"Siete Vidas" (Seven Lives) is the name of the collection that designer Mariela Alemán Orozco, director of the Mariela Color project, will exhibit at the XXVII edition of the International Craft Fair, FIART 2025. This year's event will be dedicated to the province of Matanzas.

The "Seven Lives" collection, which coincidentally is based in Varadero, is an execution that deconstructs both old garments or disused fabrics, as well as aesthetic models and patterns, to generate new material: a unique, experimental, sustainable, and original wardrobe, Alemán Orozco said in an exclusive statement to the Cuban News Agency.

She commented that embroideries, dyeing, manual weavings, sublimations, and openwork are superimposed and organized into garments that consummate a second and third chance.

The designs, she highlighted, introduce elements from the best of Cuban culture and visuals: both from the semantic and iconographic universe of the famous hydraulic tiles—colonial mosaics of cement, sand, and pigments—and from the rich and diverse nature of the Island, especially from those native and endangered species.

She assured that this exercise in deep experimentation, which starts from certain areas of the natural and visual universe of Cuban culture to configure a slow and sustainable fashion project, constitutes a manifesto of consciousness and roots, where recycled fabric becomes the canvas for an urgent tribute to biodiversity.

More than garments, she elaborated, they are narratives in the form of weavings that rescue icons of the national flora and fauna from oblivion, now threatened: the whisper of the leaves of the ceiba and palm trees, the fleeting flutter of the zunzún hummingbird, the wise gaze of the sijú owl, the drumming of the woodpecker, and the hypnotic dance of butterflies—tataguas, skippers, and preponas.

Mariela explained that each of these is reborn in embroideries on fabrics with history, which connect with the public through the beauty of the wardrobe, to awaken a collective consciousness, reminding us that wearing these species on our bodies is an act of resistance, a call to value and protect the fragile and extraordinary natural treasure that defines the largest of the Antilles.

The artist concluded that "Seven Lives" appeals to the cycles of life, the possibility of regeneration, sustainability, and functionality. Her exclusive designs can be appreciated at the International Craft Fair scheduled for December 5 to 17 of this year.