Stich Lab is a Latin American fashion incubator, as its founders call it. From Miami, they operate as a platform to disseminate and promote the work of Latin American designers outside their countries of origin, particularly in the U.S. market.
Two Venezuelan media workers, Karina Rosendo and Andrea Chediak, founded Stitch Lab. They launched this talent incubator in Miami, in 2018, with 20 designers from Colombia, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Mexico.
Rosendo is a television producer and digital strategist and Chediak is one of the hosts of Univision’s Despierta America.
In 2016, they were both covering the New York Fashion Week for Univision and realized that Latin American fashion talent was not present on these international catwalks as they should be.
“From then on we began to explore, and study the market, and we saw the need for a platform to expose our Latin (and other international) talents that are gaining fame and very good reception among young audiences in their own countries, but do not have the means to catapult into the U.S. market,” said Karina Rosendo in an interview with Daysla Cancel in La Opinión.
So they created StichLab. Both are fashion lovers. Chediak is an expert in how the industry works, especially in retail and wholesale, so she handles sales for the incubator. Rosendo manages operations, strategies and finance and she is the creative director. “We’ve both been able to combine our taste for fashion to cure a list of designers who complement each other in a unique collection that defines Latin flavor, elegance and traditions,” Rosendo said.
To help those designers position their brands, Rosendo explains, Stich Lab makes the connection between each designer and wholesale buyers, as well as the media, stylists, fashion influencers and the public.
Stich Lab started with brands of clothes, accessories, handbags and swimsuits.
“Stitch Lab is creating a community of entrepreneurs in the fashion and beauty industries, with opportunities for networking, learning and professional growth through our empowerment panels,” Rosendo added.
They also offer consulting and talks to their designers.
According to the presentation of Stich Lab’s website, the incubator supports brands that work in a sustainable way, both socially and environmentally. They are designers who preserve the legacies of the artisans of their countries and and “those who are walking the path of sustainability, working hard towards becoming better businesses for their communities and the planet.”
For Earth Day, Stitch Lab produced a video about this sustainability.
” Fashion is our passion, but we are well aware that is one of the most polluting industries globally and, as a fashion company, we want to take action and teach by example,” Rosendo wrote in the video summary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=8dqUHf0YHO8
“Ethical fashion comprises a number of touch points that go from sourcing, the production chain, the conditions of the workers behind our garments and accessories, waste management, shipping, and packaging,” she added.
“We want to promote fashion with purpose,” Andrea Chediak told Diario Las Américas in an interview with Camila Mendoza.
In an interview with Daysla Cancel, Chediak explained that Stich Lab’s criteria for finding and supporting designers and brands in Latin America are based on how they represent the talent of their own countries, through colors, materials, artisan details or their main line of inspiration.
She said they did “intense research” for that first representation of 20 designers at its launch. “It was important to include brands that work with artisans and use sustainable materials but at the same time they are brand that are modern and fashionable, brands with a purpose beyond selling a nice blouse, but want to change lives one design at a time.”
The brands on Stich Lab are already being sold in big department stores like Macy’s.
According to Chediak and Rosendo, the expansion of this list of designers to other line items will depend on what the market demands.