LAFS 2022 Lands in the Miami Design District
LAFS 2022 Lands in the Miami Design District
22 Apr 2022
MIAMI, Mar. 23, 2022 – Istituto Marangoni Miami (IMM) is pleased to announce a partnership with The Latin American Fashion Summit as an official sponsor for the initiative committed to developing the most important fashion platform in Latin America and sharing the region’s greatness with the rest of the world.
The Latin American Fashion Summit is a multiplatform created by entrepreneurs Estefanía Lacayo and Samantha Tams with the mission of elevating and enriching the Latin American fashion and design industry, aiming to make it more relevant than ever. After a two-year COVID-19 hiatus the summit relaunched stronger than ever in the Vibrant Miami Design District in Miami from March 14th-16th where a series of talks, workshops, and industry networking events took place. A main highlight of the summit included Pitch to LAFS, for which Istituto Marangoni Miami President and Industry Entrepreneur Hakan Baykam was a Judge. Pitch to LAFS is an annual contest in search for the next big Latin American emerging talents where five finalists per category presented their brands in front of a jury formed by twenty fashion eminences. During the process, participants received an in-depth consultancy by Istituto Marangoni’s mentors on their proposal.
Istituto Marangoni Miami Dean of Fashion, Massimo Casagrande, kicked off the 3 day event with a stimulating talk, Rethinking Reality: Fashion’s New Frontier, at the Jungle Plaza where he gave an overview of the new developments and realities that we are facing in fashion and what new trends will be emerging from both a business and creative perspective. As an official LAFS mentor Massimo along with IMMiami professor Nathalie Tessier provided mentorship to participants and will continue to give winners guidance over the coming years. During the closing day of LAFS, the summit used the school’s facilities to host over 20 exclusive workshops ranging from Branding, Fashion in the Metaverse, Fashion PR, Sustainable Fashion & Visual Merchandising.
The summit came to a close with the announcement of the Pitch to LAF winners, who secured a major prize including 10,000 USD, an interview for the LAFS Podcast, one-year support from LAFS, a general admission ticket to next year’s summit and a personalized course at Istituto Marangoni Miami. This year’s winning brands included Annaiss Yucra (Positive impact), Susana Vega (Accessories and Handbag) and Port De Bras (The Ready to Wear). According to Port de Bras founder Clarissa Egaña, “Working with IMMiami professor and LAFS mentor Natalie Tesseier was not only enriching but a true pleasure. She acted as a mentor and also as a friend to me and the brand. She helped us with structure and a more academic approach to the pitch, but she also took the time to reach out to her personal contacts to build a broader network for Port de Bras. I look forward to more experiences with Marangoni ‘s exceptional team! We are truly grateful!“
Istituto Marangoni Miami is proud to be a LAFS sponsor, helping to support such a powerful community and a multifaceted digital platform that showcases emerging and established Latin American talent to the world and can’t wait to see the talent they will bring in next year.
To learn more The Latin American Fashion Summit you can visit: https://www.latamfashionsummit.com/
About Istituto Marangoni Miami
With a highly qualified academic team, combining European instructors and prominent local professionals, Istituto Marangoni offers a variety of fashion marketing courses and fashion graduate programs. The Miami School of Fashion & Design offers students an unprecedented opportunity for innovation, inspiration, and creativity to build a promising future within the fashion and design industry.
About The Miami Fashion Foundation
The Miami Fashion Foundation’s primary purpose is to foster, nurture, develop and promote Miami as a natural choice for the creative industries, focused on fashion, and to establish a creative operation and network in Miami for fashion enterprises and companies of all sizes to flourish and call home. Generating a highly skilled and networked fashion workforce will draw even more creative design students and professionals to Miami, thus creating a self-sustaining cycle, first through education and skill training, then with networking and mentoring, and finally with the founding of innovative fashion corporations and companies who have open access to industry leaders, resources and capital.
