This young Black designer is dressing Afro Colombian vice president Francia Márquez in ‘resistance’ fashion
Esteban Sinisterra, a Black fashion designer from Colombia, is dressing the first Afro Colombian Vice President, Francia Marquez in "resistance" fashion.
BOGOTÁ — Esteban Sinisterra, a young Black fashion designer from Colombia’s largely-poor Pacific region, is dressing Vice-President Francia Márquez — the first Afro-Colombian woman to hold the post — in what he calls “resistance” fashion.
Sinisterra, whose colorful patterned dresses for Márquez have drawn international attention, grew up in the municipality of Santa Barbara Iscuande, in Narino province, where he says many young people have few opportunities to escape involvement in the country’s ongoing internal conflict.
His background has commonalities with Márquez, a former housekeeper and environmental activist, who grew up in the poor municipality of Suárez, in Cauca province, and faced death threats for her opposition to gold mining.
Colombia's Vice President Francia Marquez speaks in Bogota on Aug. 18, 2022.Guillermo Legaria / Getty Images file“In one way or another her history and my history are similar, so I think there was a very lovely spark there,” said Sinisterra, 23, who now lives in the city of Cali and studies social work in addition to his job as a designer.
“First we accept and recognize that we have roots that connect us — which is Africa — but taking into account those roots we also express the territory where we’re from, the Colombian Pacific,” said Sinisterra, who learned his craft from his aunt and grandmother.
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