Cher became Maria Cher again. He recovered his complete identity to fully enter this mature stage of his life that speaks of focusing on what matters: affections. But not to confuse this introspection with rest. Far away is the eclectic girl, the one who loved the eccentricity of clothes from a very young age, the one who studied economics at the Say Tella and that she went to London with dreams of becoming an actress to return to the world of fashion and create her own brand, after passing through the St Martin, one of the most prestigious fashion schools on the planet, of stillness. With the sharpest gaze and her heart in her hand, her foot continues to hit the accelerator fully. Her brand is about to come of age, twenty-five stores in Argentina, and others in Uruguay, Chile and Paraguay, a wholesale sales showroom and its page in the United States for online sales to which two more locations have just been added in New York. Gabriel Brenner, her husband and partner, and Fausto and Alma, her two teenage sons, are the springboard and anchor of this adventure. It is the maturity that has turned María into this pendulum tightrope walker who can go from the glamorous frivolity of fashion to social commitment, from having a head full of ideas to put together multiple collections per year to the time to enjoy her loved ones or the physical stores in New York to the world of the metaverse with its first “Fashion Collection” on NFT on Qurable. “I never worked so hard, but now I’ve learned that life doesn’t go away at work,” she confesses.
News: Pandemic, war, crisis and rise of E-commerce, and you were sent with two stores in the middle of Manhattan. Sudden madness?
Maria Cher: Nope! On the contrary, it was a long time for reflection. First, it had to do with taking advantage of a unique window, how it was to find locations that were not available before and at more affordable prices, and this added to a special possibility that we also had as a family. Everything happened, because we were also making a very strong change in Argentina, where we once again had a transition from Cher to María Cher. We are a brand that grows in crises.
News: He put his full name back.
Cher: Yes! I put my signature back, my DNA. I felt minute by minute again. At 47 I am working like never before in my life. It comes with this maturity that allows you to make decisions in a different way.
News: What things changed in your eyes?
Cher: I’m still very demanding as I always was, but my life doesn’t go away at work. Time is running out, but not life. Life goes in another lane. Very hard things happened to me, and they made me change my look.
News: What happened to him?
Cher: I had a very close and very important loss. And with those losses, one takes a different perspective on life, and I am very attached to life, I would almost say, more attached than ever.
News: Why are clothes so expensive?
Cher; The clothes are very expensive if you see them alone. If you compare it to food, electronics, or cars, there’s not that much of a difference. In our field we are going through the perfect storm. We lack labor, the workshops are overwhelmed, we are left with little merchandise, there are restrictions on imports, there is inflation at all levels. We understand that we cannot delude ourselves, but the reality is that our costs have increased enormously.
News: A complaint heard is that in the area they do not move to ask for clear rules from politics.
Cher: I think there is a place where there is solidarity, which is in the Chamber of Fashion. I have very supportive colleagues and colleagues who… far from being supportive, I would tell you that they have values that are very different from those that we have with my husband, and you have to live with them.
News: You were also at the Hunger Table.
Cher: I was summoned but as a representative of my family, not as María Cher, because we are fish exporters. It is very difficult sometimes in this context. yesI believe that personally it does me good to be connected with projects that can be collaborative for inclusion and in some way for a certain social justice.
News: In an article you wrote ten years ago for this magazine, you cataloged yourself as “José Ignacio’s most Peronist”, did that statement cause you problems?
Cher: I made a joke. I regretted. I am a designer who has to do with fashion, and a businesswoman, not a politician.
News: Would you like to get involved?
Cher: I once thought about it, but later I saw that it was nicer to work from the third sector collaborating. I like doing what I do, although I have many friends in politics and of all colors.
News: Her husband and partner. What is the formula?
Cher: We share glances and try to agree. We divide the tasks very well. He is more of an entrepreneur, I am more of a dreamer. There are very nice moments where you feel that the best thing that happened to you is being in that strong and continuous communion, and there are moments where it is distressing, everything is mixed.
News: Are your children involved in the family business?
Cher: They’re starting. They throw away ideas with everything that has to do with virtual communication. The two are very pilcheros with which all the time they raise and lower the thumb to what we do.
News: With one foot in New York, what makes you think about not leaving the country? What keeps you?
Cher: The affections. Life is about affection. If you are lucky enough to have the minimum to live, everything else is superfluous. There are certain situations where the experience of living outside is nice and I don’t rule it out, but I really enjoy living here and the places that have a history for me. When you leave, you are depersonalized, without tours. That is why I continue to choose to live here, with all the setbacks we have, I do not lose hope.
