Esteban Cortázar is no longer the new kid on the block, but with his new label Donde Esteban, he’s exploring a new approach to making clothes—one that more accurately represents his real life. “This is an idea that has been cooking in my heart for quite a long time,” the designer explains on a recent Zoom. “Donde Esteban is really a reflection of my personal life, my upbringing, my culture, my roots, my family, my friends, my community. It’s really merging my life into a brand and into a project that feels very authentic and personal.” Cortázar was born in Colombia, grew up in South Beach in the ’90s, and has since been splitting his time between Paris and Ibiza.
Launching today, the first Donde Esteban collection—think of it as chez Esteban in French or, Esteban’s house in English—is full of resortwear essentials; breezy cotton voiles button-down shirts, silk slip dresses, cotton jersey hoodies, and cashmere blend knits, all in bold landscape prints created in collaboration with his father Valentino, a painter. “He always said to me, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we did plates together? Or a collection of scarves?’ Now my dad’s getting older and I felt like I wanted to do something that could really showcase his legacy,” Cortázar adds. “Every time I go to his studio I’m always looking through his paintings and drawings and sketchbooks; and it’s kind of like an encyclopedia of work that is his, and it’s also my heritage and to put that into a collection and make it be something that is like a permanent collaboration with him, it honestly fills my life with joy.”