“My parents and I have always been close friends”
the power of childhood
Childhood often leaves us with small traumas, in the case of Esteban Cortázar it is the other way around, he grew up in a creative environment where his divorced parents were excellent friends to the point of spending summers together with their new partners and allowing his son from a very young age to choose his path. This is how Cortázar debuted on the New York catwalk at the age of 18, becoming the youngest designer to do so, a fact that earned him the nickname of wonder boy. At just over 20 years old, he took the reins of Emanuel Ungaro in Paris and then returned to his origins with his own brand; he is part of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. He has just launched the collection Every day is forever for this summer with Desigual.
It all started with his grandmother's wardrobe.
I was fascinated by her and her dresses, she was very elegant. I also loved seeing how my mom dressed when she went to perform. She was a jazz singer. I have grown up around women who liked fashion, perfume and makeup.
And the men of the family?
He was an only child. My parents separated when I was very young. He lived in Miami, and I came and went from Miami to Bogotá. When I was 10 years old I asked my mom to stay in Miami and she respected me. She was very generous. But they got along very well.
That's a relief.
My father's wife is a very good friend of my mother. We spend the holidays all together, we are a very united family. There is never a bad vibe. My father is a painter, and it was very enriching to live in such an open environment. My parents and I have always been close friends.
That should mark.
I've never had a moment where I couldn't be myself. I am a happy, grateful and non-confrontational person. Childhood shapes us definitively and I owe it happiness.
Did you always know that fashion was your thing?
It was all around me. When I was four years old, when I went to spend my summers with my father in South Beach, we lived on the beach, above the News Cafe restaurant, where all the great artists went, from Madonna to Gianni Versace, great photographers, supermodels. And my dad explained to me who was who.
And he interested you?
Yes, I was a very precocious child, I sat on the knees of the models and I was friends with all the people in the neighborhood. On my street corner there was a newsstand that sold fashion magazines from all over the world, and I would sit there and spend hours looking at magazines.
He started designing very young.
When I was 13 years old at the New Café, which was like our second home, I met the designer Todd Oldham who invited me to see his show in New York, and there I said: “I want to do this”. And when I got back to Miami I did my first fashion show.
With 13 years?
Yes, at school they organized a talent show and I did a fashion show with the girls in my class. He did not know how to sew, he put pins and staples and told the girls: "You will walk like Naomi Campbell, you like Claudia Schiffer...".
Triumph?
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The local press took notice of me, and I began to meet more people and spend more time with Cindy Crawford and Versace. Years later Cindy opened my parade.
At the age of 16 she presented her first collection to the world.
In the windows of Bloomingdale's because I met Kal Ruttenstein, a designer at Bloomingdale's, and he was amused by my creative world. And at 18 I walked in New York Fashion Week and became “the youngest designer” all eyes fell on me.
For better and for worse, I imagine.
Everything happened very quickly and I did not have the training that a business like this requires, I learned by doing. It had good and bad reviews. I understood very soon that not everyone is going to like what you do, and that allowed me to let go and believe in myself more.
He then settled in Paris.
At the age of 24, I took over the creative direction of Emanuel Ungaro. I learned a lot, but it is also a very snobbish place, I longed for Miami, the beach, the color, and after a few years I decided to recover my own brand.
Many designers have committed suicide, they have been addicted to drugs, what happens?
It is a very demanding world to which everyone wanted to belong. The fashion business is an industry in which it is very important how others perceive you, the car you drive, your house, appearance, the money you earn. All appearance.
You don't seem to have weighed it.
If it hadn't been for that family environment and the values that they instilled in me, I might have gotten into drugs, but for a Colombian of my generation, drugs represent something very dark. I was never worried about being at the party that I had to be at.
I'm always surprised to see critics and stylists at shows wearing sunglasses.
I'm tired of that, I don't need to go after that world of egos, and besides, the world has changed and the new generations are not attracted by the glamor of fashion. But it had its time and there was a lot of creativity.
Time when models were goddesses.
Gianni Versace created the supermodel trend. Fashion was a spectacle. Cindy Crawford appeared in his campaigns with Elton John and also Madonna. But there were more and more parades and people burned very fast.
Madonna also promoted him.
Yes, purely by chance. I met her in Miami when she was 13 years old, I had designed a cowboy hat that she fell in love with and I gave it to her. She asked me how she should wear it and I made her two braids and she appeared like that on many covers.
You are lucky.
I have been faithful to my origins, I adore the Latin culture, the laughter, the joy, the warmth, the color, all that I experienced in my childhood: Colombia and Miami, the place of Spanglish and vacations.
