Glenda Yañez is a designer, artist and model based in La Paz, Bolivia. Glenda belongs to the Aymara community, and she champions the clothes of her ancestors and is turning them into high fashion, changing preconceptions about the traditional dress of indigenous Aymara women. The chola wardrobe is a fashion distinctive to South America’s second largest indigenous group, the Aymara people.
Glenda is not just making fashion statements through the clothes of her indigenous ancestors and turning them into high fashion, she’s also making a “political” statement. The garments worn by her grandmother and other Aymara women, known as Cholas or Cholitas, made them the target of discrimination. Now these embroidered outfits are worn with pride. Fashion designer Glenda Yañez is the Urban Voice of the Aymara women and Aymara culture. The Aymara indigenous nation has been in the Andes for centuries and almost a million Aymaras live in Bolivia, Peru and Chile.
As a designer Glenda has participated in the Iconoclast parade, UN Women Art Week, charity parade against violence against women. She has been interviewed by Vice USA and Canada, BBC London, Air France and allowed her the showcase to present her work and promote the indigenous Bolivian culture and heritage.