Buenos Aires Fashion Looks to the Far East

“If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.” New York? No. Try Tokyo. That’s the quote from one Buenos Aires designer who recently joined the ranks of BA fashionistas finding commercial success in the Far East.

Divia Zapatos designer Virginia Spagnuolo is just one of the designers interviewed by La Nacion in this week’s magazine offering a look at 2010 Fall/Winter collections. And just as the recent social gaming acquisitions highlight the shifting path to venture capital for Argentina companies, La Nacion says Argentina designers are pursuing different avenues to success in competitive international markets like Milan, Paris and increasingly Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Trade promotion groups like Buenos Aires Exporta play an important role nurturing up-and-coming talent and encouraging their participation in trade fairs like last September’s Tokio Rooms 2009. Marcos Amadeo, the Director of the Buenos Aires Office for Creative Industries says Asian buyers demand original designs, collections with a message and, most of all, exceptional quality.

Back in this hemisphere, international events like New York Fashion Week have opened doors for BA designers like Fabian Zitta and Benito Fernandez; Zitta sold three collections in Los Angeles while Fernandez’s designs were chosen and featured in the Sex & The City sequel. More BA designers like Jessica Trosman are upping the ante in the Orient by financing in Asia and opening their own stores; established local players like Onward Kashiyama can facilitate the transition.

Kostume boss Camila Milessi is another beneficiary of the BA-Asia fashion connection. A trip to Japan led to the creation of a new collection, a shoe deal with Pony and a broader perspective: “We realized our clothes, which are pretty unique here, are more mainstream in other parts of the world.” (Full article)

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