On Thursday, August 16, the "Seals of Peace, Women designing country" walkway was held at LOS PERIODISTAS park in Bogotá, supported by General Directorate of Victims Unit as part of the "Social Pedagogy" strategy.

On the walkway "COSTURAS DE PAZ, MUJERES DISEÑANDO PAÍS" the plurality of Colombian territories was highlighted, fauna, flora and memories of a country that carries thousands of bitter stories but has managed to resurface from the war.

The designers Dora Sánchez, Mara Elena Nieto and Cleiner Cobadías are survivors of armed conflict that gave voice to their memories. Their clothes and jewelry spoke along the catwalk with a particular charm of ethnic mixes, acclimated with the sound of CHIRIMÍA "Esteros del pacífico", made up of three musicians and one singer, all survivors of the violence.

The parade was attended by ten female models and four men victims of armed conflict, who found on the catwalks a place to express their feelings, leave behind their fears and promote the handmade creations that enclose the cultural richness of their communities.

Jorge Montesino, a trans woman from the LGTB community was one of models in charge of showing off creations of these designers. "I feel like a model since I was born, being here for me means being able to breathe, letting go of all the sadness that conflict left us and expressing it in the desire to build peace. My body for me is harmony. "

The joint creations, love and family union strengthened the process of each of designers who worked for the rescue of tangible heritage of people, their beauty and strength. These clothes were a provocation to appeal to memory, to dream of freedom and resist the weight of violence.

Dora Sánchez is from Santa Rita Ituango, currently lives in Barranquilla and for six years she created her brand Grass Accesorios SAS, in the company of her daughter Gina Grass. Her designs were inspired by the Colombian nature, mainly in heliconias, carnations, orchids and daisies, and for their manufacture she used fabrics in Czech beads, Murano crystals, pearls and hammered bronze with gold plating. She took the beauty of flowers as a reference because it reminds her of her grandmother's house and the gardens that saw it grow.

Gina Paola Grass Sánchez is a design apprentice for the fashion industry in SENA, she is training in the craft of goldsmithing and supports her mother in the management of brand's social networks. "We are a complement both, because suddenly I think of some designs and she carries them out and I make the choice of seasonal colors".

The first time that Dora exhibited her designs was at a stand of the Home Fair in Bogotá, organized by the Victims Unit, and thanks to the compensation received as part of her comprehensive repair, she could have a base to expand the business. Her collection on this catwalk was named "Macondo", in which she used the classic yellow butterflies to recall the writer Gabriel García Márquez.

"Our work in Grass Accessories has been a task of constancy and perseverance, of a creative and manual skill that was kept for years without knowing it. As a family we have been more united in favor of a common goal and we have achieved a development as a formal company with a view to export. At this moment I am a generator of employment and I work with two women victims and we are eight people creating in the workshop. We not only manufacture details that embellish the Colombian women, but we offer them the possibility of carrying a story in each piece of artisanal, so that they feel proud of wearing these jewels ".

Mara Elena Nieto is from Cesar and since 1993 created AMOR Foundation, with the aim of helping children with heart disease or with hydrocephalus. In 2002 the armed groups disappeared to one of their twin brothers and years later found their remains in Villavicencio, after extensive days of search with her daughters. As a result of this event, she linked the Foundation to families of victims of forced disappearance and to women victims of sexual violence, in order to provide them with a space where they could explore their capacity for resilience. Its collection took the name of "HILANDO MEMORIA, CONSTRUYENDO ESPERANZA".

Her first walkway was held in Valledupar in 2014 with the help of Victims Unit. There rural women participated who designed and modeled their own garments with the help of her.

"My clothes are hope, my dream is to be able to contribute so that other families do not suffer what my family had to suffer. I want to become a positive example for other women, always focusing on peace and reconciliation as the best tools to achieve coexistence. "

Mara wore a dress stitched by her and painted by her husband Leonardo with the faces of her two disappeared brothers and her displaced brother, thus demonstrating the magic of the costumes to communicate the intimacy of stories and become a temple of hope and resistance.

Her daughters Katty Marcela and Clara paraded their clothes and her husband Leonardo painted each of these by hand.

Cleiner Cobadías is from Quibdó, her name is registered trademark and she is invited to the Fashion Week in Milan; her clothes picked up the color and beauty of Choco department and became a proposal of inclusion.

 "I am inspired by the natural environment of Chocó, in the coexistence with the natives and in the hip movement of Choco woman. The woman is my inspiration center. In my workshop we work women and men victims of conflict, the creative part is about me, but my husband, an anthropology student, collaborates with me with the name of the collections ". Her collection took the name of "Charm of an ethnic group".

This show demonstrated the ability of art to transform environments and resignify the communities’ memory.