Evangelina Bomparola
Founder and creative director of Evangelina Bomparola.
She founded her eponymous label in 2002 with the aim of combining luxury with design in her own style. With the influence of her European roots and the focus on the immigrant's dream of turning his craft into art, she finds in the "handmade" finishes the value of detail in each piece.
You have spoken on the influence that being raised in Rural Buenos Aires has had on your dream of turning your trade into art. Can you paint a picture of what it was like growing up amongst Argentinian culture?
E: I was born and raised in a very porteño (“people of the port”) neighborhood called La Paternal. A neighborhood of soccer, tango and rock. Maradona started his career in Argentinos Juniors, the club of my neighborhood. On the corner of my house there was a bar with tango shows every weekend. The musician Norberto Pappo Napolitano, rehearses in his house every day, the chords of his bands from Pappo's Blues to Riff. Neighborhood of Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Danish, Irish and Polish immigrants. We had a mosque, a synagogue, an evangelist temple and several catholic churches. I grew up in that cultural diversity and without realizing it, all that was going on around me, would be of immense influence throughout my personal and professional life.
Life lessons to live by?
E: To know myself and simply be what I am. The unpretentiousness is to achieve a life in harmony with the strengths and weaknesses that help me every day to achieve my goals, those that truly matter to me, out of the toxicity of the ego and its erroneous ambitions.
E.B. communicates ideas of classic and contemporary structures with a focus on functional and eternal pieces. Can you describe what is timeless to you?
E: Diversity is timeless, which does not look outward for trends but rather for changes in the context. Modernity is not capturing a moment, but rather giving that moment an eternal movement within a context that explains it.
A WHITE LINEN SET
An all-whitelook exudes a chic and polished vibe. An outfit formula you can rely on.
Your favourite Casa Raki piece?
E: Any piece that is languid and linen. I prefer black and white.
Maybe the Lara Dress in black cupro.
Can you tell us what is inspiring you for the design of the upcoming collection?
E: Some time ago I started to make several Collections per year. There are 6 in total. For the next one together with my team we are working on a certain Victorian influence in relation to the current dichotomy between the freedom to show almost naked bodies and the intolerance or censorship to discuss issues related to gender diversity.
I love being able to tell stories in every installment and this dichotomy is making a lot of noise for me. Freedom and censorship, both selective and protecting what is "politically correct".
Best advice to anyone who is still exploring their personal style?
E: First know yourself, then accept yourself. It is a very difficult exercise but, together with the wisdom of the years, it is the only one that helps to know how to choose what to do and what not to do. From that knowledge, we go out to choose how we want to show ourselves without pretensions of being who we are not. Because I consider that wanting to look like someone, to take something from someone, is a loan, it is not real. It is losing the good fortune of knowing, accepting and enjoying ourselves.
THE LARA DRESS
The Lara Dress features a long, flatter silhouette and a unique linen with a twisted keyhole cutout detail for an elegant and chic look. Crafted from lightweight silky Cupro, the Lara Dress is the perfect summer dress.
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