In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, economic and industrial crisis led the Argentinian fashion industry to imagine new means of production focused on transforming what was already available.
Founded by Martín Churba and Jessica Trosman, Trosmanchurba (1997-2002) conceived its collections as textile laboratories. The combination of fusing, scorching and reworking plastics and industrial waste, coupled with the use of fibres and microfibres and crinkled prints nicknamed ‘lechugas’ [‘lettuces’] defined a new material sophistication for a haute couture/prêt-à-porter approach removed from international trends.
Jessica Trosman later developed her own labels – Trosman (2002-2012) and JT (2013-2019) – to put her collections on the international stage. In parallel, she also branched out into sculpture and installation.
From 2003 onwards, Martín Churba embarked on a new phase with Tramando, a venture conceived as shop, studio, workshop and laboratory. In Tramando, he combined manual and industrial processes to create textiles featuring reliefs, transparencies and images, extending his experiments to objects, installations and artistic actions. After 2001, when there was a boom in self-managed workers organisations, he developed the collection ‘Pongamos el trabajo de moda para siempre’ [‘Let’s Make Work Fashionable Forever’] (2004) with La Juanita Cooperative, which resignified the guardapolvo smock as an icon of working-class culture.