Gabriel Fuentealba achieved a milestone in the fashion industry of our country. The Chilean is a costume designer and textiles dedicated to the creation of dresses inspired by patients with breast cancer, which will allow him to be part of the great red carpet of the Cannes Festival in France.
The designer’s talent floods his social networks. Dresses with various styles, shapes and color palette are modeled and presented in various catwalks in order to deliver a valuable meaning to the present public.
Gabriel lives six years ago in Punta Arenas, from that remote city of Chile began a cause related to the prevention and awareness of breast and cervical cancer.
His talent was key to developing a national project that will soon mean the beginning of an international career.
“The objective of the activity we did here was to generate fashion events, parade with a message and also incorporate into the oncological group of Magallanes with patients being models,” Gabriel tells Biobiochile.
“It turns out that last year one of the patients, the youngest, Romina, dies of cancer and we in the parade we made that year, we celebrated that Romina had finished her last chemotherapy,” says the designer.
“This marked my life tremendously because I did not understandI did not understand how, if I lifted a sign that said, ‘today we celebrated that Romina ends her last chemotherapy’ and 3 months later she dies of cancer, “says Gabriel.
A difficult moment imposed him to create his first collection
That difficult moment was also his impulse to take his creations to another level and contribute in a more concrete way.
“Create this symbolic collection where I show the consequences of cancer, and how this affects and I told it through a stage called The duelwhere different changing rooms are going through the duel, from denial, anger, negotiation, depression, until they reach acceptance, ”describes the designer.
Those changing rooms were shared in a parade that took place successfully at the Punta Arenas Palace on October 19, 2024, the day when breast cancer is commemorated.
Subsequently, an event of great relevance was also witnessing the creations of Fuentealba. It was the Fashion Week Chile, where the designs wore on the catwalk.
The Chilean designer is invited to Cannes’ red carpet
But the big surprise for Gabriel came a month later: An invitation directly from France to participate in Cannes’ red carpetall following the proposal shown in Punta Arenas.
Thus, his talent and the cause behind, will cross the border to show the complex process that hundreds of women around the world living day by day.
Months of this great news, the designer is in the last details of his original haute couture locker room that will have the honor of being carried on the red carpet by an international model.
“These designs go to a private showroom where the producers of the celebrities go, then go to another parade that is where the celebrities are watching the dresses and in the end they decide, ‘Okay, I want to pass with the dress of the Chilean or of this cause,” explains Gabriel.
Haute sewing dresses on consequences of breast cancer
“The theme that I am creating now has to do with the previous collection, but they are Much more symbolic dresses in relation to more specific issues of cancer consequences“, He advances.
“There is a dress that represents the removal of breasts, there is another dress that represents how the skin looks after chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and there is another dress that talks about the removal of the uterus. Then, they are quite important dresses that are not marketed. They are not dressed to market, but to give a message,” he adds.
“For me this is super important because it is Give a message through the fashion of how today you can raise awareness with self -care, making your exams or simply taking this disease in time, because that is the great message, that this disease saves lives lives“, Says the designer.
Finally, the Chilean is sincere by revealing how proud that his designs have been valued by a world category event.
“Cannes loved it, I also passed the filters that have to do with conscience. They are focused on rescuing designers worldwide to put it on this platform, so tremendously proud also that they have put their eyes in my work,” Gabriel closes.
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