Always with a smile to lip flower and its affectionate modes, Claudio Cosanoapologize for the delay. He is with some clients, his priority, always. This time it is a mother and daughter who sought it: the occasion is the celebration for the received of the university degree. They leave the excited test. “We are going to have ‘a cosano’.” The future economist tells that a Tailleur will wear for the occasion, and just gave the same garment to his mother who supported her throughout her career. They feel Susana, Mirtha, Moria, Pampitasome of the celebrities who brought their cawing pieces, because the treatment and dedication of this designer towards their models do not have their own name. They are all the same. The same love, the same respect.
He has just celebrated his three decades in Argentine fashion, an emotional review for his career, with an intimate parade with press and famous clients of all his times with fashion with a closed ovation that still moves it. Self -taught, obsessive embroidery, lover of spectacularity, owner of an unmistakable style, faithful to his identity and with a philosophy of life based on gratitude, effort and elegance, managed to install his DNA in the universe of women’s fashion.
Of humble origin and with a frustrated vocation as an architect, he built a brand that became synonymous with haute couture and show, with the brightness that already identifies him of ambition, effort and respect for his clients. From his atelier in Recoleta continues to wear dreams with the same passion with which he started or in “The fashion cage” The television program that has it as a driver next to the “Pollo” Álvarez and Fabián Medina Flores, where he says he has fun and service. In his talk with news he reviews his story, he speaks of the divas that accompanied him, of the prejudices he faced in the fashion world, his obsession with order, his family as a refuge and his recent encounter with politics.
News: “Thirty years is nothing,” says tango. What do they mean for you?
Claudio Cosano: The truth, I didn’t realize. I am so involved in what I do that time flew. Only now, that I began to climb to the networks things I did in these three decades, I realize everything I did, and I can’t believe it! I saw photos of Pampita, who is with me since the beginning, and was a baby.
News: How did this last tribute parade live?
Cosano: It was one of the greatest emotions of my life. I lived it as a celebration. At first I didn’t want to do it, I was moderated to celebrate. But then I thought: “Why not?” When he finished, he stopped the entire room and applauded standing. I cried like a baby. I felt that everything was worth it: the sacrifices, the sleepless nights, the times I wanted to give up. It was a pamper to the soul.
News: How were those beginnings?
Cosano: Difficult. I come from very down. Mom was a housewife and my father, metallurgical. I was 12 years old when he left, and I only saw him again once he called me when he saw me on TV, so Mom was responsible for raising four children alone in a rented house where sometimes he had only cooked mate and bread. It was a hard childhood, but I don’t remember her sadly. Since I knew I didn’t want that social condition for me. They wanted me to overcome and working. I worked to help at home and dreamed of being an architect. One day I saw a notice in the newspaper, I went to work in a clothing house as administrative, and there I fell in love with the textile world. I learned looking, I went down to the workshop in lunch. Then I cut my house with a common scissors. I became the designer of the neighborhood: I fulfilled the deliveries and never said not.
News: Did the architecture race end?
Cosano: I had two finals. It makes me angry, but this work absorbed me brutally. The same, the formation served me. Architecture orders your head. He helped me sell with drawing, to think of proportions, and also to be obsessive.
News: And how did the designer of the Divas arrive from that neighborhood designer?
Cosano: With ambition, no doubt. I always wanted more. I am not ashamed to say that I wanted to have my house, dress well, travel. I knew I didn’t want to live that dignified poverty forever. When life took me fashion, I took it seriously, with responsibility. It cost me a lot to have a name, a style, a faithful clientele. And I also had lucky blows: the first dress that Susana commissioned me when I was tested in the tile bath of my first workshop, or that Mirtha trusted me to dress her in her lunches, to have Messi’s mother as a client were key moments.
News: Choosing haute couture coming from few resources was a play.
Cosano: Of course, but it made sense. I liked the artisanal, the only thing. And I also knew what to make party or wedding dresses was more profitable than the prêt-à-porter. I love brightness, drama, theatrical. It is in my DNA.
News: Do you feel that it was rejected by the fashion world at some point?
Cosano: Completely. Since I started. For using brightness, to come from a humble origin, for not belonging to certain circles. I saw a lot of hypocrisy in fashion, but my thing was always working, and that’s why I last. And over time, the coherence pays. Today I look back and I understand that rejection made me stronger. But I learned something: I don’t want to become a resentful person because life is only one. I don’t want to live with envy or bad energy. When I feel that something negative is around, I make a self-check and say: “This is not you.”
News: Did you never think about lowering the curtain?
Cosano: Many times. I am very demanding with myself. I wonder if it’s time to stop. But something always appears that excites me. My therapist tells me: “You are going to be a classic.” Maybe I don’t have the energy to wear 14 brides on a Saturday as before, but that is also part of the growth.
News: What place does your family occupy on this tour?
Cosano: All. When I started, I thought: “If I save me, they all save themselves.” I brought my mom, who was the first to help me with seam; Then my brother, my sister, my sister -in -law came. Today I continue with my brother Fabian, who is in charge of embroidery. It is a total symbiosis: we work at a distance and we agree on everything. That holds me, anchor me.
News: Angel, her husband and a lifelong partner, holds him.
Cosano: With linen we are together almost 40 years ago. And I have dressmakers who have been with me for more than 25. I am structured, yes, but not accumulator. I can get rid of a house, a car, clothes. What I can’t release are affections.
News: He always looks smiling, does he feel he is a happy person?
Cosano: I would tell you that more than happy, I consider myself a Ganánica person. I do not want to stay, I do not want to stagnate, and if I do not have a goal, I propose it, because they are the desire I have to live and I think that is definitively transformed into happiness. I do not allow myself to be wrong. I had strong blows, both personal and work, but I always moved on. I don’t like the complaint, I don’t like to criticize.
News: Do you have Tocs?
Cosano: (Laughs) I am super obsessive with my clothes! In the dressing room, everything is in colored ranges. The stockings, by tones. And don’t change me one of place because I break down! I love having clothes because I didn’t have it and I dressed horrible. I became a late dandy.
News: How do you see current fashion?
Cosano: I am concerned about the loss of trade. I see poorly cut, poorly sewn clothes. And it is outraged. There are many new designers who skip learning. I am very respectful of artisanal work, good sewing. And haute couture, which many gave dead, is still alive for me. I like luxury, but the luxury well done. Not the banal.
News: He never dressed a first lady, but in her anniversary parade was Karina Milei with her mother, how did that link forge?
Cosano: He called me because he liked costumes that had made Amalia “Yuyito” for his program, and one who used when he was with the president. When I came to Atelier I told him: “I’m going to treat you like any client.” And so it was. Beyond the position, it is still a woman more that carries my clothes. I liked that I had that simplicity. In the parade they agreed, and were very friendly and cordial despite the journalistic stir that was armed.
News: And the future?
Cosano: In ten years I would like to be lying in Miami. Travel. Enjoy. But in the meantime, I’m still. I am fun on TV, I like to provide services, give dresses. I am happy working. But, above all, I am Ganic: I really want to live.
