Costa Verde – latest collection by a great eco-luxury brand

April 16, 2010 at 8:37 pm · Filed under Fashion, Uncategorized

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Dear followers,

Let me give you details on this collection, which is what my business partner and  I like to call a ‘fundraising’ collection.   It is small and it is meant to raise funds to fuel us further.   There are many things that are interesting about this collection.   Although we are not using certified organic fabrics yet this collection is still very ethical.   We had a considerable amount of fabrics left over from our previous brand, C.S.O.R.K. Peru, and decided that it would be wasteful to let it lie there for eternity.   I was also gifted fabrics by my great friend and designer Maria del Pilar Medina.   This means that the main component of any collection- the outer fabric- , we already had, which already saved us a bunch of money!  Not that we have any.  Let me list the interesting things about this collection:

Exquisite manufacture:  Marcelina Aquije is one of the seamstresses I have been working with for about five years now and she is just incredible.  She is punctual, good-humoured and most of all: her work is worthy of every penny she charges.

More-than-fair wages:  Marcelina Aquije was paid much more than any seamstress in this country for the manufacture of these dresses.  At Bernales & Goretti we refuse to take advantage of people and their efforts.

Peruvian 1 cent coin buttons:  I thought of using these, which I had drilled to be made into buttons, a long long time ago.   My trusted seamstress Gloria Sanchez kept all my leftover fabrics and materials for me while I was abroad and even while I was in Lima and in too small a place to store them myself.   To my great surprise along with the fabrics I collected from her house once I had moved to a bigger apartment also came a few little bags of leftover coin buttons!   I still love them and plan on using them often for Bernales & Goretti.

Luxury lining:  if you’re going to be a luxury brand, then you have to use luxury materials.   Anything that could have been lined was lined in our previous brand, but the lining was not the best that it could be.   Mind you it was not the worst by any means whatsoever, but alas, not the best.    With less money than I’ve ever had in my life I decided to buy the most expensive lining because I know that Bernales & Goretti needs to be what it claims to be:  we want to give our customers what we promise.

Price:  We are charging $300 dollars per dress, which is much lower than a dress of this kind would cost at any kind of luxury boutique.  It is meant to fuel our brand further.  If you are interested just write us on our Facebook brand page.

yours truly,

Constanza Ontaneda

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Entrepreneurial Start-up woes? Making magic: how to put on a class act with ZERO dollars

April 7, 2010 at 12:36 am · Filed under Collection, Entrepreneur Corner ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dear followers,

Today I will write about a subject that is very close to my heart.    It’s about making the magic happen even when one is penniless.

Well, what to say.   Costa Verde is the first collection that I feel 100% sure about.   I have spent most of the little money I earn as a language teacher in Lima to pay for the manufacturing of this collection.   Marcela Aquije, a seamstress whom I have been working with for five years now, made all fourteen dresses.   Her work is exquisite.   Before Costa Verde I made a collection of skirts that I already sent to my business partner Angeline Stuma, who is currently stationed in New York.  Mind you, in case it wasn’t clear:  I tried to sew these skirts myself.  I quickly realized that although I know how to sew, I am not a seamstress:  those are two very different things.   When I realized I was jeopardizing the quality of our brand I quickly called on my seamstresses.   I view Bernales & Goretti as a luxury brand:  whether ugly or pretty, luxury brands all have one thing in common:  supreme, elegant and clean construction.    Voila.

With Costa Verde, I made no mistake.   I called Marcela on time and she made the dresses beautifully.   As with the skirts, this collection is a fundraising collection that will push us forward.   The outer fabrics are either leftovers from my previous brand or gifts from good friends such as Maria del Pilar Medina.   The Peruvian coin buttons are also vestiges of the previous brand.   Everything else I had to buy:  thread, luxury lining, interfacing, hooks & eyes and ethnic belts.

I did all the draping myself, which means that I did the patternmaking.   The manufacture cost me quite a bit but it was worth every single penny that we don’t have.   What a happy day it was when Marcela brought the dresses.  I saw them and pleasure cursed through my veins.

I knew a photoshoot was in order.   But how?   The most important decision  Angeline and I finally made is that our target market is not an age but a personality: which means that we could use younger models again.   Alas.  I tried to get the only person who looks like a model in my class from my British school, San Silvestre, to model in exchange for clothes, but she cordially ignored my messages.   Great.   I knew I had to look further.   After a very long time of not doing so I looked through all my Facebook “friends”.   I realized I had a couple of other options, including myself, since I successfully modeled for C.S.O.R.K.

The models are Mariella Galliani and I.   Mariella Galliani I met because she is the mother of a very special person whom I met at the Hogar Villa Martha in Pachacamac, where I have done a lot of service work.   This girl was posted to be the doctor for the Hogar for a month or so.   When she arrived at the Hogar, her parents brought her.   I dumbly did not approach or say hi, but even from afar I noticed a drop-dead gorgeous woman walking with her who could be no other than her mother, even though that was quite unbelievable.   I never forgot that moment.  After only a couple of days, this girl and I, who is also named Mariella, bonded.   When I moved to Peru last year I contacted my friend and asked her to please get me in contact with her gorgeous mother.   And so she did.   As destiny would have it, Mariella Galliani had been living abroad for some time but was just coming back to live in Lima!   She is the gorgeousness that you can see modelling in our Santo Domingo collection.

This past weekend I decided to model for this collection.  I haven´t modeled for many years and it was tough making the decision to model again, but I don´t regret it. 

But what about the jewelry?   Many years ago I met Maritza Fabris, who rented a room in Olga Zaferson‘s boutique Ethnias.   Olga Zaferson was a key character in my destiny, and many people linked to her now work for me, help me, or are my friends.    I never forgot Maritza.   When it was time to shoot the Santo Domingo collection I thought I would have to use my own jewelry, until Mariella Galliani told me to get a Peruvian jeweler to sponsor me.   I had no idea why I hadn’t thought of it before.   I instantly remembered Maritza, contacted her, and it went on from there.

But the photoshoot was not yet a done deal.  You can have models, jewelry and clothing, but if you don’t have a photographer then you don’t get photos.

The photographer who photographed everything for the previous brand was and is not available anymore.   The photographer who photographed the second half of

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was not at all satisfactory.    I finally thought of my friend Maria Eugenia Moya, or Checha, for short.   We studied together in San Silvestre and were in the same group of friends.   I knew she owned a professional camera and dabbled in photography.   I contacted her and proposed my idea, which was to pay her in clothing from our previous brand in exchange for her services.   She was game.

Maritza lent me jewelry again and suddenly we have a photoshoot!   This coming Saturday Mariella and Maria Eugenia are coming to my apartment and we will continue the Costa Verde photoshoot which began last Friday.

But who does the hair and make-up?  Yours truly folks.   Cosmetology is one of my favourite hobbies:  I even managed to take a Cosmetology class while studying abroad at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.    Lets just say it was the class that I was most excited about.

I am paying all of these wonderful women with clothing from our previous brand.   It is nice to have it now as currency: people are delighted to work for beautiful clothes and I don’t feel like I am giving nothing in return.   I think it is crucial for this type of affair to be an exchange of talents, even if money is not involved.   Apart from clothing, Maritza gets her beautiful jewelry photographed on beautiful models with beautiful clothing: for free!

I’m starting to feel the magic again folks.  I feel things coming together and am happy to be able to put something great together from nothing.

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Peru Naturtex: Organic Textiles and Yarns

March 26, 2010 at 2:44 am · Filed under Uncategorized

Dear friends,

This past Tuesday I visited Peru Naturtex, a Peruvian company that produces completely organic yarns, fabrics and even some clothing.   It is located in the district of Chorrillos, in the city of Lima, Peru, where I currently live.

The founder is an American man, someone who is a visionary and whom you can read about if you only google the name James M. Vreeland.   Up to 5000 years ago, humans in this region of the world were cultivating coloured cottons, in all the colours you can imagine.   When the Spanish conquered, they imposed their fashion in this land and coloured cottons started to decline.   No one knew they existed in modern times.   Mr. Vreeland realized that they did exist when he was studying archaeology and analyzing ancient Peruvian textiles.   His life path changed completely after that day.   Now, thankfully, Peru Naturtex exists.

When I visited, his assistant was most attentive and helped me with everything I needed, even though I asked her for the price of absolutely everything they had.   They don’t have an enormous range of textiles (designs and colours) but this is because printing designs on textiles usually involves processes that are highly noxious to the environment.   What to do?

When studying at Cornell, a most wonderful professor, Van Dyk Lewis, made us write our design philosophies.  He made us condense it to almost nothing: the essence of the essence.   I realized then that I was a colourist, or at least that that was my path.   It was established long before that that ethics and Peru were a crucial part of my destiny in this business as well.   So here comes the conundrum:  how do I develop designs that have all the colour Plus all the ethics that I love, if the most ethical fabrics are not very colourful?

Well, friends, this is what my wonderful business partner Angeline Stuma

Organic yarn from Naturtex

and I are going to have to figure out.   A possible idea that comes to mind is having different tags:  Eco-Friendly, Hand-Crafted (fabric),  Organic, and put them on different clothing accordingly.   I know that the most important thing is to keep you, our customer, informed about the truth about our products.   It is also important for you to know that we will attempt to give you the most ethical clothing without jeopardizing your sense of style or your personality.

Something that was exciting was the natural colour of the yarns, which must be used for hand knitting.   The colours are truly magnificent and it really got me thinking because the most popular items of the last brand I founded were the sweaters, so this may be a potential path for Bernales & Goretti.   My hopes are up.

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GO BIG RED!! – Cornell University Men’s Basketball team

March 25, 2010 at 1:51 pm · Filed under Kudos! ·Tagged , , , ,

Big RedTonight at 9:57 p.m. at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y. Cornell Men’s Basketball team will play No. 1 seed Kentucky. The team has come along way and has held its own against top five seeds. Tonight’s game will be the Big Red’s attempt to win its third NCAA tournament in program history. We wish the boys a great game and hopefully they’ll make history tonight.

Don’t miss out on the game, you can catch it live on CBS or online on www.ncaa.com.

GO BIG RED!

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How do you stay abreast of fashion trends? Do you have any advice for aspiring fashion designers? Where do you see B&G in five years?

February 12, 2010 at 5:47 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

Hi guys. These are the last questions that Angeline interviewed me with.

I stay abreast of fashion trends on style.com. It’s that easy! It’s the home of Vogue and fashion in every way. One can see what anybody who is anybody is wearing, the runway, social events and all sorts of other things as well. When I travel to fashion-forward cities I also just watch the people around me. Trends used to be the norm up to twenty-ish years ago. In the western world, everyone looked the same. Now, things are different. Lots of people (including me) Just Don’t Care. Style is style, beauty is beauty. Society does not look uniform anymore. I am here to make women look beautiful and if I don’t think the current ‘trends’ can achieve that then I wont follow them. I am here to create and then proceed to hope and pray that women will adore my creations.

My advice for fashion designers is to design. Do not copy, do not fret, just do your own thing because it is very likely that there will be an accepting market somewhere somehow.

Five years…mmm….that will be 2015. Right now our brand name is in the mouths of people whom we have one to two degrees of separation with. By 2015 B&G will be in the mouths of people with whom we have the largest degree of separation possible, which is purportedly 6. Whether it is 6 or 1000, B&G will be in their psyche, in their mouths, and on their bodies.

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What was it like putting together a production team for the first collection?

February 11, 2010 at 1:39 am · Filed under Collection, eco fashion, Fashion, Peru, Raising Capital ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Constanza draping Bernales & Goretti's next collection

Constanza & I often get asked questions about our life post-Cornell University, and our experience starting our own business, so we decided to interview each other. Here is part four of many series to come.

Putting together a production team for the first collection was not the most pleasant of experiences.  I decided to only use the tailor I had worked with before.   In the past, he had showed signs of great unpunctuality, but his workmanship was extremely good.  I don’t know what to say:  I should have expected what happened.  In years past, when he said he would arrive at 4pm he would arrive at 8pm, with no qualms whatsoever.   He did not do any of the jobs on time.  It was frustrating, to say the least.

I usually also work with two seamstresses but since this collection  was coat-led,  I decided to work with only the tailor.  Moreover,  all the fabrics overlapped: fabric that was used in the dresses was also used in the coats, which meant that using one producer was more convenient.

Well people, I learned my lesson.  After that experience I will never work with him again.  How is one supposed to launch a serious business with people like this?   Fortunately, and when I say fortunately I mean Really fortunately, there are people, like the seamstresses I work with, that are more than punctual; they are serious, driven and conscious.   I’m glad that mistake was committed, so that I could write that worker off forever.  This is one of the crucial aspects of having your own company folks: anybody who doesn’t fit with the program is OUT, or should be, faster than lightning.

For our new collection I am doing all the work, since what we need most is to raise money!   The picture I posted is of me draping.

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What was your inspiration for the first collection – Santo Domingo?

February 3, 2010 at 1:01 am · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , ,

B&GDressConstanza & I often get asked questions about our life post-Cornell University, and our experience starting our own business, so we decided to interview each other. Here is part four of many series to come.

Well, the first thing I think about when I see this question are the different ways in which different designers design, and how it can fluctuate for the same designer from collection to collection.  With Santo Domingo, for example, I first bought fabric and then I designed.  I had the fabric in front of me and then I started drawing, getting inspired by the fabrics themselves.   Spanish tiles have such elegant vibrancy of colour to them, and that is what I tried to achieve with this collection.  There is vibrant yet not overbearing colour in each outfit.   This collection is for a woman who has no qualms about her power or status in the world: she can be serious in these clothes while at the same time casting rays of light to all viewers.

The second collection that I am designing, which is turning out to be a collection of high-waisted skirts, is more driven by theme.  Since my aim is to ‘recycle’ all fabrics accumulated through the years, fabric is not per se the inspiration.  I do not wish to give the title of the collection away because it keeps changing.   When I am sure it will not fluctuate anymore I will make sure to let you all know!   Another difference is that with Santo Domingo all patternmaking and sewing was done by third-parties, whereas with this new collection I will be doing everything.   I’ve started draping already!    I think when one does things hands-on, which for a designer means going from a simple drawing with an idea to the actual muslin drape, things start to take a life of their own, and that journey is fantastic.

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What is the fashion scene like in Peru?

January 29, 2010 at 6:51 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , , ,

OntanedaClothingPeru

Ontaneda's use of ethnic detailing from her first brand: C.S.O.R.K, Peru.

Constanza & I often get asked questions about our life post-Cornell University, and our experience starting our own business, so we decided to interview each other. Here is part three of many series to come.

I’m afraid to say that the fashion scene in Peru is quite small and in many ways still very limited.  Now, mind you, fashion is subjective to tastes and opinions.  Because of this I will try to explain my first statement as thoroughly as possible.

In Lima, everybody dresses quite the same; to see a person dressed differently from anyone else is not only rare but viewed negatively.  To dress differently, with one’s own style, involves living in a society where such a thing can be a priority.  In a developing country, such a thing as looking different will never, ever be the priority. The small percentage of people who are extremely affluent dress in expensive clothes, but they follow fashions dictated by Europe and the US; there’s nothing unique about it.

When I walk through New York city every other person makes me revel: how unique, how different from the person right before them.  In Lima people, as a whole, dress very badly, homogeneously and boringly.  What can one expect when putting food on the table is a priority?

I am talking about the part of Peru that is westernized.  The areas of Peru which have maintained some sort of roots to their Andean ancestors or whichever ancestors they had, their dress is a subject for a whole different blog.  Every little town of Peru had or still has its own ethnic dress and textiles.   This is rich, inspirational, and in fact the basis of my passion for this country;  but alas, I do not think it qualifies as fashion.

I must mention though that in the recent couple of years Peru has been giving more attention to fashion and fashion designers.  There are more shows, more stores, more clothes in general made exclusively by Peruvian designers.  This is wonderful, but how far it will go and what that journey will entail is a mystery.

As for me, my goal is to use eco-textiles from Peru, employ Peruvians and thus be active in the bettering of my surroundings.   Although I am not an ethnic designer, Angeline and I have decided to consciously limit our use of textiles and manpower to Peru.  Why?  Why not is the answer.  It is not only logical because of my deep proximity and understanding of the country and culture, but “limiting” ourselves in such a way will allow us to measure our impact, and more than measure it, to truly have an impact for the better.

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Peru video

January 27, 2010 at 12:15 am · Filed under Peru ·Tagged

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Ontaneda discusses her move to Peru post-Cornell

January 26, 2010 at 4:19 am · Filed under Peru ·Tagged , , , ,

Constanza & I often get asked questions about our life post-Cornell University, and our experience starting our own business, so we decided to interview each other. Here is part two of many series to come.

Ontaneda in Lima

Stuma: What has your experience been like moving back to Peru?

Ontaneda: Well,  first things first.  Let us explain what moving back to Peru actually means.   I was born in New Delhi, to a Peruvian diplomat and an Indian mother.  At eight months old his post had ended and we moved to Peru.  When I was seven, my dad died.  When I was nine, my mother married another Peruvian diplomat with whom we spent one year in Sao Paolo and one year in Bucharest.   She then divorced.  We moved back to Peru.  I was twelve then.  When I was fifteen I received a full scholarship to go to Deerfield Academy and off I went.  By this time I was having a bit of an identity/origin crisis.   Thus, I took a year off after Deerfield and lived in Peru for a year.   Then came Cornell.  Against all financial odds and all sorts of other odds as well, I managed to come back to Lima every summer since I was seventeen.  So voila, that is what it means to ‘move back to Peru’.   With no house (because my mother sold it) and no money, I knew I had to come back.

Alas, it has been what I, in colloquial terms, like to call WHACK.  I will not delve into all the sickness I have experienced since I mentioned that in my last entry, but I will speak of other things.

I never thought I would ever work in the industry (the clothing industry), if not in my own brand.   A friend of mine took me to the t-shirt company she worked for so I could help the designers a little bit….only as a favour.  The next day the owner of a company offered me a job.   How could I refuse?  I had no money, no income and he offered to make me Head of Design Development.   Only in Peru folks, only in Peru could I have come fresh out of college and be made boss of a whole area.   Having a salary was nice;  I also had medical insurance for the first time in donkey’s years.  I learned a lot, not only by example but mostly by anti-example.  This is a company that started roughly ten years ago and it started out making copies of other t-shirts…black market fakes if you will.   Now it is doing its own designs….the t-shirts are elaborate and have a lot of silk-screening effects on them.   Right before my six month contract was out they wanted to expand, from only doing t-shirts to doing t-shirts, jeans, sweatpants, jackets, and underwear.   The benefit of starting a company with one vision and sticking to it flashed right before my eyes in blinding colours every single day.  The sheer disorganization, tension and confusion that exists at that company nearly threw me over the edge.

Lots of experience gained, but Thank God I am out of there!

On a more personal level, I found out who are my true friends and who are not.   Just when you need people the most is when you can discern who is a decorative friend and who is there for the nitty gritty.  Lots of heartbreaks but then again lots of wonderful surprises.  I have become closer to my father’s family and realize more than ever just how much they love me.

On a more culinary level….YAHOOOOOOOO.   Peru is a country with more than five thousand species of potatoes, more than 500 species of fruits….and I could go on forever.  After eight years in the States, food had finally caught up to me and I was the heaviest I had ever been right when I left to come to Lima.  Without doing anything I lost five kilos immediately.   To loose some more now I have to work for it, but alas that is life.

Peru is a crazy country, with a plethora of races, tastes, sights, scents and things to experience everyday.  Although the pollution in Lima is unbearable, the ocean is right around the corner, a one hour drive brings one to eucalyptus forests and Lima is a city where one can get anything.  And I mean anything.  What excites me the most about being here is the way in which things happen and one just has to go with it.  I have a friend from Deerfield Academy, a recent 18 year old graduate staying with me here in Lima during his year off before college.   He is an amateur violin player, but I got him in contact with the National Youth Orchestra and he has already played for the Archbishop and the President!   Only in Peru folks, only in Peru.

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