenous look is essential to her style.
“There are 100,000 designers out there, so you better
have something different to say.”
Toro’s
designs, two-thirds of which she sells to foreign
clients, were showcased at an Americas fashion show
recently at the United Nations, with Spain’s Queen
Sofia and Colombian singer Shakira present. Her pieces
have been modeled on runways in Milan, Los Angeles,
Mexico City and Tokyo. Clients include Katie Couric,
Marisa Tomei and Kim Basinger.
She was
the main attraction at last year’s Portland Fashion
Week, which bills itself as the nation’s only
“green” high-fashion show dedicated exclusively to
fair trade and the use of sustainable, eco-friendly
fabrics.
“Amelia
is on a different level from other designers,” Lynn
Frank, a consultant to Portland Fashion Week, said by
telephone from his office in Salem, Ore. “Her
commitment to the story behind the fashions brings
forward the culture of indigenous tribes and gives them
a reason for retaining it.”
By
encouraging indigenous artisanship, Toro says, she has
taken a page from the strategy of Bernard Arnault,
chairman of the French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH.
The parent firm of Louis Vuitton strives to keep French
craftsmanship alive by creating markets for those
skills.
At times,
Toro departs from her focus on ethnic-influenced styles.
Last year, Walt Disney Co. designated Toro as its Latin
America collaborator in a line she created called Alice
by Amelia, inspired by Disney’s “Alice in
Wonderland” characters. Toro thus joined a select
company of Disney high-fashion partners that includes
Stella McCartney and Dolce & Gabbana.
In
addition to using ethnic fabrics, Toro has a policy of
hiring single women who are heads of households, and
paying them a good wage with health and pension
benefits, unlike many firms in an industry notorious for
paying workers on a piecework basis.
Instead
of an assembly line, most of her 40 full-time employees
have learned enough to make clothing on their own,
assuring them a livelihood if or when they leave the
firm.
“I’ve
learned so much here about fitting, fabrics, what
quality stitching is all about,” said Marleny Realpe,
an 11-year employee who is a single mother of three.
“She
has a special vision, one that we all share,” Elicia
Poveda, a nine-year employee, said of her boss. “At
most apparel companies, you work at a gallop. High
fashion is different. The emphasis is on being above the
common.”
Educated
at the Rhode Island School of Design and at Parsons in
New York, Toro got on-the-job training at apparel
companies in Italy, India and New York before starting
her fashion house in 1990.
Like many
owners of high-end export businesses, Toro suffered with
the global financial crisis and has had to lay off half
of her 100 employees since 2008. But sales have
rebounded, and she said she expects to rehire all of her
staff by June and to open stores in Los Angeles and New
York.
Much of
her optimism stems from the new U.S.-Colombia free-trade
agreement, which will give her exemption from 30 percent
customs duty on the items she sells at the new U.S.
stores. She also has plans to expand her line to include
fashions made with indigenous fabrics from Mexico and
Central America.
Success
will depend on the economy, but also patience and
adapting to the “indigenous sense of time.”
“For
them,” she said, “tomorrow can mean three months
from now.”
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