Colombian fashion finds in El Corte Inglés a window from which to project itself to the Spanish and Portuguese markets. In conjunction with the department store group and as part of the Bogota Marcando Estilo program, a total of nine brands will be present in the distribution group’s centers through five temporary corners.

From May 20 and for two months, El Corte Inglés centers in Preciados (Madrid), Murcia, A Coruña, Pintor Sorolla (Valencia) and Lisbon (Portugal), as well as its website and app, will have points of sale of the nine selected firms.

Álvaro Ávila, Daila Filigrana, Lina Hernández, Etnia Contemporánea, Castellano, Palmacea, Paula Vera by Gicari, Margarita Díaz del Castillo and Sabbai are the Bogota firms chosen for this program. All of them focus on jewelry and fashion accessories.

«With sustainable foundations, these SMEs value the ancestral culture and its Colombian imaginary, highlight and support the work and craft techniques, enhance the development of these communities and their creations empower women,» El Corte Inglés explains about the brands.

Bogota Marcando Estilo is the result of an agreement between the Spanish group and the Bogota Chamber of Commerce. The program also includes actions linked to gastronomy, such as the presence of chef Jaime Torregrosa’s creations (from the Humo Negro restaurant) in El Corte Inglés cafeterias and in the Madrid restaurant Las nubes de Castellana.

At the same time, Viajes El Corte Inglés has prepared a specific catalog with circuits and routes that will promote various tourist destinations in Bogota and other parts of Colombia.

«The professionalism and training of organizations such as the Bogota Chamber of Commerce has been a determining factor in the success of this project. Their catalytic work has enabled us to meet suppliers and products that would otherwise have been impossible for us to access, and this has allowed us to approach internationalization from different angles,» said Javier Cerro, director of non-retail food purchasing at El Corte Inglés.

For his part, the president of the Bogota Chamber of Commerce, Nicolás Uribe, has valued the alliance: «With initiatives like this we seek to generate business between companies, increase their sales and diversify their marketing channels in these sectors so affected as a result of the pandemic and that have the challenge of recovering thousands of jobs and income».

The second edition of Bogota Marcando Estilo was conceived at the beginning of 2020, but its execution has been paralyzed for two years due to the health crisis.