Ramiro Arzuaga he is a baroque and colorful man. No minimalism or neutral palette. His motto is “more is more”. With this imprint, he became one of the most important event organizers in the country.
He was born in Arrecifes and studied architecture in the city of Buenos Aires. He did not finish the race, but he was tempted by interior decoration. She had a store in his town, she began advising well-known people and in ’98 she got married in Arrecifes with a “divine party”, decorated by the newly married couple. The couple went to live in Los Angeles, where he continued to set events, until he separated, returned to Argentina and started a new life.
“I worked as a waiter in Alvear and learned a lot of protocol and ceremonial, at the Dorrego restaurant, at the Madero Hotel and at Faena,” he recalls. In 2007 they kicked me out of Faena and I decided to launch myself independently. I started with centerpieces and small events, some friends’ weddings, and I grew. In 2016 I had two television programs on the +Chic channel and that opened the doors of Latin America for me. I also participated in the Marina Fabbiani program on El Trece”.
“I always wanted to be a benchmark in setting events, parties and setting up tables and I did it. Now I divide myself between events —I do a lot of weddings, fifteenth birthdays, corporate— my courses and talks and trips ”, she assures. Media -172 thousand followers on Instagram- and with a positive spirit, he has already fulfilled several dreams.
News: What does it mean to be a top air freshener?
Arzuaga: The taste and management of spaces and stand out with a different style. I am different from everyone, I am very eclectic and at the same time baroque, I like overloaded things, I am constantly looking for new things, I am very colorful. And I’m very well known for doing events for celebrities. That gives me a lot of media presence and many followers on the networks.
News: What settings do you especially remember?
Arzuaga: The wedding of Mauricio Macri and Juliana Awada in 2011. It was very sober, super elegant, all white, a neutral vibe. She wanted peach blossoms and, since there weren’t any at that time, we had to create them with peach branches and little flowers from another plant that we glued one by one. I also did the wedding of Wanda Nara with Mauro Icardi at the Sans Souci Palace in 2013.
News: As was?
Arzuaga: super cute. It was in winter, the ceremony was held in the park with a spectacular pergola full of roses and we put a carpet so that people would not step on the grass. Wanda wanted large arrangements of white flowers on the tables and she was on a carpeted dais in a divinely styled living room. Then I did the wedding of Paula Chaves and Pedro Alfonso, that of Dalma Maradona, the fifteenth birthday of Martita Fort. Last year I did the one with Florencia Peña in Salta, which was incredible.
News: How did you set it up?
Arzuaga: It was in Cafayate, in a vineyard, and I decorated it with native things, cushions, woven blankets, rugs, and the arch was made of dried things and olive trees.
News: And this year he set the scene for Alan Faena.
Arzuaga: Yes, there were five days of festivities with eighty percent of foreign guests. The welcome meal was at the Palacio Paz, a luxury, a gift. In addition, we made different interventions in the hotel, one day we put 400 giant tubes with candles, another day, 10,000 roses. Then we had lunch at Alan’s house and on the fourth day the ceremony in the temple, wonderful. It was an epic wedding.
News: Are you free to do or do you follow the customer’s criteria?
Arzuaga: At first, I followed the client’s criteria more. I have a very marked style. If they want something very modern and minimalist, they are not going to call me. If they want something more loaded, with a lot of imprint and style, they are going to call me. Now they let me do it and trust what I do. Either way, I always show and tell everything beforehand. I prefer not to have surprises.
News: What are the keys to your work?
Arzuaga: Listen to the client, be very creative and bring ideas down to the Argentine reality. Creativity is not associated with budget. You can have a good budget and not be creative and do something horrible. Or with little money to do incredible things. I consider myself within that range. In Arrecifes I went out and searched for them, looked for branches in the field, cut sunflowers, cut pine cones, went to my grandmother’s house and took out decorations, went to the client’s house and dismantled the living room and took it to the event.
News: What inspires you? Music, literature, theater, art?
Arzuaga: I’m quite a movie buff. I always liked watching movies since I was a kid. I am very observant and I have a lot of visual memory. When traveling, on the street I get inspiration, and not only in Paris. I go to Once and I get inspired, it’s an inspiring place for me, I get a lot of ideas.
News: What is good taste? Can it be learned?
Arzuaga: It is something quite subjective and, in addition, it is somewhat pretentious to say “I have good taste”. I define my style and if I have good taste someone else has to say so. You can learn techniques so that your eye adapts and you learn to do things. That is what I teach in the courses. I give certain tips, certain guidelines on how to place things, combine colors, textures, that can guide you to improve in those aspects.
News: Do you care about trends?
Arzuaga: I don’t pay much attention to that, I prefer to go one step further, but in the talks I do show and teach what is being seen in the world in terms of decoration.
News: And what is being seen?
Arzuaga: What comes back and I love it, because it’s my vibe, it’s much more colorful. Use navy blue, English green, pink, fuchsia, red. The Argentine is very classic and finds it difficult to incorporate color. I tell them to cheer up little by little. For me color is a one way path. It lifts your spirits, it makes you happy and the perception of color is different than that it is all neutral, raw, beige or gray.
News: How is your house?
Arzuaga: My house is a very crazy story, eight months ago I moved. It is a small four-story hotel in Recoleta that was for sale for a long time. I lived seven blocks away and it seemed divine to me, crazy that it was empty. One day I saw it published with the photos inside. There I went to meet her and I was flashed. But I couldn’t buy it because they were asking for 5 million dollars and I couldn’t rent it because they were asking for 6 thousand dollars a month. So, I proposed to the owner that I take charge of the house, move in, decorate it, furnish it, renovate the kitchen, get it ready, do everything that needed to be done, but without buying it or paying rent. At first it seemed kind of crazy, but the wife loved it. We got together and I told him that my idea was to revive the house and have it divine, so also when people came to see it it would make them want to buy it more. The owner thought about it, asked for references from other houses where I had lived and everyone told him wonderful things about me, and, finally, he gave me the house.
News: How did you set it up?
Arzuaga: The setting is super eclectic, there’s a lot of color, the house is divine, it’s like a palace, it has fireplaces, super high ceilings, a dining room with a giant table. It’s like a dream, this is what I convey to my followers. It is the law of attraction, the law of desire, I wanted this house, I imagined myself living here and one day I had the keys to the door. Today I say: “How crazy to be living here.” It’s called Casa Arzuaga, I put a store downstairs and now I’m going to do all the new kitchen and I’m going to paint the entire façade. In addition, I made many interventions, I decorated it all for Christmas and made it snow with some snow machines and for Valentine’s Day I put red balloons on it. The neighbors love me and on the networks people re-engage with everything I am doing and showing at home.
News: What is your life like outside of work?
Arzuaga: I am quite calm, I live with my boyfriend, we have been together for three years. I like to be inside, I don’t socialize so much, I go to eat, but I don’t like to go to parties, I love finishing decorating them and coming home to eat something tasty and watch a movie. Yes I love to travel. I don’t project too much, I have short projects and I live from day to day.
News: Their motto is more is more
Arzuaga: Yes, I am a lover of the baroque, I am very charged, I like to put many things. That’s why more is more to me.
News: And in life?
Arzuaga: In life it’s the other way around, I learned to let go, I don’t get attached to things, things come and go, just like money. You have to enjoy it when you have it and be more austere when you don’t. It’s going to come out from somewhere.
