Carrying traditions forward
- Raquelina has always been interested in fashion and craftsmanship
- Her bags are a mix of modernity and tradition
- She uses scrap materials as well as noble raw materials
At the age of 14, Raquelina Nicolich Arocena redecorated her father's workshop and started playing at being a craftswoman and designer. "I wanted to learn to draw the way haute couture designers drew – Courrèges, Kenzo, Cacharel, whom I admired," she says, and soon she began dressing her dolls in clothes she had made. "That is where my passion for recycling, mixing techniques and materials comes from." In 2016 she opened, together with her partner Florencia Diaz, a workshop where she started making fashion accessories. In 2022 they separated and Raquelina set out on her own in a small town called Manantiales, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, on the coast of Uruguay. She makes pieces that in many cases are the product of collaboration with gaucho artisans. "I would define the workshop as a union of craft skills. An experimental fusion of all kinds of traditional and innovative crafts," she says.
Interview
- How does Uruguay influence your work?
- Our mission is to revalue traditions, roots, and forgotten crafts while preserving the "gaucho and maritime culture", a richness associated with a way of life in my country. Traditions influence more than trends. Each carefully crafted piece tells a story.
- What is your creative process like?
- When I face the raw materials, I am going to use without knowing what I am going to do with them. Suddenly, without knowing how or why, I begin to discover in the union of these materials a beautiful object. At that moment, is when I feel real satisfaction. And I get inspired again...
- How is your process of collaboration with other artisans?
- In my pieces, I include natural raw materials, hand-spun wool, guasquería, and guampas, as well as crafts from the sea; nets, macramé, and basketry, among others. I merge and revalue traditions with the techniques of forgotten crafts from the countryside and the sea.
- Do you remember a happy moment in your career?
- In 2016, when we started the handbag brand, I created a weekend bag that I presented at the National Handicrafts Contest. I was awarded the 2nd prize. It was something that moved me a lot and gave me the strength to go on.
Raquelina Niciolich Arocena is a rising star: she began her career in 2016
Where
Raquelina Niciolich Arocena
