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For the first time ever, the Latin American fashion industry came together on 4 November to celebrate local and diasporic talent with a three-day celebration punctuated by an awards ceremony hosted in the Dominican Republic.
Winners of 14 categories were announced on Saturday night at a ceremony in the Casa de Campo amphitheatre. They included Luar by Raul Lopez for Brand of the Year, Willy Chavarria for Designer of the Year; and Karoline Vitto for Emerging Designer of the Year. There were 1,500 applicants in total for the awards, whittled down to between three and six finalists per category.
The awards have been in the making for four years, dreamt up by friends Constanza Etro, founder of Fashion Film Festival Milano (where the two founders first met) and Mexico Fashion Week, and Cuban-Nicaraguan designer and luxury brand consultant Silvia Arguëllo, who has previously won the Vogue Italia “Who’s on Next” award and worked with designers including Giambattista Valli and Emanuel Ungaro. Etro was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and lived in Mexico City before moving to Milan; Arguëllo is based in the Dominican Republic.
“We’re making history today,” Arguëllo said to members of the jury when they assembled for live voting on day two. Presided over by Haider Ackermann, the jury included Italian designer Kean Etro [Constanza’s husband], fashion icon Anna Dello Russo, activist and actor Indya Moore, i-D global fashion director Carlos Nazario, Vogue Italia talent scout Sara Sozzani Maino, designer Margherita Missoni, Vogue Latin America and Mexico editor-in-chief Karla Martínez de Salas, Camera Nazionale della Moda chairman Carlo Capasa and CFDA CEO Steven Kolb (not all were present in person).
Finalists and jury members mingled at the upscale Westin Hotel and Tortuga Bay resorts under the Caribbean sun. Day one included an opening drinks event for finalists at the Mare restaurant in the Puntacana Resort & Club. On day two, emerging designer, artisanal project and responsible project finalists presented 10-minute pitches to the jury on-site, which were followed by a vote and then a cocktail party with 350 VIP attendees at Oscar de la Renta’s villa in Punta Cana. The main event, the awards ceremony, saw upwards of 2,000 guests attending, including members of the public who could buy a ticket, with Colombian Reggaeton singer J Balvin closing the ceremony, followed by an afterparty at Casa de Campo.
“Sometimes Latin America is so disconnected from the rest of the world. By giving them this exposure, we want people to discover all the talent that hasn’t necessarily had the opportunity to show abroad,” says Arguëllo backstage after the awards.
Unity is at the centre of the awards, which is why talent from the diaspora and within the region were all included. “This project is about having everybody together,” Arguëllo says. “In Latin America, there’s been the history of resilience and having to leave your country and start a new life, so we couldn’t create a project that only looked at Latin Americans living in Latin America.”
The founders chose to set up an awards ceremony rather than a fashion week, partly to boost the celebratory energy and partly to ensure long-lasting support for the talent involved. “An awards ceremony is more aspirational and celebratory, with [finalists] being in front of a jury,” says Constanza Etro. The idea is for the designers from the diaspora to draw the international audience’s attention to the local designers while the local designers will draw the local community towards the designers based outside of Latin America.
The Latin American Fashion Awards will take place every other year. “[It’s an intentional decision because] there’s a year of celebration and putting them on the map, and then there’s a year of the winning talent’s business development,” says Arguëllo. Winners and nominees will be showcased at Italian trade show White Milano in June 2024, as well as being featured in a screening as part of Etro’s film festival. In September 2024, winners and nominees will showcase within the Camera’s fashion hub at Milan Fashion Week, and a fashion workshop with global leaders is planned for November 2024. Farfetch will also sell the winners’ collections online.
The challenges for Latin American talent
Several finalists noted that the Latin American industry has not historically been perceived as fashionable or luxury. “Latinos are one of the biggest consumers in the world, and [Spanish] is the second most spoken language in the world, but they’re not at the forefront [of fashion]. But there’s so much talent and rich cultures to pull from,” Raul Lopez tells Vogue Business the morning of the awards ceremony.
Part of the problem is a lack of Latino representation at the top rungs of luxury, many agree. “I’ve found that there’s a lot of companies that profess to be [inclusive] on the outside, but the truth is it’s an all-white male board of directors; everyone at the top is old, white, male. I think it really begins within the infrastructure of a company,” says Willy Chavarria before the ceremony. “In the US, the Latino customer is the one to watch; it’s the fastest-growing market. That’s something that some of the bigger companies don’t recognise from a business standpoint.” Chavarria prioritises hiring Black, brown, queer and/or trans people who haven’t had the opportunities to enter the industry.
For local talent, there are logistical challenges such as sourcing, lack of production infrastructure, customs and taxes. “One of the biggest challenges is the raw materials because they have to source that outside Latin America,” says Arguëllo.
As the Latin American community gains more exposure, those barriers are starting to break down. In particular, with musicians including Bad Bunny, J Balvin, Karol G and Maluma gaining international fame, a spotlight has been placed on the region. “The reggaeton movement became worldwide, so there’s an awareness about Latin America, and Latin America all of a sudden became cool, so fashion was the next step,” Venezuelan TV show host Rodner Figueroa tells Vogue Business at the cocktail party hosted in Oscar de la Renta’s villa. “This new generation is very much in touch with a global movement — that’s why it’s so important to look at Latin America right now.”
Lopez, who said he had very few Latino designers to look up to when he was growing up, closed New York Fashion Week in February, a spot usually reserved for the likes of Ralph Lauren or Tom Ford. “For me, [closing NYFW] was like, whoa — especially because I’m from New York, I’m Latino, I’m of colour. It’s about more than just the brand; it’s about showing people you don’t have to let where you come from or what you look like stop you,” he says.
For the founders, the awards are about inspiring future generations by providing a platform to celebrate their heritage and talent. “When you listen to the story of Willy [Chavarria] or Luar or Zaya [Guarani, Influencer of the Year and an Indigenous activist and model who was born and raised in the Amazon in Brazil], you say yes, we can do it,” says Etro.
Building a sense of community
Many finalists and jury members emphasised how excited they were to feel the sense of community that the awards brought. “It’s the first time we’ve all been together in a super prestigious environment with everyone from the emerging designers to the top successful designers in the room celebrating each other. It’s a beautiful moment,” says Chavarria. “I’m really happy that [the awards] are happening and that they took the time to get it ready properly, to do it the right way that competes with every other fashion event on the global stage.”
While the unity across the Latin American community was felt, individual cultures were also celebrated, with each nominee’s heritage amplified — an art installation at the cocktail party the day before the awards showed a number of boats painted with all the finalists listed under the country they’re representing. “Normally in America or Europe, there’s a tendency to put all Latinos in one group and generalise the consensus of what the Latinidad is, but these awards really pay homage to all the different aspects, which is really important,” says Chavarria.
There was a dedicated award for local Dominican Republic talent, which model Lineisy Montero won, presented by activist/actor Moore and musician Tokischa. For Lopez, who is Dominican, it felt “monumental” to have the awards hosted there. “To be nominated for two awards and to be celebrated in my country feels really good — I shed a couple of tears,” he says.
Guarani highlighted the importance of including indigenous voices in these awards. “When we include indigenous [voices], we are spreading the voice of a whole community, the union of the worlds,” she tells Vogue Business at the afterparty. “I think it’s important to spread the word of the indigenous community because, with our sustainable living, we could really help the development of societies in the world to do the same and transition to being better and understand that you are nature, and nature is you.”
Many finalists give back to the local community by working with artisans. Johanna Ortiz, who was nominated for designer of the year, built an atelier in her hometown, Cali, Colombia, where 78 per cent of the workforce is female, offering training programmes and upskilling opportunities to reach couture-level seamstress and embroidery skills through Escuela Johanna Ortiz. “Through fashion, we empower our people, providing high-quality jobs and offering training. Our mission is to improve their quality of life and give them the tools to be personally empowered and find new life opportunities both inside and outside of Johanna Ortiz. To date, 110 people have benefited from the program, 94 per cent comprised of vulnerable women, mostly victims of violence.
Furthermore, we collaborate with over 23 local artisan communities in Colombia to provide economic independence to more than 260 women artisans,” she says.
Many of the finalists and jury members — who were staying in the same two hotels — became friends over the three-day trip, mingling at the pool and restaurants and rooting for each other on the awards day. “Everyone’s so happy and supportive, so it’s nice to be part of something so inclusive,” sustainability activist Marina Testino, who was nominated for Influencer of the Year, tells Vogue Business by the beach at the Westin Hotel.
“[The Latin American community] can be really separate sometimes, but when you give us the space and opportunity to really form connections with networking and bring each other up, it opens up this feeling of community,” adds LA-based Mexican model Valentine, who was nominated for Model of the Year.
For Etro, the sense of unity is key to promoting Latin American talent globally. “Being Latin American in Europe, I found it was an asset. We have a different energy,” she says. “We have to celebrate the diversity of Latin America because there’s a lot of voices that could use some help to be amplified.”
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