Bartolomé, the Ecuadorian who designs for the national and foreign ‘jet set’; find out which international artists use your creations

His mother was his muse. She grew up watching her work in the midst of fabrics, threads and designs that she made. Then, Bryan Mauro Bartolomé Méndez was in charge of purchasing supplies, sales and the delivery of each order that arrived at the hands of his mother. However, all the inspiration he felt was kept hidden for fear that his ideas would not be well received.

The first designs that he created did not have a commercial purpose. They were outfits that he devised for himself, who always preferred to dress differently, showing part of his personality in each garment. “I started making men’s clothing for myself, I always had my style, I bought the fabrics, I saw many showcases when I traveled, I loved the ideas and they were things that perhaps we don’t see here. So that’s where I started, I had some tailors make my suits and my friends, some acquaintances, asked me where I bought them, until I said to myself: if you’re so interested, I’m going to start making them myself. That was my initiative, I always wanted to have a brand, I spent a year making men’s clothing and suddenly women began asking me to make them gala dresses, my proposal is more glamfor special occasions and now I enjoy making wedding dresses, that is my new passion”, she indicates.

Since 2016, both in networks and for those who wear his designs, he is Bartolomé. Those who did not know his work in depth two weeks ago were able to see it up close in the photographs that went viral of the wedding dresses worn by Mayor Cynthia Viteri at her wedding on the beach with Juan Carlos Váscones.

“I buy a book, a sketchbook and I start to draw a sketch of a dress and I did it. That was the dress that Virginia Limongi wore when she won Miss Ecuador, and from there I started making dresses. Since 2016 I started making clothes for women. On a trip to Turkey I visited a fabric store and fell in love with everything I saw, but it was when I accompanied a friend to New York to buy her wedding dress, and on that trip, she did not find the one she wanted, we looked the design fabric that she wanted and that was the first wedding dress I made. It was a dress with a fashionable train of eight feet. I still have that one in my store”, she indicates about the beginning of her proposal for her weddings.

Little by little, the recommendations of her clients grew and more requests came to develop new creations. “There were even clients who came a month before the wedding, I love working against time a little because I think I enjoy it more, I’m not one of those who make the dress a year before, because I like to have the most exact measurements of the bride, because a year before it looks good on you but when you wear the dress it will not be the same”, she maintains.

A native of Quevedo, Bartolomé decided to move to Guayaquil to make his way into photography and design. “Guayaquil is a bigger city, there is much more fashion, there are the media that help make your work known. As soon as I finished school, I came to study Photography in Guayaquil and from there the subject of my fashion line developed”, he adds.

international designs

A fan of travelling, Bartolomé is also a globetrotter par excellence. He assures that in each country or city that he visits he manages to make friends with whom he keeps in touch through social networks. And those connections are what have also allowed his fashion proposal to grow.

“I have the facility to make friends, in the middle of conversations one always talks about work. A friend showed him the work I did and Chyno Miranda told him that he liked my work and wanted me to dress him for a video and for his wedding. Then they called me to dress it in the video Like in Vegas that he recorded with Olga Tañón”, he points out.

He has dressed the Venezuelan artist on several occasions. In two visits he made to Ecuador, for the video and for his wedding.

On each trip, Bartolomé finds a new idea for his designs. Before going to Cuba he created several hats that he used during his vacations, in less conventional colors, and that in each post he made on his platforms he received good reviews. “My friend took my first designs, I had more made and I started making four, then six, and thus production increased and they were sold even before he launched the brand. Some influencers When they saw the hats that my friend already had, they began to ask about my designs and they contacted me. So that’s how I started sending them out of the country”, he details.

One of his clients, who is now his friend, connected him with the Ecuadorian Phraa, official photographer of the singer Maluma, who has also used one of his designs. Phraa is the artistic name of the young Cuencan Rayneer Alba, who has been working for more than two and a half years with the Colombian star.

“He told me: ‘As soon as I have the opportunity I’m going to use your designs in photos’, and that’s how it was, suddenly Maluma uploaded a photo with one of my designs on Instagram. I felt very happy, very proud, I always emphasize where the product is from, on the little card that comes with my products I detail where they come from. In my line of hats I always emphasize the craftsmanship behind it. We use toquilla straw, palm leaves and sheep wool. Here we take care of the process so that the sheep are not killed or mistreated,” says Bartolomé.

Phraa (Raynner Alba), the Ecuadorian photographer who captures Maluma’s daily life

Among the characters who have worn his designs, he also mentions the Mexican actress Geraldine Bazán, Federico Díaz, Roberto Hernández, Ninoska Vásquez, Eduardo Maruri, Carolina Jaume, Valeria Gutiérrez, Uti Torres, Fiorella Solines, Érika Vélez, Katty López, Geraldine Duque, Kika Kolman, Natalia Regge, Andrea Aguilera.

In addition to the official Bartolomé (with the men’s, women’s and bridal lines) and Bartolomé Hats, it has the Marieto collection, in which it offers more casual garments, which have a more casual style to wear. The name of this line is in honor of his mother, who is called Marieta.

His creative proposal transcended international publications through the magazine marie claire from Spain, which included a report on the Ecuadorian in its edition.