Susana Vega, founder and designer of her namesake jewelry brand, moved from Venezuela to the United States where she re-established her company and got recognized by leading fashion sites like Moda Operandi, Intermix and Kirna Zabete as well as being represented by Rainbowwave.
The CFDA spoke with Vega to celebrate Latinx Heritage Month. She discussed the impact her upbringing has on her designs, the power of the Latinx community within the United States, and her greatest professional accomplishments.
How has your background shaped who you are today?
Coming from a goldsmith and enterprising family has shaped my creative and business spirit. Goldsmithing has been in our family since my maternal grandfather; my father was his apprentice and became a great goldsmith and then my uncles and brothers followed. We are a very hardworking family. My mom has always been passionate about fashion and has been the curator and manager of our jewelry store since it was founded, before I was born.
I studied industrial design in Venezuela at the Universidad de los Andes, where understanding and learning the industrial processes of product development together with my family heritage opened up an immense horizon of possibilities to create the products I wanted and develop the techniques we now use in our jewelry.
After moving your business from Venezuela to the United States, what opportunities and challenges presented themselves as you were re-establishing your business?
It took me three years to re-establish my business within the United States. I saved money to open my business although this process was simple. Having my company established has allowed me to have my own online platform, sell to stores, and get good suppliers for my tools, machines and work materials.
The largest percentage of my clients are Latinas; the Latino community within the United States is immense. I also have to say that I see how the American community increasingly appreciates and values our culture from aesthetics, the heritage of handmade things to music. Both things have been incredible and important for the growth of my brand and have opened the door to platforms such as Latin American Fashion Summit (LAFS) and stores such as Moda Operandi, Intermix, Kirna, and the possibility of being in a showroom as important as Rainbowwave.
One of the biggest challenges for me has been to keep our production handmade, with fair payments within the United States. Our pieces are proudly crafted by hand, in our workshops in Houston.
The proposals of jewelry and fashion brands in the country are almost endless, it is a beautiful challenge to create an identity as a brand and a product that stands out within the sea of possibilities offered in the market. Creating and maintaining Susana Vega Jewelry’s DNA is a daily challenge.
How does your hometown in Venezuela influence your design process and the nature of the pieces you create?
I grew up in my parents’ jewelry workshop in Tovar, Mérida, Venezuela, a town between mountains in the Venezuelan Andes. This is where I discovered the magical world of creating from scratch; jewels that made happy and had great meaning for those who would later own them.
My parents are great perfectionists. I could see my father’s dedication to detail and passion for goldsmithing. He died when I was only 9 years old, but his legacy continues in our family.
Tovar is also a town full of art, and manual skills have always been around me so from a very young age, I developed my own manual skills and the passion for fashion and design.
I have loved reading fashion magazines since I was very young. I was anxiously waiting for them month after month, I was frustrated not being able to find in the stores of my town the things I saw on those pages. I always wanted to look different from the rest so I used to mix unconventional things to create a unique style. It’s the same thing I do now with my jewelry, combining unconventional elements, shapes and techniques to create beautiful jewelry.
In addition to art, crafts and my family heritage, I am always inspired by the nature of Venezuela, which is full of landscapes, unique places, and vibrant colors.
What are your greatest professional accomplishments thus far?
My greatest achievement is to be able to represent my homeland as an immigrant within this country and maintain my family’s legacy, be a mother and inspire my daughter just as my parents did with me. This passion and all the work has led me to obtain the title of Latin accessories designer of the year 2022 for the Latin American Fashion Summit. This is a new and very exciting chapter for our brand.
Why is Latinx Heritage Month important to you?
I consider us Latinos strong, hardworking, entrepreneurs, and visionaries and it is worth sharing and celebrating stories of those who have carved out the path of Latinos within this country to inspire and strengthen the new generations, who see and understand our value as a community and that we never forget who we are, where we come from, and everything we have done.
This month is the opportunity to highlight our culture, diversity, history and our contributions to this country. I faithfully believe that in union we will make a stronger nation.
