Francisco Ayala once again placed Argentine identity at the center of fashion. On Wednesday, September 23, at the residence of the British Embassy in Buenos Aires, he unveiled “Jaguares”, his new collection, as part of a charity runway show organized by the Civil Association of the Argentine-British Community (ABCC).
The proposal builds a bridge between the past and the present and rekindles two realms that have long threaded through the designer’s work: the richness of indigenous cultures and the value of Argentine artisanal crafts.
This time, the starting point was the jaguar, a sacred animal within the iconography of the La Aguada culture, associated with power, transformation and shamanic vision.
Yet “Jaguares” does not view that imagery with nostalgia. Ayala translates it into the contemporary language of fashion and turns it into silhouettes, textures, embroidery, paintings, and haute couture volumes.
Francisco Ayala and “Jaguares”: the past embraced by Argentine haute couture
Short ponchos, unkus —the traditional Andean tunics—, dresses woven from llama fiber, reversible vests, and pants with slits build a fluid silhouette in which natural silks coexist with textiles produced on artisanal looms.
The jaguars appear in different forms: transformed into spots, silhouettes and felt reliefs or stylized until they become fantastical creatures, halfway between feline and dragon.
The collection deliberately departs from minimalism and embraces an American maximalist aesthetic, where the layering of materials, techniques, and narratives forms the identity of each look.
Fabrics, embroidery, painting on silk, felt and artisanal pieces accumulate in layers to construct a deeply sensory narrative.
An intense palette of sky blues, French blue, sand, black, and mandarin adds brightness and reinforces the idea of Argentine fashion that does not fear color or exuberance.
“The true luxury is handmade.”
There is a saying from Francisco Ayala that encapsulates the spirit of “Jaguares”:
“The true luxury is handmade.”
More than a mere aesthetic statement, the phrase functions as a manifesto.
The designer focuses on those crafts that are disappearing in various parts of the world and that in Argentina continue to be handed down from generation to generation: the loom, crochet, nuno felt, silk painting, and artisanal shoemaking.
Bringing them to the runway is also a way to preserve them and to value a cultural heritage that, precisely because it is increasingly scarce, gains a new dimension of luxury.
A collection built by many hands
“Jaguares” is also the result of enormous collaborative effort.
The llama and cotton fiber textiles were produced especially by Manos Andinas, in Catamarca, based on Ayala’s designs and under a triple-bottom-line model that blends traditional knowledge, cultural traceability, and environmental stewardship.
Textile artist Susana Larrambebere oversaw the felt figures that recreate jaguar and dragon spots, as well as sculptural flowers crafted in natural silk.
The hand-painted silk, one of the most recognizable signatures in Francisco Ayala’s universe, resurfaced in several central pieces of the collection.
In the accessories, María Costa, of Byzance specially developed earrings and tops inspired by the feline spots and the jaguar and dragon motifs. Bronze, silver, alpaca, mother-of-pearl, and crystals mingled with lapis lazuli, horn, and coral.
Footwear and baskets were created by Paula Zaccaro, of Benitapeka, with artistic input from Patti Saporiti, who translated the materials and details of the gowns into slippers, sandals, stilettos, and accessories.
From hundreds of meters of tulle to a grand jaguar finale
Behind the seemingly simple silhouettes lies meticulous construction.
There were enveloping pieces, blouse-ponchos, open trousers, embroidered ensembles, and bias-cut dresses, but also spectacular volumes created with hundreds of meters of tulle, painted in black on white and neon green.
The choreographic intervention by the Margarita Fernández Dance Studio, performed by the dancers Teresa Marcaida and Mónica Villalobo, further reinforced the dialogue between body, movement, art, and fashion.
And for the closing, Ayala reserved one of the most symbolic images of the entire collection: a look in natural silk mikado, embellished with two stylized jaguars.
A final appearance that condensed the entire concept of the collection: the past bursting into the present and, through crafts and haute couture, transforming into a contemporary expression of Argentine design.
The Team Behind the Show
The runway was supported by Ambassador David Cairns and Sharon, ABCC’s Gavin Bruce, BAC’s Laura Riera, and Eugenia Cogorno at the residence of the British Embassy.
The choreography and musical direction were provided by Margarita Fernández’s Dance Studio; hairstyles were done by Pablo Pineda and makeup by Celeste González. The musical production was led by Daniel Goglino.
