Micaela is a fashion designer born and raised in Lima, capital city of Peru. Micaela explores Lima’s cultural identity by documenting its places, its people and its objects through her own lens and her personal memories of her life in Lima. Using traditional techniques and working collaboratively with artisans in Peru, she handcrafts every single piece to story tell what could collectively materialize a section of Lima.
Micaela Santistevan de las Casas
My project is a personal journey to finding and better understanding Lima’s cultural identity. Through my recollections of my life growing up in Lima and by revisiting and documenting the places of my memories I am finding different elements that could piece out a section of the city’s cultural identity.
The photographic research of this project is my own personal archive. Through analyzing the photos and finding the stories and details in them, I start knitting, weaving and sewing the different narrations. Each piece has its own story, its own thread and its own journey. I am still building towards finding all the elements in those photos - all the textures, all the narrations.
The pieces on this project are being collectively developed and made in collaboration with artisans in Peru. As a designer I find it important to include local artisans in my practice, learn about their traditions and techniques and celebrate their craft. Their textile traditions are part of the territories story nowadays. I am documenting the process of working with artisans through film.
As a post-colonial territory Lima’s identity and stories have been historically hidden. Even locally there is a lack of value of who we are as a diverse, multicultural, and vast city and what truly represents our stories nowadays. The journey of this project has led me to observe, learn and put into value these stories. Each clothe created serve as a material memory of this stories. And hopefully others will engage with this visual study and celebration of where I come from.
Casa de las Casas is the name I have given to this journey, a collection of places, people and casas.
