Rosa Graña Garland

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In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Graña and the second or maternal family name is Garland.
Rosa Graña Garland
Born
Rosa Angélica Graña Garland

(1909-03-01)1 March 1909
Lima, Peru
Died27 June 2003(2003-06-27) (aged 94)
Lima, Peru
NationalityPeruvian
Other namesMocha Graña
Occupation(s)fashion and costume designer
Years active1938–2003

Rosa Graña Garland, known during her lifetime as Mocha Graña (1 March 1909 – 27 June 2003) was a noted Peruvian fashion designer and costumer. Known as the first fashion designer of Peru, she designed wedding gowns, school uniforms and theatrical costumes. She was awarded Peru's second highest honor, Order of Merit for Distinguished Services [es] on her ninetieth birthday.

Early life[edit]

Rosa Angélica Graña Garland was born on 1 March 1909 in Lima, Peru to Enriqueta Garland and Francisco Graña Reyes.[1] As a child, she cut her own hair, leaving her head bare, and earned the nickname "Mocha" (which is slang for head). Her father was a distinguished surgeon, who had performed brain surgery in 1953 using an ancient Incan technique,[2] and was at one time the president of the International College of Surgeons.[3] She was one of seven siblings, which included Francisco Graña Garland, the editor of La Prensa [es], who was murdered in 1947.[4]

Though mostly raised in Lima, the family traveled widely, and lived in exile for five years (1930–1935) in Panama after the coup d'état toppled President Augusto B. Leguía, under whose regime Francisco had served as vice president of the Peruvian Congress.[4][5][6][6] After her time in Panama, Graña lived briefly in Spain before returning to Peru.[4]

Career[edit]

In 1938, Graña co-founded the Association of Amateur Artists, along with Elvira Miró Quesada and Corina Garland. Though she could not act, she participated in dancing and sang in the choir, but began to work behind the scenes, cleaning the theater and developing costumes for the performers.[4][7] She particularly enjoyed ballet and encouraged Alicia Alonso, Dimitri Rostoff, and Oleg Tupine to come to Peru to perform, pressing for the formation of a Peruvian ballet.[4] She also was a supporter and coordinator of Lima's Ancón Festival (Spanish: Festival de Ancón)[4][8] and designed costumes for the 1969 Hispanoamerican Festival of Song and Dance, held in Argentina, featuring the Peruvian musical ensemble Perú Negro. Both Graña and Perú Negro were brought in to the Argentinian festival by Chabuca Granda,[9] who had dedicated her waltz Señora y dueña to Graña in 1960.[8]

Graña was self-taught in fashion design and opened a workshop in downtown Lima, catering to sophisticated, cosmopolitan tastes for bridal and evening wear.[10][11] At the time, there were few boutiques or department stores in Lima and Graña, developed her ideas by draping fabric on her customers following their body lines. She never used patterns, and was a poor at drawing, but was able to communicate what she envisioned to her seamstresses.[7] In the mid-1950s, she located her store, called Rose Bercis in the Miraflores District, employing thirty seamstresses. She organized annual fashion shows at the Gran Hotel Bolivar, catering to her exclusive clients,[10][11] like First Lady of Peru, Clorinda Málaga Bravo de Prado [es].[12]

In 1967, the Peruvian government began to explore a mandatory school uniform, trying several different designs between 1967 and 1970. Graña was consulted and she proposed a gray material for the girls' jumper or pinafore, with a single box-pleat in the center of the skirt front and straps which formed an H in the front and crossed in the back. Boys' trousers were the same gray and had no front folds or pleats, though elementary boys pants were knee-length, while upperclassmen wore ankle-length trousers. All uniforms included a white, short-sleeved, poplin shirt and were worn with gray socks, which for girls came to the knee. For winter attire, a gray sweater with a v-neck and long sleeves was added. She chose the fabrics based on their durability and colour fastness, though public sentiment did not always like the "rat gray" uniform. Government decree implemented on 30 November 1970, made the standardized uniform mandatory for all students for the next thirty years.[13]

In the 1970s, Graña was in charge of costuming for the Teatro Nacional Popular[8] as well as the National Ballet.[7] In addition to advising the Museum of the Nation on Peruvian style and culture, she continued staging fashion shows, such as her One Hundred Years of Clothing in Peru, which she coordinated in 1999.[4] That same year, Graña was awarded with the Order of Merit for Distinguished Services by Minister Fernando de Trazegnies Granda [es].[1][4] In 2003, shortly before her death, she was honored by the Metropolitan Council of Lima for International Women's Day.[14]

Death and legacy[edit]

She died after being hospitalized at the Anglo American Clinic [es] in Lima on 27 June 2003. In the Barranco District of Lima, the Teatro Mocha Graña was named in her honor.[15]

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^ a b García Medina 2009.
  2. ^ Time 1953, p. 56.
  3. ^ Holley 2004.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Tamariz L. 1999.
  5. ^ The Brooklyn Daily Eagle 1929, p. 7.
  6. ^ a b Rodríguez-Larraín 2017.
  7. ^ a b c Medrano 2015.
  8. ^ a b c Vaisman 2017b.
  9. ^ Feldman 2006, p. 143.
  10. ^ a b Vaisman 2017a.
  11. ^ a b Caretas 2008.
  12. ^ Velásquez 2015, p. 33.
  13. ^ Batalla 2013.
  14. ^ Castañeda Lossio 2003.
  15. ^ Siempre Latina 2017.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Batalla, Carlos (11 March 2013). "'Uniforme escolar único' (1971)" ["Unique School Uniform" (1971)]. Arkivperu (in Spanish). Sweden. Archived from the original on 11 June 2017. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  • Castañeda Lossio, Luis (7 March 2003). "Decreto de Alcaldia No. 098" [Mayoral Decree #098]. Munlima.gob.pe (in Spanish). Lima, Peru: Municipalidad Metropolitana de Lima. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  • Feldman, Heidi (2006). Black Rhythms of Peru: Reviving African Musical Heritage in the Black Pacific. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 978-0-8195-6815-1.
  • García Medina, Miguel (1 March 2009). "Un día como hoy hace 100 años nació Mocha Graña" [On a day like today 100 years ago Mocha Graña was born]. El Comercio (in Spanish). Lima, Peru. Archived from the original on 6 January 2018. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
  • Holley, Joe (9 July 2004). "Surgeon Manuel Bonnemaison Dies". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. Archived from the original on 6 January 2018. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
  • Medrano, Romina (13 October 2015). "Mocha Graña: Icono de Moda en el Perú" [Mocha Graña: Fashion Icon in Peru] (in Spanish). Lima, Peru: Lima Social Diary. Archived from the original on 6 January 2018. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  • Rodríguez-Larraín, Fernando Barrantes (18 December 2017). "247. Francisco Graña Reyes". Rostros de Vida (in Spanish). Lima, Peru. Archived from the original on 6 January 2018. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
  • Tamariz L., Domingo (23 February 1999). "Mocha De Lima" [Mocha of Lima]. Caretas (in Spanish) (1556). Lima, Peru: Editora Novolexis. ISSN 0576-7423. Archived from the original on 6 January 2018. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
  • Vaisman, Rebeca (26 May 2017a). "Mocha Graña, la primera diseñadora de modas del Perú" [Mocha Graña, the first fashion designer of Peru]. Novias (in Spanish) (16). Lima, Perú: Editorial COSAS. Archived from the original on 6 June 2017. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  • Vaisman, Rebeca (6 September 2017b). "Peruanas de avanzada: personajes femeninos que revolucionaron en Perú del siglo XX" [Peruvian innovators: female personalities who revolutionized in Peru during the twentieth century]. Cosas (in Spanish). Lima, Perú: Editorial Letras e Imágenes SAC. Archived from the original on 6 January 2018. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  • Velásquez, Renato (22 July 2015). "Clorinda Una Primer Dama en los Tiempos de la Oligarquía" [Clorinda, A First Lady in the Times of the Oligarchy]. Novias (in Spanish) (573). Lima, Perú: Editorial Letras e Imágens S.A.C.: 25–34. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  • "Echo of the Incas". Time. Vol. LXII, no. 17. New York City, New York: Time Inc. 26 October 1953. p. 56. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 6 January 2018.  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
  • "Moda de Invierno: 1962" [Winter Fashion: 1962]. Caretas (in Spanish) (2044). Lima, Peru: Editora Novolexis. 13 September 2008. ISSN 0576-7423. Archived from the original on 7 January 2018. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  • "Rosa Graña Garland". Los Angeles,California: Siempre Latina. 11 October 2017. Archived from the original on 6 January 2018. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
  • "(untitled)". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, New York. 24 May 1929. p. 7. Retrieved 6 January 2018 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
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