Monttalti is a new brand made by two designer sisters, with a huge entrepreneur spirit and very passionate for fashion and design. We both studied different careers and went to different Schools, but even then we knew we wanted to work together as we understand each other very well when we design. Zoe and Cristina Suarez, were born in a very artistic environment in Venezuela. At an early age we moved to Bogota (Colombia) and went to School, College and University there. Growing up in an artistic environment, we fell in love with artsy – crafty careers, fashion design and industrial design. Zoe’s background as a fashion designer was pretty much into runway preparation for other brands, programming events and a lot of model fitting and booking. “I never really had the opportunity of showing my own designs in a runway.”
Cristina’s designer background is mostly at the University. She had high grades during her studies. She applied for an intern job at a handbag company which sold in Spain. They hired her, but then she had to quit the job because she had to graduate and work on her thesis.

After Cristina graduated, we started to work together, we found out that the mix of our qualities and the fact that we have been living together our entire life made us perfect partners who complement each other and make a good team. We believe there is a Ying -Yang power when we work together. That is when we decided to create our own brand. Although we are sisters, we are both very different. A good friend of ours once said: each one of them lives in their own planet! We think he might be right!

We want to create elegant products, original, modern and functional that lasts long manufactured with excellent quality. All of our designs are handmade in 100% genuine leather. Our line started in the year 2009, we were not so sure about starting a complete line, but after the first sketched were approved we wanted more instantly, also to give more choices for our customers. For our first collection we did a long investigation job and information selection. We defined and created our own trends with the concepts we liked: clothes, shoes, hairstyles, bands we love, videos, and lots of other things as well. Every day we discover something inspiring and we use those resources to design our handbags.

After looking in the internet, we decided that they were three concepts we were into so we classified them into three (3) different groups, we decided to label them as our own trends. We concluded that according to our search we should design under these concepts: futuristic, electronic music and rock; elegance and etiquette and ancient warriors (armory and uniforms). According to what we investigated, we decided that Leather was the ideal fabric for our entire collection; it suits perfectly with the trends we selected. Also people relate it with elegance, luxury, quality, so it has a great impact not only because of its nice smell but because it has long life. Our entire production materials, design and labor is made in Colombia.

Zoe’s designer’s nightmare:
I used to work for a Fashion designer who was a little crazy. Not only she was crazy she was also cheap, so we went to a fashion fair in Brazil and she made me share the room with her. I got up, went to the bathroom, but while I was in the bathroom I heard funny noises that came from her, so I was afraid to leave the bathroom. I think she was praying and got into a trance so she started mumbling weird stuff. I didn’t say a thing, I just finished getting ready and went to the cafeteria to have breakfast and meet with the rest of the team. The lady came to have breakfast with us AND YELLED EVERYONE I don’t even remember what was it about. She just was possessed by an evil force (I could tell by the look in her eyes). That was very spooky!

Crsitina’s designer nightmare:
When I was still in the University, I was working on some Project with recycled materials and I was cutting a light cable with a cutter. A friend talked to me for a second while I was forcing the cutter and I cut my left hand’f index fingertip. It was almost cut off. Fortunately I ran to the University Hospital leaving blood marks all over the way, but I got cured and I only have a tiny scar. It’s functioning perfectly.

The greatest part of this experience is being able to grow along with your company. The fact that you are your own boss is sometimes more exhausting as it demands more work and you have to take care of every single detail, as well as being in charge of people who are with you in the process. But you can also apply our knowledge without limits as well as learn each and every day a new thing, or even better, create it. Go to work with passion, love and devotion, getting up every morning thinking that you are fighting for what you believe in, being independent and sell your own creations. Expect and dream more for your future and daring yourself to accomplish them. When you think of it, you dream of it, you work for it! You can get promoted every day and you get to watch your babies (sketches) grow in every collection that you design, is not just a one day thing, you follow the process from the piece of paper, to the real product until they are taken away to someone else who is going to love them even more and they pay you for it! That’s when you know that all the hard work and sleepless nights are worth it!