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By Valentina Gamaleri Nazha Translated by Laura Caro Gamarra
Leonor Murua: Designing From Territory to Transform What We Wear
Fashion can be a tool to make memories visible, question production systems, and build identity from the local. At the intersection of culture, politics, and materiality, Argentine designer Leonor Murua proposes rethinking not only what we wear but where we design from.
From northern Argentina, Leonor Murua—born in Salta and holding a degree in Fashion Design and Innovation—develops a practice that connects clothing design, cultural management, and environmental activism. She is the founder and creative director of Studio Mestizawhere she specializes in sustainable fashion and regenerative design with a strong identity rooted in Northwestern Argentina. Her work combines artisanal knowledge, critical reflection, and material experimentation, building a proposal that challenges the traditional logic of the fashion industry while placing processes, people, and territory at the center.
Rather than constructing artificial narratives, Leonor starts from the opposite idea: “stories find me.” In that search, her identity—shaped by cultural and geographical crossings—becomes the starting point for creating pieces that dialogue with crafts, bodies, and memories often made invisible within the fashion system.
Courtesy of Leonor Murua
Dressing is also taking a position
For Leonor, fashion is not only about aesthetics but also about positioning oneself in the world. Designing implies making political, cultural, and ethical decisions. Clothing becomes an everyday language that expresses belonging, conflict, and transformation.
Working from northern Argentina is also a statement. It allows historically marginalized territories and aesthetics to become visible. In this sense, the local is not a limitation but a powerful way to build identity and question dominant global standards.
From waste to narrative: transformative processes
One of the central aspects of her practice is the reinterpretation of materials. Through the use of waste such as aluminum or electronic components, she transforms discarded materials into pieces with symbolic value, questioning what we consider “trash” and encouraging more conscious consumption.
She also emphasizes the importance of communicating production processes. Showing who participates, under what conditions, and within what timeframes builds trust, educates audiences, and can reshape consumption habits.
Education also plays a key role. As a teacher and mentor, Murua promotes the development of designers with critical thinking who can question production models and create more sustainable practices. From Salta, she promotes a fashion practice rooted in place that seeks to decolonize perspectives and revalue local knowledge, turning design into a tool for cultural transformation.
Griela Perez, the Co-founder of Agustina who Challenges the Timelines of the Traditional Fashion Model
Rethinking fashion means revisiting its timelines, narratives, and its relationship with culture. From Peru, Griela Perez proposes an approach in which garments emerge not from novelty but from historical continuity that redefines the value of what we wear.
The work of Griela is built in direct connection with textile communities and ancestral knowledge. As the creative director and co‑founder of Agustinashe approaches contemporary design through territory, craft, and memory. Over more than a decade, she has developed a proposal that integrates contemporary design with traditional processes, highlighting traceability, origin, and the stories behind each piece.
In an industry defined by speed, constant renewal, and a logic of disposability, her work proposes a shift in paradigm: understanding fashion as a system of cultural transmission. Instead of creating from scratch, she suggests a dialogue between the ancestral and the contemporary, where each garment functions as a bridge between times, knowledge, and communities.
Courtesy of Griela Perez
Textiles that hold memory
For Griela, textiles are not isolated objects but systems of knowledge. For centuries, they have functioned as forms of cultural record, transmitting worldviews, relationships with nature, and ways of life.
From this perspective, dressing ceases to be a superficial act and becomes a meaningful experience. When the origin of a garment is understood, the relationship with it changes: it is no longer simply worn, it is inhabited. This shift in perception is key to rethinking consumption and building longer‑lasting relationships with clothing.
In this process, narratives play a central role. Knowing who made a garment, how, and in what context redefines its value and breaks with the idea of constant replacement. Communication therefore stops being a complement and becomes a concrete tool for transformation.
Slowing down in fashion: time, learning, and meaning
Sustaining this perspective means moving against the dominant rhythm of the industry. While the system pushes increasingly fast cycles, traditional textile processes require time, patience, and continuity. Defending those timelines is also a cultural stance.
Education plays a key role. For Griela, understanding fashion—especially that linked to craft—requires direct experience: observing, traveling, and sharing with those who produce. Learning is not only technical but also sensory and human.
Her perspective also introduces a critique of the superficial use of the concept of sustainability. Rather than a label, she proposes understanding it as the capacity to sustain life and the relationships that make it possible.
Change, however, does not depend only on the industry. It also takes place in everyday life: in how we consume, choose, and value what we wear. In a system that privileges speed, taking time to understand may be the first step toward deeper transformation.
