The Aspen Institute

Cecilia Lalanne (Montevideo, Uruguay) was born in 1976 in Montevideo, Uruguay. She has a degree in Textile and Fashion Design from the Centro de Diseño Industrial in Montevideo. In 2001 she started working in Manos del Uruguay at the Design and Product Development department. Since then, she has performed many different duties for Manos, including: designing the handknit garments for Manos local stores collections; designing knit presentations to show to Manos clients in USA and Europe (Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs, Stella McCartney, DKNY) and working closely with their design teams developing the garments that will be produced for their labels; working with spinners to develop new yarns, design the color cards and work closely with the color technicians to create new dyeing techniques. She also performs different tasks related with communication, from producing the collections catalogues, design shops windows, organize marketing events, produce all sorts of graphic communication and write for the brand blog and social media. She often works as the link with international magazines or organizations that want to learn about Manos del Uruguay. Cecilia enjoys the pleasure of making and the contact with the materials and she has a long time love affair with wool. She is convinced of the value of handmade and is very proud of belonging to an organization like Manos del Uruguay that enhances and preserves Uruguay’s traditional techniques and identity. Social sustainability is also of great importance for her and she enjoys working at a company where people always come first. Participated in Aspen Institute Global Health and Development TEDWomen Conference.