Our story begins back in July 2012 when the Argentinian born and evermoving Marina Risso first arrived to Tulum decided to start her own business. The small local fashion industry was then dominated by retailers bringing almost all their merchandise from anywhere else in the world and a few regional artisans that went around offering their crafts in stores and markets. Was in one of those markets that Marina met the girls that would help her shape her vision.
Alicia and Ofelia where (and still are) the first collaborators Marina teamed with to start developing her clothing and accessories. Through lots of trial and error and kilometers of threads and fabric after, the earliest Omnia’s covers were born and -surprisingly for her- sold almost immediately. More local artisans and regional suppliers were added to the list as Omnia’s production and reach expanded, always loyal to its founding principles: to make beautiful, comfortable and quality products while using as many regional materials as possible and employing local talent to promote the growth of the community where we live.
Tell us your own story with Omnia. How did you meet us?
ROOTED
Roots are the link to our past and our sense of belonging, and they are vital to understand who we are. But they are not stationary. We carry them wherever we go as they keep spreading around and nurturing out of our everyday experiences, the people we come across, the books we read, the films we watch, the coffees we share, the sunsets we witness, the places we discover, and a long list of etceteras.
Tulum is Omnia’s homeland. That’s why we chose to produce everything here, inspired by ancient local traditions and techniques, working along regional artisans and traders, and using as many native raw materials as we can get our hands on. That’s also why we pledge with the people that team with us in every stage of our process, whether they be a family of embroiders, a farmer of some basic material or a driver that delivers our efforts to a store. We make our best to honor their wisdom and trust by reinvesting locally and establishing fair working agreements that seek to make our roots grow deeper and stronger within our community.
SINGULAR
It is true that no one is like any other. But it is also true that we are all followers of certain patterns: whether we like it or not, we follow social rules, cultural templates, fashion trends, marketing segmentations, opinions polls, religion cults, and even celebrities’ social media (yes, we do). But that’s only because we chose to do so, right? And maybe also because a still-not-well-comprehended brain mechanism that favors social conformity.
Thing is we believe everyone should allow themselves to be truly and stubbornly as unique and irrepetible as we’ve been told we are. Because the differences between us are worth being celebrated. That’s what make humans such an interesting species after all. And that’s what we keep in mind when crafting all our one-in-a-kind items.
AWAKEN
Not so long ago, in primitive economies, people used to exchange goods and services with members of their village or community. Currency was a kind of a ‘face to face’ trust, a bond within the members of the group. Things have changed since then, but… wait!
Maybe there’s no going back from global economy and mass-production, but we certainly can rework its benefits on a community scale focused primarily on people’s wellbeing and on the quality of what we offer. That’s why we care and provide for the friends and families that collaborate with us and for the places they live in, on the basis of trust, solidarity and mutual respect. That’s why we seek consensus and establish working conditions and remunerations that help with their self-sufficiency as well as fight social issues like gender inequality. And that’s also why we are always searching for new resources and suppliers that agree with our working ethics and attend to high environmental standards. We’ve been asleep for long. It’s time to wake up!
TRUE
There’re different approaches to clothing we could separate in two big groups: functional and emotional. Once functionality is fulfilled (let’s agree we need clothes to protect ourselves from weather and, if you wish, to comply to some social standards) we usually enter in the symbolic terrain, where clothes add an extra layer of meaning and say something about ourselves, about who we are and what we believe in, even if all they are saying is ‘I don’t care about clothes’.
Omnia’s clothing and accessories have a clear message: they speak about freedom, about comfort, movement, sensuality and self-confidence. And even more, they are all designed and crafted to go everywhere with people that moves around freely and opened to change. The kind of people that stay true to their inner call (whatever it is) and that don’t hesitate to show the world who they are.
