Emotion and color. Originality and essence. Inclusion and sustainability. All that and much more was experienced at the 'Herencia 1919' Fashion Show, the fashion show held last Saturday at the Cactus Garden that served as a brilliant grand finale to 'Retopía', a multidisciplinary reintegration project supported by the Art, Culture and Tourism Centers that has aimed to provide new life opportunities through art to people deprived of their freedom at the Tahíche Penitentiary Center.
The old rofera transformed by César Manrique became a fashion runway where more than 30 creations made by the participants of 'Retopía' themselves paraded. Professionals, members of the penitentiary professionals group, popular figures from the island, and even their own designers walked with grace and style in garments born from talent and made from reused materials.
A guitar, a violin, and a clarinet enlivened an event where a manifesto was shared about a project, 'Retopía', which "has sought to sow a seed of hope and illusion to offer a new opportunity on the path."
The project has used terms such as recycle, transform, opportunity, individual, present, and learning to open a window to the inner world of the Tahíche Penitentiary Center. It began last March with 'The Wall', a workshop that served to give life to a wall with a painting inspired by Manrique's work.
Sewing workshops, painting workshops, and a photographic exhibition have been other thematic axes on which 'Retopía' has been built.
