Antonella Farah, from Cartagena, Colombia is a designer, mother, and business executive who, with her story, has been able to build a new path for herself. In particular, this path includes her work available in New York, always believing in good energy and positivity, and that her first fifty years are more a life lesson than age.

Camaleónicas: We have to say it. Fifty and fabulous.

Antonella: Yes Danny, fifty with thanks to God. 

… “I embraced 50 with so much gratitude, with so much love, and a lot of effort.” -Antonella Farah

Foto @Tokyo_filmzz

A: Allowing myself at this age to be able to create and bet on different things in a city like Cartagena, having doors slammed in my face, has made me happier because it has made me challenge myself twice as much.

C: That’s interesting, what clicked with you? Not only to say, hey, this is for Cartagena, but that the world should see this.

A: I have always worked as a promoter of nautical tourism in Colombia for more than 25 years. In my country, nautical activity is incipient, scarce, unknown. The seas have always been the enemy, because through them the Spanish conquered this land and through the sea came the worst misfortune of this country: drugs. My job for 25 years has been to see the sea as the greatest opportunity there is to develop our coasts and the country. Nautical tourism is the largest generator of employment in Colombia, and also the one with the greatest purchasing power. So, before all this, I was dedicated to traveling to promote our navy and associated tourism projects. I was invited to give conferences in Brazil, Spain, and the United States about the benefits that Colombia offers for this segment of tourism. Since I had to travel a lot along with my four children (Federico, Salvatore, Geronimo and Domenico), I took painting classes once a week and that’s where my entire stage as an artist began.

C: So it was connected with that part that you had in you. How did you realize it?

A: My mother was a writer, artist, historian, and on a visit she saw me painting with my children and told me: “Anto, you are painting well, put down the paper and look for a canvas.” And like a good rebellious daughter, I told her: “No, I’m going to look for a pair of jeans and paint them.” I didn’t even know that fabric paints existed. And the very project I  was working for told me that they had to suspend my contract and I had a few months ahead with a lot of free time. So that same day, I went to buy paint and painted my first jeans.

… “I didn’t know what was going to happen in life. Painting took precedence. And I went, I bought paint. I didn’t know there was fabric paint. I took an old pair of jeans of mine and started painting. And then my friends asked me to paint theirs too.” Antonella Farah

A: And during the pandemic in Cartagena, the last thing someone is going to wear is blue jeans. So, I took my scissors and cut my blue jeans and told my friends. That’s how it all started, transforming jeans into shorts, or as I call them “mochos”, because Carlos Vives, the Colombian singer, popularized them that way. And that’s how I became known for the painted mochos.

C: That’s also how your path towards sustainability began then.

A: That’s how I started reusing every piece of fabric, every piece of denim . During the pandemic, my mother got sick, then she was in intensive care for a month and she passed. While my mother was in the hospital every day, I woke up to wait for the medical report and to paint. The pain of my mother’s departure was so intense, I couldn’t see her, I couldn’t say goodbye to her. I focused all my pain on the healing power of art.

C: Art heals.

“Art has the greatest healing power.” Antonella Farah

A: I like to share with my friends. I love going out, and since we were still in a pandemic, it was difficult to buy clothes, and the truth is that those days were a lot of economic hardships. I couldn’t be brand new and  go out and share; so I grabbed my jeans and started making my own hand-sewn and hand-painted tops. And I began to discover that with the clothes I made up from what I had in the closet, I felt good, comfortable, and happy. It was there that I found that I could do that for others.

A: Throughout this process, I knew that my market was not Cartagena, that perhaps my friends bought from me because they were my friends, which is why I made the decision to travel to the United States. I went to Miami to visit stores, but nothing happened. I returned with my suitcase full of dreams. However, I insisted and began the process of improving the quality of my products.

C: At what point did you meet The Canvas?

A: I started to create some prototypes of what I wanted, what I liked, what I thought others might like. I went to the United States for the second time, and I was going with the idea of a boutique that was in Wynwood, and when I arrived, there was nothing. Crossing a street, I came across The Canvas. It wasn’t in my path, but I reached the door. And when we walked in, all we saw was what I did. The manager met my friend and told me, here is the owner, they wanted to talk to him, and it was like that. He said, “send me your email, send me the information,” and that’s how it all started.

 “What I make are unique garments. I do not make series or manufacture large quantities. When I told my husband that I was going to sign with The Canvas, he said that I am crazy, and I asked him to support me in this opportunity as I told him: Let me try, at least,  and if I fail, I fail. But if I do it, great.” Antonella Farah

A: I wasn’t able to buy a sewing machine, but the store that day was closed: I took it as a sign, but continued on, determined to develop my project. I told my friend my frustration about not having a machine, and she replied: “I have machines and industrial ones, I’ll lend them to you.” That was the sign: for me to really jump into it.

Foto @Tokyo_filmzz

C: I think that’s the sign. It wasn’t the previous one. (laughs)

A: No, it wasn’t the previous one. The next day, two industrial machines arrived at my house and I said, now what do I do with these? I called a person who connected me with a technician, and the technician introduced me to Olguita, who is the tailor that today is my right hand at sewing garments. We started producing, and in the middle of the whole process, The Canvas’ time in Miami came to a close… I was really excited about the opportunity, but they told me that they were going to have me at another store. The New York store. I was moved to tears by the opportunity. , I thought New York was too big and far away for me, plus what I did was more focused on the lifestyle of Cartagena, the Caribbean, Miami. However, my son tells me: “Mom, stop crying, you can do it. New York is more spectacular.” And that’s how I started redesigning everything for the Big Apple.

A few days before the trip to take my first clothes to the store in NY, The Canvas called me offering me to paint in their store. I could not believe what was happening. I packed my things, I started with all the difficulties, effort, and everything that fear of the unknown implies. And that’s how I went from painting in the corner of my house to painting in the emblematic Oculus.

C: So new doors opened for you. What did they tell you at home?

A: When I returned from NY I found that my children wanted to kick me out because I had half the house converted into a workshop (laughs). y husband found me a garage, and I set about the task of turning it into a divine art workshop. This place GarArte (Art Garage), as I have called my workshop, has become a place of reference, where people go to be happy, to paint, to drink wine, to co-create with me.

“My motto is that if there is wine, there is hope” Antonella Farah

A: In November, I was nominated for the Miami Latin Business Award, but I didn’t win. However, that same day, they called me from New York Fashion Week to invite me to participate in the February 2024 catwalk. Very humbly, I explained to the person that I did not bring out collections, I only make seven pieces of clothing and none of them are the same. To another. I told him that I wasn’t ready for the big catwalk yet and that I didn’t have the financial resources to attend. However, he left the door open for me to explore options for participating.

The outlook for my participation in the NYFW was dark, since I could not find a way to obtain the financial resources to achieve it. However, a friend called me and told me: “You are leaving and with the fruit of the work of your hands.” Her husband is building a hotel, and when he finishes it, he wants me to make a mural, some paintings, and also  all the employees’ uniforms, and he advanced the payment a year in advance so that he would have the means to participate in New York Fashion Week. And so it happened. I started my task of preparing to take out five looks that I presented at New York Fashion Week. It was the best month of work of my life. I can’t explain the happiness, stress, emotion – everything that  you feel. Nobody expected it, and since I was the crazy one with the mochos (jean shorts), obviously, I presented a mocho. I also pulled off some absolutely unexpected, very glamorous looks.

C: What message do you want to give to the people who wear your clothes?

A: It’s nice and fun to give  jeans  a second chance and turn them into a unique piece of art. I do this work because it makes me happy and so that whoever wears my designs is also happy. Simply that.

My message is very focused on youth and, without a doubt, having participated in this great fashion show gave me the opportunity to make myself known and present to the world my creations, which I consider scraps of a thousand stories, since each garment has pieces of fabric from several people. It is not necessary to invest large sums of money in clothes. Many times what is made at the hands of brave and feisty women, like my team, has more value, and you enjoy the magic of the transformation of something as every day as jeans into an elegant skirt that you can wear with versatility on the beach or at a luxury event.

This article is originally published on THE CANVAS, on its blog.