The Only Thing Left Are The Memories

 

Today's post is one that I don't know why I never shared it before, whilst I were in University I talked and shared about my Univ. Projects (here and also here) but at some point I simply stopped in the middle of the way back then, I don't remember I used to blog quite often either, so that must be a reason why this post never made it here until now. 

As much as I start reflecting on how my year has been like around mid-October or so, I also reflect on my days at University, especially around this time of the year. For instance, it's already 2024 and ten years ago I was just starting University without knowing what to expect or how that would go for me. At the same time, the carnivals already started in the city, by the way, I'm from Barranquilla, Colombia, and here we do have the most important folkloric celebrations - aka Barranquilla's carnivals - being it one of the biggest carnivals in the world too. I personally do not celebrate or participate in any of these, but seven years ago, I worked on what it would be my last University project, thesis, you name it, and it was for the Carnival's Queen of 2017, Stephanie 'Fefi' Mendoza Vargas. 

To give a little more context, the University where I studied at, especially the Fashion Design program is the one in charge of making the Fantasy Costumes for Carnival's Queen, King Momo, Children kings, among others. It's a really huge project and mostly fashion students from the 6th-7th semester participate in it. We were told about this when I was just starting out my 6th semester (3rd year). 

Just by remembering this project alone, I can see how much my classmates and I struggled, how much we cried and went desperated and so did our parents, more than our project, it was theirs too. It was a once in a lifetime experience. I remember one of our professors letting us know about this project, my girlfriends were so excited for this unique opportunity and they wanted to design the Fantasy Costume for Night of La Guacherna, and also were looking for someone else to join them, so they could be a 'big' group to reduce costs, nobody in our class wanted to, and I personally wanted to work on my own project. 

When they asked me if I could join them, I said I'll sleep on it and even talked it out with my parents too because working on such project meant lots of money was involved and after we all agreed, I went ahead and said yes. Fast forward a few days, all the groups met up for a little reunion and we were all interviewed separately (by groups) and asked why we wanted to work on said project. It was my group's turn, I remember all of us being nervous but also, we cheered up and rest-assured each other and said we had to be self-condifent. The little interview started and interviewer made it informal for us, we were asked lots of questions and at the end we gave them our reasons, but also our trust that we were capable of such responsability. 

All the groups got the projects they wanted to work on, so everyone was happy. After that, it was a whirlwind of emotions that cost us not only lots of money, but also lots of sleepless nights, stress, tears, and even in the midst of that, there was also joy, like I said it before, it was a once in a lifetime experience and something that we all thought would help with our curriculum as fashion designers or at least that's what we thought so and were told of.

We were only just five girls, our parents, yet there was also more people behind the scenes, our professors and investigative group too were all involved, they were always there for our guidance, and to give us a hand when needed as well. I remember them and that so vividly and it feels like it was just yesterday and I feel so thankful for all of it and also them too until this day. My journey at University was not easy, I even thought this career was not for me, I wanted to drop out while I was in my first semester and I even thought that I wouldn't be able to graduate but when this day/project came and and saw how far I already was, I was thankful to God for that whole journey but also I couldn't believe what I was experiencing at the moment and what it would be the culmination of said stressing but fun project as well as my journey at University.

EL PAPÁ DEL CARNAVAL ❤️🦈

Regards our design, the inspiration was Junior de Barranquilla, Fefi is a huge fan of our  football team, she said she wanted something that people would love and that it could incorporate elements as a thank you to our football players too, as designers, we took the most important elements that best represents Junior, we also headed to their offices and investigated a lot more about Junior's background history as well as did a survey and asked people why they loved Junior, etc. To this point, this was all new to us and random fact, three of us are from this city but none of us were fan or into football and I personally have never been to the stadium either, the other two are from a different city and same thing goes for them, it was quite hilarious and even our tutor said that right after this project landed on us we had to be the number one fans of Junior, haha., but that's what made the project a lot more special, and how you get into it the more you search for information to come up with the final design. That was a topic we would always talk and laugh about whenever we got the chance to meet and work on this project, so it could be ready on time. 

As I  mentioned it before, the whole design was inspired by Junior's symbols. First there's a bodysuit and a handmade beaded skirt to represent Junior's badge as well as the flag colors with white and red vertical stripes on the top part which also has bead work in it as well as swarovski on the nude mesh. The headpiece had seven stars which Junior has collected throughout the years, the gloves were a not-so abstract way to represent the football ball, it was printed out and we also added swarvoski to them, the wings were in honor to Sebastián Viera who was the club captain and goalkeeper back then and they were supported by two pockets that were on the back of the bodysuit, the shoes were another abstract representation, but this time, of the mascot which is a shark, since there were lots of white and silver, we opted for teardrop earrings and hair tied up in a ponytail. We also named this design El Papá del Carnaval after Junior's famous phrase "Junior Tu Papá". 

THE OFFICIAL PRESENTATION

Back to me reminiscising in this time and project and fast forward to February 15th / 2017, it was our official presentation and it didn't go as expected, in fact we encountered some issues, especially with the back structure aka the wings, they fell apart and broke when Fefi started dancing and moving like there's no tomorrow, which made all of our official photos that were going to be in different newspapers, a not really good looking ones, I remember we all wanted to cry, some of my friends were mad but the show had to go on. We only had 2 days before the actual parade day and we had to work on it asap. Another reason why I don't share those photos here in this post. :') I still can't forget about that. But even if it was something 'bad', it turned out to be a good thing, since we had to work on something that wouldn't break and would last throughout the whole parade. Again, I don't really participate in any of this but back then, the parade was set to start at 7:00pm and it went until 11pm-12am. So, we had to make sure this structure could resist all those hours and more, and that also meant more money which made us furious but we knew it would be the last thing to do and that everything would come to an end, a happy one. 

The structure was made again from scratch, and delivered to our University somewhere around 5-ish, 6pm and after that, we headed to Fefi's place to deliver it personally to her along with our tutor/professor who took us there. She tried it on and once again, danced like there was no tomorrow and the structure was firm and didn't fall apart. So, it was a success and then, it was just a matter of 24hrs before the actual big day. 

Feb 17th, 2017: This day started early for all of us, by going first to University, and we would all meet up with the dean or was she the director of the program? I can't remember, anywho, we met with Astrid. We had a interview with Blu Radio, a famous Colombian radio station and we were going to be asked a few things about our design. I was one of the few that answered, and I was so nervous plus it was my first time being live on a radio show, my family were tuning in and listening and even recorded what I said but unfortunately I've lost said file. But they were cheering us and the interview went smooth and really well. It was short and in went in the blink of an eye but it was a beautiful experience for all of us. 

After that, I think we headed back to University, then went back home to have lunch and around 4pm I was getting ready to leave since we all would gather at Fefi's home and go all together as part of her comitive group and that's how it went, we took some last photos and parted our ways. She was ready and looking SO beautiful, I really had so many emotions, I was happy, I wanted to cry but also I was thanking God for this experience and that everything finally came to an end. 

I'll forever be thankful for such an incredible opportunity and for having worked with my classmates on this. In fact, Fefi had shared something about it in her Instagram stories this past Friday (since it was this year's Guacherna, and she was doing a little throwback) and I wrote her telling how much I was also thinking about this day and project and how that meant a lot to me me and to my friends, seeing her enjoy it from beginning to end was priceless to us. I guess that's the fruit, satisfaction you get when a work is done and done really well, where you've poured your everything into it, especially us as fashion designers, we considered Fefi's wants and needs as if she was our client, not just a regular client yet an important one, the main character of this nocturnal parade, all eyes were going to be on her too as well as it was going to be our final project and thesis too! Oh, and yes, she replied back to me saying how thankful she was for all the love we poured into this.

With this post, her response from a few days ago, and my thoughts on this, I can say this was just another stage in our lives that'll be 'fully' and officially closed with this meaningful blog post. Seven years later and I'll conclude by saying that 'The Only Thing Left Are The Memories', and for that, I've included some extra photos. 🩷

From left to right: Melissa Cuentas, Stephanie Lopez, Maricela Meza, Stephanie Mendoza, Valentina Villamizar, María Camila Gómez. 

PS: If you hadn't guessed it yet, this is me. Hello! 👋🏻

I wish I always looked like this but unfortunately I don't... yet, haha. 

Until next time! xx