There are stories that begin with a suitcase, a brave decision, and a strong desire to discover what lies beyond the familiar. Florencia López Cornejo’s is one of them. In 2018 she left Argentina and settled in Barcelona, a city she hadn’t yet known, but in which she dreamed of building a new life.
Eight years later, that young woman trained at the University of Buenos Aires achieved something she had likely imagined many times: presenting her own collection on the runway at 080 Barcelona Fashion, one of the most important events on Spain’s fashion calendar.
On Friday, October 23, Florencia opened the final day of the 38th edition of Barcelona’s fashion week with Fallen Bodies (Los cuerpos caídos), a deeply personal collection that speaks of internal conflicts, vulnerability, and the various ways the body responds to pain.
But what makes her work special isn’t merely her arrival on an international runway. It’s the way she understands fashion: as an artistic expression where every texture, every visible seam, and even every imperfection tell a story.
Florencia is the founder of CRYPTA, a brand born out of the need to build a language of its own. Her creative universe starts from a geometric figure as simple as the rectangle, which she transforms through pattern making, draping, and textile experimentation until it becomes a garment capable of adapting to the body.
In her designs there is no room for perfection understood as a rigid rule. On the contrary, mistakes, irregularities, and the marks of the creative process become part of the beauty of each piece.
From Buenos Aires to Barcelona: the journey of an Argentine designer
Trained at the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urbanism at the UBA, Florencia arrived in Barcelona in 2018 and began to develop a personal view of fashion, shaped by her history, her memories, and the experience of building an identity far from her homeland.
Her first collection, Raíz, presented in 2023, was a declaration of principles. Through it she explored uprooting, belonging, and the possibility of re-rooting in a new place.
That work was recognized among the best emerging proposals in the REC.0 / 080 Barcelona Fashion competition and opened doors for her to present her designs for two consecutive years in the EGO showroom at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid.
In 2025 she took another important step: she opened her first studio-store in the Gràcia neighborhood, in Barcelona. A space that works as a workshop, a place for experimentation and a meeting point for those seeking designer-made garments.
There, the creation process is also part of the experience: materials, trials, textures and finished pieces coexist in the same universe.
With the presentation of Fallen Bodies at the 080 Barcelona Fashion, Florencia reached a new milestone in her career. The collection, autobiographical in nature, explored emotional wear and tear, vulnerability, and personal conflicts through the construction of the garments.
In an exclusive interview with Para Ti, the Argentine designer shares her story, her emotions, and the philosophy behind CRYPTA.
Florencia López Cornejo: her Argentine roots, the success in Barcelona, and the story behind CRYPTA
-What did you feel seeing your designs on the 080 Barcelona Fashion runway? Was there a moment when you thought about the long road you traveled from Argentina?
-I think there were three very important moments, even beyond seeing the designs on the runway: the musical rehearsal, the rehearsal in the space, and the day of the fitting with the official casting. In those moments everything became real. It was when what I had in my mind finally materialized. It is a very satisfying and gratifying feeling.
-In 2018 you settled in Barcelona. What drove you to move, and how was finding your place as an Argentine designer in another city?
-Since I was a child I dreamed of living abroad, and I moved to Barcelona without knowing it. It took a few years to find my place, but I didn’t expect to fit in so well. Barcelona is a super diverse city, with a lot of culture. Design is highly valued, especially when it is sustainable and has its own perspective.
-What about your Argentine roots in CRYPTA? Do you recognize anything from your UBA training, your memories, or our way of creating in what you do today?
-I like to think that my project is autobiographical, so everything has to do with my origin in some way. My first collection was called Raíz, the same as my FADU thesis, and it dealt with the idea of uprooting from my place of origin and re-rooting in a new place.
At UBA I learned to always go one step further, not to settle, to understand that design is not linear and that there are honest and sustainable ways to make clothing.
-How did the name CRYPTA originate, and what does it reveal about your creative universe?
-From my universe, CRYPTA is a sacred and intimate place where what is no longer there remains. It has to do with those autobiographical experiences I tell in each collection, with giving value to what is no longer there and to the marks it leaves.
-You work with the rectangle as a starting point. If we walked into your studio, how would we see that figure transforming into a garment that someone can inhabit?
-The rectangle appears, above all, in the pattern, but it loses its rigidity through lightweight fabrics, because I like to seek a languid silhouette. It takes a habitable form through textures, draping, gathers, darts and cuts. It’s never obvious, but it’s always present.
-In your designs, error and imperfections have their own place. Do you remember any “error” that ended up becoming the most special detail of a garment?
-Ugh, many! For example, sewing garments with the seams on the outside and realizing it was a super pretty detail, which even helped me build the collection’s narrative. That is one of the resources that ended up becoming a CRYPTA signature.
There are also handmade fabrics where the pattern is irregular because I made a mistake while knitting, or garments with intentional tears that I later repeated because I liked their aesthetics.
Finding value in error or imperfection speaks to that same break in the structure that appears when the rectangle loses its rigidity.
-What story did you want to tell with the Barcelona collection? Is there a piece that especially summarizes it?
–Fallen Bodies | Los cuerpos caídos is an artistic essay that explores the different ways of inhabiting a conflict: to fight, to flee, or to freeze.
It is the account of what I lived a few years ago, when I developed an anxiety disorder, and how that experience affected my body and various areas of my life.
I inhabited all those bodies and states. It is the reflection of a part of myself.
Because of that emotional burden, it’s very difficult to sum it up in a single piece, but I think the first look and the last one of the show can convey a clear idea of the transition I’m talking about.
-Your garments focus on textures, materials and construction. How would you like a woman to feel when wearing CRYPTA?
-Sensitive. Those who like CRYPTA like it because they understand it. Beyond aesthetics, they value the work, the level of detail, and the way I do things.
They value coming to the space and seeing that everything is produced there, that the same person who designs is the one who explains each piece to them.
-For a woman who discovers your brand and wants to add a piece to her wardrobe, which one would you recommend starting with and how would you style it for everyday wear?
-With the signature piece, no doubt. It is a garment that can be worn as a skirt or as a top, it adapts to different sizes, and is made essentially from rectangles, without creating material waste.
It is a piece I have been making since the start of the brand, which began as a single experimental piece and ended up becoming one of CRYPTA’s iconic designs.
Being two garments in one, it is super versatile: it looks amazing with tall boots or sandals, layered over pants or worn solo.
-After opening your studio-store in Gràcia and presenting in the 080, what is the next dream you would like to realize with CRYPTA? Do you imagine showing your collections in Argentina?
-I would love that! I’m really eager to return in 2027, for anyone who might be interested, haha.
The next step is to gain online and international presence, that’s for sure. Beyond that, I continue working to strengthen and grow the brand. I would also like to begin exploring other ways to share my creative universe, beyond the runway.
CRYPTA: when fashion becomes a way of telling one’s own story
Florencia López Cornejo’s story is about much more than the growth of an Argentine brand abroad. It is also a story of transformation, personal quest, and the possibility of finding beauty in what once seemed imperfect.
From a workshop in Barcelona, the designer creates garments that challenge traditional structures and propose another way of understanding fashion, closer to emotion, craft, and identity.
Her Argentine roots remain present in every collection, even as her designs travel international runways.
And as CRYPTA continues to grow, Florencia holds a wish that connects her present with the place where it all began: to return to Argentina in 2027 and, perhaps, to also showcase there that creative universe that today finds its place in Barcelona.
