Alejandra stands out from the first moment when, to introduce herself, she states: “I’m a conservationist who uses textile design as a vehicle for creating a more just world for all the life-forms that inhabit it.” The creator of Cubreme is an artist, teacher, and activist with the determination of someone who believes in her words and actions.
Could you expand on the phrase you used to introduce yourself?
I believe a thread of great sensibility towards nature has run throughout my entire life. The first experience that shaped me was seeing the fragility of animals in the face of the excessive power wielded by a hunter, an armed person. My father hunted, and at six years old, I couldn’t understand or tolerate it. Those were the first motivating connections I can remember, and I suppose they left me with that sensation and that mandate of defending or protecting those who can’t protect themselves. Over time, I refined my understanding of the environment, of the negative impact we can have on it, and I began to think about what I could do to avoid that impact.
Was there anyone who guided you on that journey?
As a child, I was greatly influenced by my mother who, even though she lacked a formal education, had a vision of the world that was ahead of its time. She taught us to recycle, explained the importance of caring for nature, its intrinsic value and fragility… I was lucky enough to be raised by a woman with such amazing values. She also paved the way for me regarding design; she always told me that “more is less”… and that concept has always been with me. Simplicity is the highest form of sophistication.
At twenty years old, I met Gui Cereceda, who shared those values with me for many years. He had a degree in industrial design and was strongly influenced by minimalism, and he helped me develop my skills and continue to refine a purist perspective on design, on the economy of materials, on the value of details and the careful use of resources.
How did natural fibers become incorporated into your developing concept of art and design?
I was always intrigued by the journey of fibers, how they traveled from their primary production stage to becoming part of a textile piece. I discovered that the first steps of that value chain were the most disadvantaged, the most demanding, and the worst paid. In Argentina, there were two places that stood out for their production of natural fibers, the Chaco and Patagonia, and I saw that the primary sectors were very isolated within the chain of production: no one knew the origin of the materials they were using. At the same time, the world was beginning to talk about traceability, about the importance of understanding the origin of that productive process. I thought that, if I got involved, if I helped empower that primary sector and give it the prominence it deserves in the value chain, maybe I would be able to help solve the problem by developing a first stage that was valued, had more capability, promoted the rootedness of the youth, and improved the quality of life of those responsible for the production of fibers who, in turn, are in intimate contact with fauna, with the environment we want to conserve. Having a long-term perspective is essential to reaching this goal; the growth of any of the stages in the textile production chain has to go hand-in-hand with what the environment can support, whereas the system that is proposed, or was proposed, by the industry tends to be devastating… We need a production model with a holistic perspective; a systemic model, one that understands that each stage of that chain has an ideal place in the production cycle, and that, to make it work, we have to respect the timing of that cycle.
What I look for in my clients is for them to feel like part of a value chain. I tell them about the origins of those garments, those fibers; how they’re produced; how the place, its people, and its fauna are respected.
How did you develop your style within textile design?
I’m self-taught, and in turn, I’m a fusion of my mother’s style and Gui’s vanguard. Without realizing it, my mother was an exquisite designer. She created her own garments, with incredible simplicity and elegance, despite coming from a very humble background. She was already thinking about the value of design and the durability of garments; she had a vision of sustainability, without knowing it, that was ahead of her time. And Gui, whose roots were in minimalist design and the Bauhaus, finished educating me. As I understand it, Cubreme is the result of those two great influences. My eye was developed and sharpened by that perspective. Everything I design has to be timeless, versatile, simple, and durable. We designers have to be at the service of the materials we extract from nature and maximize the use of that article of clothing. The inverted “e” of Cubreme speaks of a return, of going back to environmental balance, social equitability, and ethical business practices. This isn’t something new: it existed, and what I propose is focusing on it once more.
In my search for this production model, I was lucky enough to encounter other important people within the industry who taught me so much. For a while, I was based in Alta Gracia, Córdoba, where I learned a lot with Eduardo Frank about South American camelids. Afterwards, I had the good fortune of working with Oscar Adot, a textile engineer, who was a wonderful guide when it came to fabric finishing, spinning, thread gauges, twists. Roberto Marrese opened the doors of his spinning mill to me and shared all his knowledge; there, I was able to appreciate the entire process and details behind the creation of threads that are the soul of each piece.
How do you see us as a society, in regards to the information we have available about what we consume and the importance we give to that information when it comes to making a decision about what to buy and how to dress?
I believe that for many years, the textile industry has been intensely manipulating information to prevent us from thinking too much, so that we don’t look too deeply or worry too much about the production processes of this industry. For that reason fashion became trivialized, its message and process lost its significance, obscuring the realities of slavery, resource devastation, and contamination that often came hand-in-hand with the consumerist model of the 70s and 80s.
But fortunately there has been an awakening, a paradigm shift in a model that is running itself ragged, and which many have already started to abandon. And it’s a change occurring almost simultaneously with other forms of consumption, not only in the textile sector.
I think the keyword is “care,” because we aren’t going to stop consuming—we need to consume to survive—but we can pay attention, we can choose. It’s a great effort we have to make as individuals and as a society: to navigate the discomfort.
These changes you mention sometimes seem like a niche development, one led by the few people who are able to stop to think and act accordingly. What would it take for these ideas to spread to the mainstream, for more people to have more access to products with a noble, caring origin?
Communication is very important; it’s essential to show the story behind what we do. When you think clothing is cheap…someone is paying that price, the planet is paying that price. It’s complex because we have spent many years within a model in which the idea is to buy as much as possible for as little money as possible, discounting the true value of raw materials and human labor. But I’ve seen it: young people are radically changing their way of consumption for the better. More value is being given to that special garment; I’ve seen many young people buying used clothes, clothes with a history, and that also helps make the extraction of resources more conscious and not as devastating. There is so much potential in the youth; they understand the impact of their consumption and make an effort to consume responsibly.
For more information, visit: https://cubreme.com/
