Designing Women
Miami sisters hit big with their frilly fashions

By Mary Damiano

A characteristically ruffly blue dress from Shumaq: the bold color keeps the frills in check

Watching this year’s Fresh Faces fashion show by GenArt at the beach-front Gansvoort Hotel last month , plenty of chic clothes came down the runway, but the Shumaq line by sisters Vanessa and Jaqueline Barrantes, was as fresh as the breeze coming off the ocean that balmy night.

The Barrantes sisters, who were raised in Miami, specialize in undeniably feminine clothes. The dresses, skirts and blouses have flattering silhouettes and well-placed ruffles and frills that fill that fashion gap between girly and womanly.

Vanessa Barrantes has a definite fashion aesthetic, and a certain kind of woman in mind when she designs her clothes.

“Shumaq is really all about embracing your femininity,” she says. “It’s for a girl who likes to feel sexy and beautiful. She is not afraid to be girly, she loves to wear dresses, but at the same time she is very smart, confident, determined. She loves the arts, knows a lot about music, she probably works in music—she could be a rock band manager, or she could be an art historian at a very young age. She is about 26, dating, has her own place in the East Village and her favorite movie is Rushmore.”

Vanessa started designing clothes while she was a freshman at Design and Architecture Senior High (DASH) in Miami, but fashion has always been important to her. She recalls that her mother was first fashion influence.

Sisters Jaqueline and Vanessa Barrantes

“My mom has always been very fashionable, especially when I was growing up,” Vanessa says. “I remember her going to work with pumps and pencil skirts, her hair and makeup always done. She always had killer outfits to go out in during the 1980s.”

Growing up, Mom’s fashion sense extended to Vanessa’s birthday parties.

“She always planned my birthday parties,” Vanessa recalls. “They were always huge, but the most important thing to her was the outfit I was to wear. They were always amazing and now that I think back on it, extremely fashion forward. I can still remember many of them and I would totally still wear them.”

The Barrantes' style was often mimicked by other girls in the neighborhood, who would copy Vanessa’s outfits, a fact that did not thrill the Vanessa’s mom.

“To this day she gets so upset about that,” Vanessa says.

Of course, now it’s a good thing that lots of girls want a piece of Vanessa’s style. The Shumaq line is carried in stores in more than a dozen states, plus internationally in Canada, Japan and at Anthropologies and Selfridges in London. Locally, Shumaq’s feminine dresses can be found at Aura on Miracle Mile in Coral Gables. The clothes are also carried on several fashion websites, including couturecandy.com and anthropologie.com. Shumaq has also been written about in major fashion magazines, including Elle, Domino, and Vanessa was singled out as a designer to watch in Lucky.

One place you won’t be seeing Vanessa is one TV’s “Project Runway.” Even though she certainly has the talent to be part of the show, Vanessa will not be following in the footsteps of Gen Art alum Uli Herzner.

A navy and white dress from Shumaq

“I don’t really watch the show,” Vanessa says. “There are too many reality TV shows out there and I dont think they have a good impact on anything. People just tend to look very foolish, shallow and uninteresting. It really undermines their talent—if they have any. It’s quite trashy to say the least, I honestly don’t think it has a positive impact on up and coming designers.”

Vanessa and Jaqueline began Shumaq in 2005. Vanessa handles the creative side, while Jaqueline takes care of the business end, although Vanessa says they each get input from the other. While there has been som head-butting along the way, the sisters have learned to work well together.

“We really are a great team and we just have so much fun together, we laugh a lot and talk about silly things,” Vanessa says. “Although we both have tempers and can be very serious at times, we do share that silly sister side of life that makes everything easier and a lot more fun.”

But it was Vanessa who walked the runway at the Gen Art Fresh Faces show at the Gansvoort, to take her bow for her collection.

“I was so excited,” says Vanessa. “I really respect what GenArt does for the Arts, especially how supportive they are with emerging talent in the fashion world. GenArt is becoming a big influence in fashion and it is such an honor to have been chosen to participate in such an important event. I know this is the beginning of something big!”

For more information on Shumaq, visit www.shumaq.com.