Leonora Jimenez, director of Traffic magazine and organizer of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week San José (MBFW) has confirmed the names of five of the ten international designers that will participate in the fifth edition of the event that is scheduled for August 2-5 at the Real Intercontinental Hotel in Escazú.

Shantall Lacayo from Nicaragua, Kris Goyri and Alfredo Martínez from Mexico, Karen Daccarett and Francisco Leal (Leal-Daccarett) from Colombia and Eduardo Figueroa from Guatemala are the five foreign designers that have been confirmed by Jiménez, the other five will be announced at the end of June.

Lacayo participated in the reality show Project Runway Latin America and recently took part of Miami Fashion Week 2017; Goyi won the second edition of Elle Mexico Designs talent contest, Martínez has dressed celebrities like Nicky Hilton and Lana del Rey; Leal-Daccarett has become known for dressing important political figures in Latin America and Figueroa received the recognition as designer of the year in the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Guatemala last year.

Jimenez also confirmed the participation of over 30 Costa Rican designers.

The event will kick-off on August 2, the concept this year is “sustainability” “The fashion industry is one of the most contaminating in the world, but is also one of the most productive sectors. How can we create balance between the industry and the environment? The event will promote the generation of ideas, discussion forums and the visualization of success cases”, explained Jiménez in a press conference.

In this edition the jury will recognize the best collection instead of the best designer and for the first time will give a cash prize to the winner consisting of $3,000.00 instead of the usual possibility of presenting their designs in an international runway.

Another novelty in this year’s edition is the creation of a Pop Up Market, the first Central America Fashion Design Fair, a commercial strategy that will present the collections of 15 national designers, 5 Central America designers and 20 designers part of the fashion cluster of Estilo Costa Rica from the Costa Rica Foreign Commerce Promotion Agency. The fair will be established at the Real Intercontinental Hotel and it will open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. August 3 to August 5.