El Salvador makes a fashion statement with its handbags

• Author: María Luisa Hayem
• Position: Minister of the Economy of El Salvador, San Salvador

Women-led fashion startups gain prestige

In recent years, El Salvador has seen a rise in the number of fashion startups led by women. Highly talented female designers have come to the fore, gaining prestige at home and abroad with their clothing and accessory lines. Some have injected innovation into traditional artisanal processes and products to create original designs with Indigenous characteristics. Aside from their outstanding aesthetics and quality, these products are generating employment and helping to keep certain traditions alive.

Tradition meets luxury

Eva Innocenti is one such designer and entrepreneur. Ms. Innocenti designs luxury handbags, made mainly from the highest quality Salvadoran leather, embellished with gold-plated elements and other materials. A number of her handbag collections are named after the women who inspired them.

The designer launched her brand in 2015, and has been carefully managing her intellectual property (IP) since. In addition to a registered trademark, the designs for her original collections are registered with the National Center of Registries (CNR), the national IP office of El Salvador.

"It all starts with a dream. That is what the Eva Innocenti brand is for me – my lifelong dream," the designer says.

Thanks to a range of government programs, recognition of the importance of IP as a business tool has grown in El Salvador in recent years.

Today, Ms. Innocenti has a workshop that creates jobs for a group of Salvadoran artisans, a retail outlet in a prestigious area of the capital city and an online shop that ships goods all over the world. In 2019, she participated in London Fashion Week and Panamá Fashion Week.

IP and women’s empowerment

Forging emotional bonds to support women is central

to Raquel Arana’s work. She recounts narratives

of women’s empowerment through her illustrations.

(Photo: Courtesy of Raquel Arana)

Raquel Arana is another noteworthy Salvadoran designer and entrepreneur. Ms. Arana is a storyteller who uses figures and colors instead of words.

The designer got her start in the creative industries at the end of 2014 with a very successful handbag design, which set her on an unexpected path. Ms. Arana learned along the way that IP can be very useful in supporting her business goals and her commitment to empowering women.

Ms. Arana has a passion for illustration, and when designing a product, she aims to forge emotional bonds to support women: each handbag tells a story and...