
Palorosa: origin story
Palorosa is a color. Returning to Guatemala.

Vivian Suter, Proyectos Ultravioleta

Jacquard fabric, Del Palomar, Hiroko Tanaka
The single object cannot be understood without first looking at all of the objects. Before Palorosa there was Guatemala à Porter, a tumblr, a blog, a platform for stylistic and aesthetic research. It was also a social and sociological platform. To reclaim her old-new world, Cecilia had to first appropriate her people. That was the tool. The setting was fertile ground for a country that constantly allows creativity to flourish, where people are ready to contaminate and to be contaminated. Cecilia studied their history, and hers. She became a local once again.
The Palorosa bag has always existed in her mind, but it was soon time to turn her attention to it. It was an intuition. The bag would become the object that could bind the two stories, the two worlds, together. The object came to life not by chance, but by cognitive experience and thoughtful reflection. Guatemala à Porter could have become a physical place, a shop with multiple products, a collision of conceptual space and concepts. But instead, it was destined to head in a different direction.

Terracottas and bamboo, Guatemala City

Detail of a hand-woven dress, Cobán

Historic center, Guatemala City
Two years later, the same doubt was raised: multiple products or a single object? The answer came with the sale of 100 bags – the first not having a name – and other crafted objects collected from surrounding places, people, and daily life. It’s the bags that attracted attention, so that became the focus, the place of return, of cognitive experience and thoughtful reflection.
Palorosa’s first real order came from Art Basel in Miami, where bags were hung on display in the design store of a Colombian who Cecilia met through the blog’s pan-American network, which continues to grow. Palorosa’s first real trip was to New York, where Cecilia presented her bags to her favorite stores. But this is another chapter. For now, let us focus on Palorosa’s story, which is well on its way.