SUDESTADA Sweeps Through New York’s Fashion World
Gimena Garmendia wears an overall in SUDESTADA's collaboration capsule with Marta Minujín
Sudestada is the Argentine name for the sudden “southeast blow” of cold southern winds around South America’s Río de la Plata region. It’s also the name of a multidisciplinary art and fashion studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, started by Argentine-born fashion consultant Gimena Garmendia.
Since 2020, SUDESTADA has been exploring the intersection of art, fashion, and storytelling through collaborations with artists and artisans from Latin America and beyond. In addition to providing marketing and communications services, Garmendia is on a mission to connect cultures and ideas, letting diverse influences blow like an intense wind through the New York City fashion scene.
Installation of exhibition In Dreams We Trust, on view from May 30th to June 23rd, 2024. Courtesy of SUDESTADA
“The winds of the south come in super strong, and some of that is represented in the personality I want SUDESTADA to have,” she says. “I want to appear and to push. That energy is who I am: I am energetic, I push, and I’m passionate about what I do.”
Before starting SUDESTADA, Garmendia worked for the luxury labels The Row, Bottega Veneta, and Maiyet. “I was an immigrant who came here and tried to enter the market,” she says. “I want to break [away] from that and show the talent and possibilities [from] other nations that can [make] great, artistic, and quality products that can compete with anything that has been done in the biggest fashion capitals or production centers.”
It was while working in marketing at Maiyet that Garmendia fell in love with the Colombian lifestyle brand Mola Sasa. She sent the brand some of Maiyet’s deadstock Varanasi silks, which spawned a successful collaboration on a collection of geometric clutches and bangles back in 2017. Mola Sasa went on to become Garmendia’s first collaboration at SUDESTADA a few years later. Since then, the studio’s list of collaborators has grown to include textile artist Florencia Montefalcone, multidisciplinary artist Sol Pardo, and celebrated conceptual artist Marta Minujín—all of whom are Argentine—in addition to several other fashion brands, design houses, artists, and photographers from throughout South America, Mexico, Spain, and the United States.
The opening event of In Dreams We Trust. Courtesy of SUDESTADA
While Garmendia works primarily with Latin American artists, she aims to defy what people expect from the so-called “Latin American aesthetic.” “People are more used to seeing that romantic, folkloric, ruffles-and-flowers Latin American design,” she says. “We are not going that way. We are going for something more contemporary. [In Latin America], you can find brands that [champion] a more traditional aesthetic, but there are a lot of talented artists and designers that are super avant-garde. They have this new way of seeing things and creating things that I find really interesting. That’s what we are trying to translate and to curate here, to give light to all of that.”
Looking around the Greenpoint studio, it is full of surprises: Minujín’s trippy, collaged silk jumpsuits; Pardo’s expressive-faced, almost warrior-like, handwoven raffia hats; Moltefalcone’s hand-painted, thigh-high organza boots and towering nudes—featuring eyes in place of nipples—painted on delicate silk. Bright colors and artisan textiles unite the collection. “I love having fun and playing with colors and geometry, and I think that’s the [essence] of SUDESTADA,” Garmendia says. “You’re never going to see something black and white.” She looks for this element of surprise—“something challenging and innovative that I haven’t seen anywhere”—in any project she takes on.
Florencia Montefalcone: Why Are We So Afraid. On view from July 11th to August 4th, 2024. Courtesy of SUDESTADA
Ultimately, the beating heart of SUDESTADA is collaboration. “I believe a lot in the power of collaboration and the power of community,” Garmendia says. “I love to explore and to talk and connect with people.” This spirit of collaboration lends itself to an ever-evolving, open-doored studio. What began as an office space for Garmendia’s fashion consultancy agency has opened up in more ways than one. Not only does SUDESTADA welcome visiting artists in for residencies and exhibitions, but it is also a space where creative locals and visitors can attend workshops, including a recent one where participants hand-painted their own silk scarves.
“The first exhibition we did was incredible because it [allowed me to open up the space and see it] differently,” Garmendia says. “Now, the space changes all the time. When we do an exhibition, we [reset] it completely, and that’s the idea: to rotate and [to let anything and everything] happen. From a community perspective, I want people to know that they can come here and connect, and they can meet people to grow whatever they are doing.”
Garmendia plans to continue finding common threads and interwoven stories through her collaborations with artists and her connections with local communities. In a way, her vision for SUDESTADA is the opposite of a harsh, cold wind; instead, she aims to blow through the chilly New York fashion scene and cocoon it in unexpected warmth.
