Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/1532915
A L L I M AG E S C O U R T E S Y O F S I LV I A TC H E R A S S I perating thousands of miles from fashion's global capitals, Silvia Tcherassi is an outlier. It's one thing to have established her eponymous fashion brand in her native Barranquilla, Colombia, in the late 1980s, when some of her initial international accounts were in Brazil and Aruba, but another to remain there decades later with stores and wholesale partners worldwide. "People always ask us why not New York, but this makes sense because of our business structure," says her daughter and Director of Ready-to-Wear Sofia Espinosa Tcherassi, alluding to their frequent flights to company headquarters in Miami, where they also recently opened the city's second boutique at Bal Harbour Shops and own a home; as well as to Milan for fabric suppliers; and to Madrid, where they have a showroom. "What we really need is a little atelier on the plane!" Silvia Tcherassi in her Coral Gables studio O At Silvia Tcherassi, a multigenerational family of designers work the textures of their native Colombia into the brand's celebrated collections. BY REBECCA KLEINMAN material in the atelier Beyond Barranquilla's alleviating of a grueling travel schedule, it's understandable why they don't leave. Speaking over WhatsApp, the two describe the view from their desk that most of us would kill for: Picture natural light flooding in through huge windows and tropical birds flocking to a flowering Macondo tree, in all its Magical Realism glory, planted by Silvia's mother and the brand's cofounder and president Vera de Tcherassi for future generations to enjoy. Given how much of the creative process occurs in this space, nature plays a vital role in fueling the tank. "It's like boot camp; we're here from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.," says Silvia, the brand's creative director. "We're here a full month before each collection's presentation," she says of the four collections a year, plus bridal. Silvia's maverick spirit also affects how her concepts are born. Instead of constantly sketching, she is more like a sculptor, and her swatches of fabric BALHAR B O U RSH O P S .CO M ; B UYI N G I N D E X , PAG E 20 4