Vancouver Fashion Week FW22 - Interview with Designer Guido Vera (Santiago, Chile)

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Guido Vera will be showing his collection on Fri. April 8th at 5:50 p.m. TIX HERE!

VFW Bio - 

Guido Vera is a Publicist from the University of Arts, Sciences and Communications (UNIACC). After spending his childhood and adolescence in Punta Arenas, he moved to Santiago in 2010 to begin his studies in communications, with the aim of linking this area directly with the fashion industry.

In 2012 he did a Cool Hunting summer short course at the prestigious Central Saint Martins in London. This course, together with various activities that he had in the London Fashion Week of that year, became the starting point of his career. Guido, after this trip, lands in his native Chile and immerses himself in the boom of social networks and starts his own blog; Thus, he begins to create content for local and international brands, writing tips and articles on his personal street style. With the latter, Guido has managed to establish a new perspective in the clothing of Chilean men. Guido has worked for more than four years in fashion production, styling, runway assistance and presentations. He is also a content creator for social networks with brands on the independent circuit.


In March 2018, he launched his homonymous project based in Santiago de Chile: Guido Vera, a genderless RTW and accessories brand. In May of the same year, Revista Paula did a double-page interview with his volume I. Vera was named by FORBES in 2020 as one of the 11 talents that are rewiring the sustainable fashion industry, highlighting the textile rescue, traditions and culture of Patagonia.


During 2021 he was part of L'Dossier de L'OFFICIEL as one of the 16 rising emerging designers worldwide. From 2019 to date, Guido Vera as a brand has been present at Who's Next, Première Classe (2019) Caravana Americana (2020) and TRANOï (2021) during Paris Fashion Week AW 2022.

Interview - 

Please share a bit about your journey to embrace fashion design as a career

I started since really young, but I never saw fashion and design as a career. I was so small when I was a kid that I started to go to the seamstress to fit my pants in my size because all option in retail were so big for me. High school arrived and I didn’t get taller so then I started to go to a different seamstress to fit my clothing and also doing some new garments based on the same trousers or shirts that I was wearing on those times.

How did you learn your skills?

At first it was fashion TV and fashion reality shows that showed me how the “fashion world” works and I decided to study advertising and PR so I could combine it with fashion. Then in the middle of my career I went to Central Saint Martins in London to do summer schools related with fashion, design and objects. After this course I started to work in Chile as a stylist and fashion producer for independent and retail brands…. I also did communication as community manager and I was managing my own blog about menswear and genderless fashion. After 5/6 years working on this I decided to create my own brand.

Who are you as a designer? Aesthetic? Customer? Brand?

I’m a minimal person in all what I do. It’s my lifestyle. Also I’m also a very nomadic person because, since I decided to do my brand, I started to travel a lot for research new fabrics, inspiration and showing my work. My aesthetic is very soft and delicate because I’m into genderless pieces inspired in La Patagonia, the place were I was born and raised. I spent my first 17 years there, so my inspiration comes from that area, but I’m working for an international client who it’s always moving on. 


My brand is inspired by nomadism. Inspiration also comes from the cultural and original town in Patagonia where the people were killed by colonists. I’m taking all that hurt from that period in a contemporary way to elevate all what’s happening in those amazing landscapes - Punta Arenas, Tierra del Fuego and the desert. It was my first place to live and contemplate, so I will be always inspired by that area. There are so many things that I share through clothing t my line. Guido Vera is aesthetic, culture and independent spirit. My brand statement is, " Simple design for complex minds."

What comes easiest for you as a designer? What is hardest?

I can’t said that it’s easy, because the industry is so hard, difficult and also ungrateful. There’s too many people who don't care about it. For me, looking and finding my sustainable fabrics is easy because I enjoying the process and feel that I’m contributing my country by using all the meters of fabric that were forgotten in some warehouses after the dictatorship. And the hardest. Uff. All. Everyday it’s hard in this because you never know. There are lots of ups and downs.  I am being very cautious with my business because this it’s more than aesthetic. I’m trying to build a business in luxury made in Chile and we are on it. I’m happy for all results that we are having since 2018.

Where do you find inspiration for new collections? How important is colour to your design process?

Patagonia, for me, is the place were I found inspiration. I've never went to NYC / LA / PARIS before I turned 20, so my color palette and design comes from nature and the culture of my country combined with an international vision. I’m very loyal to myself - what I think and what I create. The landscapes that I saw since a very young age young, I can’t see in other places, so that’s why I’m always reaching out and learning more about the place where I was raised.


Readers would love to hear a little about the collection you will be showing at Vancouver Fashion Week FW/22. Can you describe it for us - aesthetic, fabrics, palette, silhouettes, inspiration, etc.?

"The inspiration for this collection comes from a meaningful place in our creative director 's life, La Patagonia. This southern corner of South America saw the birth of Guido Vera and continues to influence his imagination up to this day, thanks to its profound and ancient flora and fauna. The Patagonian culture and landscapes have a great role in the silhouettes and textures of its garments, mainly the result of a reflection on the nomadic adventures of a new era.

Guido Vera’s permanent collection strongly intends to show Chile's past and present through remnant and sustainable technological textiles. Highlighting the luxury nopal leather from Desserto, which is made in Mexico.Vinylife is a biodegradable and non-animal material. GOTS certified pima and tangui cottons are also part of this Ready To Wear selection. The listed materials are proof that Guido Vera aims as a brand not only to create fashion, but rather to show a way of living and dressing under an eye of creativity and sustainability."


Do you have a favorite look in this collection?

No, I love them all!

Where can readers purchase your designs?

For now, they can purchase my designs vía my website - www.guidoveracl.com - where it’s available for international shipping. I am hoping to be in Canadian luxury retailers soon.

In closing is there anything else you'd like to share with readers?

That GV as brand,  like everything in this life, is a work process.

Links -

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