The family of María Jesús Páez is from La Graciosa, lifelong, and when her children Tatiana and Raúl Hernández were small, she made, as a hobby, traditional clothing from La Graciosa for family or traditional events.
The children's clothes were liked so much that orders started to arrive. Especially for her to make traditional shirts from La Graciosa, the light blue ones that the fishermen of the eighth island used for fishing.
The old ones were made of mended pieces of denim fabric, those of the Chuchis "are 100% cotton and do not lose their color with washing", says Tatiana Hernández herself, who today collaborates with her mother's shirt shop, in an interview with Ekonomus.
A shirt for a president
The takeoff of Las Chuchis' shirts, as mother and daughter are known on the eighth island and which is now their commercial brand, began in 2007, “when they asked us for a shirt for the former president of the Canary Islands, Paulino Rivera. From then on, many more orders came in”.
The shirts made of colored pieces in the purest almazuela style, which some call patchwork, and which are the ones Las Chuchis produce the most, "were an invention in the eighties by a neighbor from the island nicknamed 'The Moroccan' who made the design and asked my aunt to make it for him".
Since then, “it began to become popular until it became our star product”, explains Tatiana Hernández.
The funny shirts of the Hernández Páez family, can be for men, for women or for children, they can be ordered through social media or by phone, but they can also be found at the craft fairs of the Canary Islands, "where we sell 90% of the production", shares Hernández.
“My brother and I accompany my mother to the craft fairs. We always go to the one in Lanzarote, which for us is our fair and for two years now we also go to the Pinolere fair in Tenerife and to the one in Antigua, in Fuerteventura, and we love them”.
'Las Chuchis' shirts around the world
The majority of Chuchis' clients are from the Canary Islands, especially from Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, and Tenerife, although they send orders to Canarians who "live anywhere in the world, even in China".
The funny shirts are worn “to pilgrimages, processions and now there are also those who wear them with jeans or a skirt for any occasion or event because they are fun”.
“Clients indicate to us the colors they prefer, and based on the traditional blue, we include other colors, they ask us for a lot of variety, even fluorescent colors”.
But ‘Las Chuchis’ also sew other garments. “Our strength is the shirt, but we also make dresses, baby bibs, pants, bags, we adapt to whatever they ask us for”.
