from the age of 11 Maria Gorof She was already drawing costumes, imagining finery and dresses even without knowing how she could materialize that dream of reaching the red carpets of the world. Fashion sprouted from her skin. Little by little, in these 20 years of her career, she managed to become the haute couture designer she is today, the one who dresses all the top celebrities and she even managed to be the designer chosen by Dolores Fonzi to make her the dress she wore at the Oscars, when she accompanied her partner, the director Santiago Mitre, at the ceremony.
Gorof talks to NEWS about the new dream that is underway, that his brand reaches the whole world and explains how he has to protect himself from international fashion houses that want to appropriate his designs.
News: How did Dolores summon her for the Oscars dress?
Maria Gorof: We met a few weeks before, for the BAFTAs, an actress friend of hers, close to the brand, introduced us. That dress had a lot of repercussion, people in London approached her to ask about her dress. That same vortex and speed I received her request to accompany her to the Osocars. It was a very fast, beautiful and unexpected process.
News: I imagine that being the most famous red carpet in the world it must have been a dream to get there.
Gorof: They are those dreams that you do not dare to dream. It’s hard to believe. It’s touching the sky with your hands for an evening dress designer.
News: How is Argentine design valued in the world?
Gorof: I think we are used to having few resources, sometimes we don’t realize what we have, we are very capable, we know how to manage in many ways. Being on the red carpet at the Oscars was a very important recognition of my 20-year career. I have clients who have the opportunity to travel the world and tell me that what I do does not exist in the world. For years I have felt this appreciation of the product we make, of the quality with which we work, of generating pieces that have this mix of what is sustainable and what is circular. Years ago, without realizing it, I started creating classic pieces, but irreverent at the same time, that can be used again. We were accompanying the sustainable.
News: How is it possible to maintain a brand, beyond the creative, with economic factors?
Gorof: Argentines are multifaceted. I do it with a lot of love, passion, creativity and with a lot of ingenuity.
News: He said that it has happened to him that his designs are copied, how do you handle it?
Gorof: In April 2021 I was contacted by the lawyers of the New York Chamber of Fashion because they were seeing what was happening with brands like mine that had grown in Latin America and they informed us that certain very important international brands had copied garments verbatim. And these lawyers asked me what I was going to do with it. I told them nothing for now, because it seemed flattering to me, that I was going to see what I was going to do in the future when I was more settled abroad. For now, the fact that such massive, important, and luxury brands are creating and massifying a design of mine throughout the world seems flattering to me. Sometimes clients send me photos of copies and they get indignant, but I tell them that buying a copy is never the same as buying an original. I don’t remember what has happened in the history of Argentine design that a lot of brands copy an Argentine designer. From here you always looked outside, for me it is knowing that I am on the right track.
News: What is your creation process like?
Gorof: My big trigger is conflict. It amuses me and enriches me to be able to create from that place. And then they are obsessions, I become obsessed with shapes, colors, textiles, geometries and until I capture it I keep exploring it until another obsession appears.
News: How does the work of taking the brand to the world come about?
Gorof: It is a challenge to do it from Argentina, due to the distance itself, we are very far away, there are language barriers, other customs, other ways of working. We return to the conflict and the challenges, which is what enriches and motivates me the most. I am understanding how each place is managed, the suppliers, the stylists, the stores, exploring the sustainable world, what resources are there for someone who stays at night, I have to learn where to start from, it is a new world, I love it. I am traveling a lot, with meetings, doing shows abroad. The legal thing is practically all armed. Step by Step. I’m also messing with the intense schedule here and my personal life.
News: How do you handle motherhood with your professional projects?
Gorof: Sometimes I don’t know how I do it, but I do it. I think almost any mom will tell you the same. You are organizing I can’t go away for many days, anyway Mila has her father and people who help me from here.
News: Do you like the world of fashion?
Gorof: He loves it, it has his mark. She is also very interested in the world of cosmetics, she has an obsession with lipsticks and perfumes. She has his style, his vision of fashion. He’s 8 years old, but he’s almost a preteen. I accompany her to where she lets me participate or asks me for help. She thinks of everything, she looks at her dresses, when she was in Los Angeles she asked me to send her photos of all the international celebrities.
News: Do you see yourself reflected in it?
Gorof: At the age of 12 or earlier, I was already drawing figurines without training in that, I always studied drawing, but I didn’t have the technological resources or access to information that we have today. I don’t know where that comes from. I remember sitting on the carpet in my living room drawing figures on the red carpet.
News: How is the word of mouth of the famous people who summon it going?
Gorof: They are 20 years of career. The last 10 years were the strongest, since I moved to Capital. My first two stores were in the north zone. When I started with shows, stylists began to approach the brand. What had the most impact was a very transgressive collection for that moment, they were very nude dresses, culottes, bras, lace, transparencies and they called me because Natalia Oreiro wanted a dress of mine. I couldn’t believe it, she used it, they returned it and asked to use it again. She has the humility of the great divas. Then she asked me for another dress and wore it on the cover of a magazine. Later on, Mona Antonopulos wore a design of mine with transparencies and feathers on a Hola cover, then Zaira Nara came who needed a dress for a very important gala. That collection was the beginning of a boom. There is a lot of effort, a lot of passion, a lot of obsession and a lot of work and order to improve processes. I have a bag. We always want to keep growing.
News: Is there someone you would be interested in dressing or other space to occupy?
Gorof: I want to continue on the world’s red carpet, it’s a beautiful challenge. We were at the Emmys, the Golden Globes, Latino awards, the Oscars. We want to continue accompanying the Argentine women who arrive at those places.
News: Are you preparing a parade for Buenos Aires?
Gorof: I’m kind of irreverent with that, I always was. There was pressure to make 45 garments every 6 months and for me it was a huge effort, I was younger, I was learning, it was an economic effort, but I could afford to get out of that mandate, I began to make a lot of capsules. I have stages where a lot of new designs appear, 12 or 20, whatever comes out, I am not governed by what I have to do. Something has to happen that excites me, like when I did the show at the Rosedal in 2020. Every show I’ve done has to do with that, with what I’m interested in doing.
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