Esteban
Cortazar

In matters of dressing up, sometimes you don’t want to shout but to whisper and glide. Esteban Cortazar is the young maestro of serenity.

Words: Harriet Quick

With an exotic background – via Colombia, Miami, New York and Paris – Esteban Cortazar arrived on the fashion scene in his early twenties with prodigious talent and a head full of dreams. He set up his own label in New York, before being hired as creative director of Emanuel Ungaro in Paris in 2007. There he learnt the craft of the atelier and built his style vocabulary before stepping down to re-launch his own line that brilliantly fuses the diverse threads of his experience. “Latin sensuality with Parisian intellectualism via the heat of Miami and the urban beat of New York,” says Cortazar of the potent cocktail of his brand.

The thirtysomething has now made Paris his home and he returned to the catwalk last year. “In the beginning I had supportive parents who encouraged me to fly, now I have gained sense and experience,” says Cortazar, who is determined to dress different types of women. His signature jersey dresses – he dubs them “slinky sculptures” – are cleverly cut from two types of fabric to ripple and sway while keeping good shape, while his diaphanous vestment-like gowns slipped under cotton smocks are a picture of sensuality and serenity.

“I always want an element of my designs to move, it triggers something for me,” says Cortazar. He explores that kinetic obsession for Autumn Winter with fringes and the cloud-like forms of his chiffon robes. “I went to visit Taos in New Mexico – the rocks, crystals and mountains and history of native Americans moved me. I wanted the collection to be a ‘dream catcher’.”