“With the III edition of the Young Designers Contest we broke down the barriers, we moved the opportunity to the whole world, and became international”, said the insular advisor of the Area of Employment, Trade, Industry and Socioeconomic Development of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Efrain Medina. We obtained a great acceptance, with a total of sixty-three proposals coming from countries such as Argentina, Portugal, Spain, Colombia, Uruguay, Belgium, Mexico, Russia, Egypt and Bosnia, among others.
The event took on such magnitude that it was celebrated at the Magma Center for Art and Congress, in Adeje, under the direction of Marcos Marrero & María Díaz, a company belonging to the Tenerife Moda Collective with more than twenty years of experience in the textile sector, remembered the Area Councilor. Eleven were the young finalists, from seven different countries, who exhibited their designs in this act.
Margot Inés Ferreira Rosales, a Uruguayan contestant of 34 years of age, was awarded on this occasion for her collection Los velos de la memoria, inspired by the neurons with which she could not hide her other professional facet as a scientific researcher biochemist of the Department of Neuroquímica, IIBCE, from Montevideo (Uruguay).
Ferreira was already immersed in the Fashion sector before participating in our Contest, since she had been working for a long time as an independent designer for an international company and as director of the Fashion and Art area of the “Pitman Academy of Fashion Design in Montevideo”, Uruguay , assured Efrain Medina.
The Uruguayan designer tells us that when she returned to Uruguay after winning the contest, “I realized that I had to choose one of my two professions, I could not continue doing both. The decision was not easy, but I just finished a project at the Institute of Biochemistry and I said to myself: “It’s now or never”. She decided to leave science and start to dedicate herself to Fashion. “Ever since the contest I wanted to create my own brand, a brand that was different, that pointed to a conceptual fashion, away from frivolity, a fashion full of content. A brand where all the collections were inspired by science and the consumer knew what creative process the garment he was buying was born.”
But she was not ready for the business part and then she got a job in the Department of design and product development of Garnié Moda, “where I learned design, management of suppliers, sales analysis … it was a super complete training before having my own company. ”
The Uruguayan designer has managed to merge her two passions, Biochemistry and Fashion in her own company, Madame Hibou (MH), which was born in 2014. That winter she launched her first collection and later opened her first store in Carrasco (Montevideo) .
In 2015 together with Valentina Bocchi, her partner and also designer, they begin with the reduction of the scientific to the aesthetic. They work with the image and inspiration to decide which are the strong concepts to highlight, designing between eight and ten initial garments with the most marked idea, and then think of something more generic with a business perspective. Both designers emphasized that using 100% organic cotton in the vast majority of their garments gives their product -by confection, design and material- a timeless characteristic that allows to capture the central vision of the company.
“Our project is to continue growing in Uruguay”, -they have opened another store in Pocitos (Montevideo) – having more stores to attract more target audience and give more comfort to our clients. “From the beginning we thought that MH is a brand with export potential. Our first point of expansion would be to a neighbour country, like Chile, to then jump to a European market. “
