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More than 20 years ago, best friends and fashion design students Catalina Álvarez and Mariana Hinestroza started cold-calling textile companies in their hometown of Medellín, Colombia, asking, “Do you have garbage?” Álvarez recalls. “‘We want to buy the garbage.’ And they were like, ‘What are you doing with the garbage?’”
The scraps they were soliciting would go on to be the foundation of a line, Agua Bendita, that began with swimwear made from discarded fabric, stitched together on Álvarez’s grandmother’s sewing machine. Attached to each swimsuit were traditional good-luck amulets known as scapulars.
The audience, at first, was their friends, who were clamoring for one-of-a-kind pieces. But demand quickly expanded beyond their inner circle, and by 2018, the duo had launched a full ready-to-wear line, Agua by Agua Bendita. Today, the brand is available at major retailers like Net-a-Porter and Moda Operandi. Last year, they collaborated with Gucci Vault, at the time the Italian house’s online experimental store. They became the first Latin American label to participate in the program—Álvarez says “it was our greatest dream.” (When they saw the email request come through, they initially thought it was spam.)
A look from Agua by Agua Bendita fall 2024.
Crucial to the duo’s success is the way their designs put the wearer in a vacation state of mind—so it’s fitting that the idea for the swimwear label came to Álvarez and Hinestroza while they were vacationing themselves. The brand is part of a wave of fashion that aims to deliver the perfect resort wardrobe: Think of labels like Coco Shop or destination stores Paula’s boutique in Ibiza and Laboratorio Capri. The influencers who eagerly post poolside shots under the hashtag #ABGirls have helped cement that idea of a forever-OOO lifestyle.
Another inspiration is their proverbial backyard. Hinestroza points out that Colombia is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, pulling out a piece from their first collection to show me—a white dress with embroideries of different flowers embellishing pockets that resemble seed packets. “The inspiration comes from the palms, the trees, the flowers—everything that surrounds us,” Álvarez explains.
Back in the early days, when it was becoming clear they could not continue to sew everything themselves, Álvarez and Hinestroza began enlisting female artisans in the area, whom they call their AB Hearts. They “put the best of what they know into the embroideries, and at the end you have a beautiful garment that has been made step-by-step by a human being, which is, I think, something unbelievable to see,” Álvarez says. “In the end, you’re buying something really special.”
One of the brand’s AB Hearts, or artisans, working on a piece.
That care extends to the second life of each garment. Last year, the duo launched a resale program, Ciclos, where Agua aficionados can buy or sell items from their past collections. “We believe that we have designed heirlooms,” Hinestroza says. “But we understand that not everyone wants to keep pieces in their closet; [they] want to give them a second life. And what’s beautiful is that we always see people chasing pieces from our first collection.”
And while the brand is associated with sunny clime-ready resortwear, for fall Álvarez and Hinestroza are branching out with more cold-weather clothing—launching their first knitwear collection, made from baby alpaca wool, in collaboration with the Peruvian brand Escvdo. Like all of their work, it’s a celebration of the region and its signature craftsmanship.
But while their focus might be local, their ambitions are global. “We want to dress women from all around the world,” Hinestroza says. “We don’t want women to feel like they’re wearing a Colombian costume, but instead that they’re wearing a very beautiful brand designed by Colombian minds and developed by Colombian hands.”
This article appears in the November 2024 issue of ELLE.
Véronique Hyland is ELLE’s Fashion Features Director and the author of the book Dress Code, which was selected as one of The New Yorker’s Best Books of the Year. Her writing has previously appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, W, New York magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, and Condé Nast Traveler.