DYNAMIC DUO

With a new Milan Fashion Week initiative, the Latin American Fashion Awards founders are going global.

- MEKITA RIVAS

On an early spring day in 2018, a casual catch-up between friends blossomed into something far bigger. Silvia Argüello arrived at Constanza Cavalli Etro's office in Milan fresh off a flight from the Dominican Republic, where she had recently relocated with her husband. Argüello and Cavalli Etro had been friends for years, initially bonding over their shared involvement in the fashion industry.

Argüello recalls Cavalli Etro asking what she planned to do next, now that her life had "changed completely" following her nuptials and transatlantic move. "And I was like, 'That's exactly what I'm trying to figure out.""

Argüello began her design career working for Emanuel Ungaro in Paris during Giambattista Valli's tenure as creative director in the late '90s and early 2000s. She eventually moved to Milan and started her own line. But that was another lifetime ago. In this new life, one straddling the Dominican Republic and Italy, Argüello aspired to "add value" to the fashion landscape through the practical experience and knowledge she'd already gained working in the field.

Cavalli Etro, meanwhile, had previously operated her own communications agency in Mexico City before marrying fashion designer Kean Etro in 2006 and moving to Milan soon after.